An update this morning:
I have been pinching the center shoot out of each and every bud. Except, paradoxically, the uppermost apex buds of a couple of the taller trees. Those trees I want to build more girth, so letting a sacrifice run from the top will help that. I don’t want them to get taller, just thicker.
in about two weeks, I’ll start to get new shoots from the base of each leaf! Again, I’ll have to pinch the centers out of those!
Geez! What have I done???
the dawn redwood is leading out nicely. I’m not familiar with this material, so it’s going to be more of a learning process for me. What I’ve noticed is the new shoots create an internode about 1 1/2 inches out, and send two side shoots out at that point. I don’t know if I should pinch out the middle now, or wait and let them extend, and cut back later.
suggestions would be helpful!
Again, I’m planning on letting a sacrifice grow on the taller trunks to build caliper, and even out some of the lumpiness of the trunk sections.
Pretty much the same as the othermaple forest. This one is one year behind, so not as many twigs. Yet. I’m going to start letting some sacrifice branches grow to thicken selected trunks. I didn’t do that last year on the other forest, and I wish I had.
Both these maple forests respond well to pinching, and create wonderfully short internodes, and small leaves.
Not all Japanese Maples do. This one:
Does not respond well to pinching! Not only did it create long internodes, it made huge leaves! I am trying a sacrifice branch up top to build a better apex, but it’s a Shohin size tree. Leaves like that just won’t do! This needs to be a much bigger tree.
I’m thinking this tree would be one I’d sell, as it doesn’t fit my goals, since I purchased it with plans of developing it for Shohin.