Working on some forests...

[MrWunderful]

Oh and I will add that pruning at the correct time gets you less crotch buds, although that will always be a thing.

 

[Adair M]

The younger Japanese Maple forest is showing good color. I still haven’t cut the sacrifice branches off the top yet. I’ll give it another week or so.

 

[Paradox]

It started leafing out a couple days ago. A couple times a day, I go thru it and trim out the center growing tips. They’re still tiny! This will produce very short internodes.

You trim the maples this often! Jeeze, I am not going to have time for maples until I retire if thats a necessity......

 

[Adair M]

You trim the maples this often! Jeeze, I am not going to have time for maples until I retire if thats a necessity......

Yes, but only for a week or two. After that, I let it go. I did not trim the sacrifice runner on the tallest tree, so you can see how long everything would have gotten if I hadn’t trimmed all the new shoots. When the leaves fall off, I’ll post another picture, and you’ll be able to see how leggy it actually is. But, with short internodes close in. Over time, this will really get dense!

 

[Paradox]

Yes, but only for a week or two. After that, I let it go. I did not trim the sacrifice runner on the tallest tree, so you can see how long everything would have gotten if I hadn’t trimmed all the new shoots. When the leaves fall off, I’ll post another picture, and you’ll be able to see how leggy it actually is. But, with short internodes close in. Over time, this will really get dense!

I could do once a day after work but not twice a day

 

[Shogun610]

So bedsides the clump style you shared for the JWP, is the repot frequency less or more because the roots start to interact with each other? would you still be treating them as individual entities based on their growing needs such as the focal tree that is larger thus may siphon more nutrients based on root vascular growth , or the fine detail of a smaller exterior trees to get scale difference but with just as much ramification as the larger tree.

 

[Adair M]

No, once the trees get established, you treat the thing as if it were one tree. The roots get all intermingled. Repotting becomes a task where you remove the forest from the pot, scrape off the layer of matted roots on the bottom, cut back any really heavy roots, trim around the perimeter, add new soil to the pot, and pop it back in. Easy Peasy.

For the canopy, I am only treating the main tree a little differently than the others. I want the main tree to be thicker than the others. These were created from seedlings, all were about the same caliper. So, to have the main tree to be bigger, I’m letting sacrifice branches grow out the apex. Each year, I’ll remove the sacrifices, and start new ones. I’ll do that 2 or 3 more years until there’s a noticeable size difference, and then it won’t be necessary any more.

 

[Adair M]

Spring 2021 update:

I’ve been busy pinching all the new shoots, just as the leaves emerge. I pinch out the center leader, keeping the two fist leaves. I find I have to do this two or three times a day to stay on top of them!

Also, before they opened, I removed excess buds, especially those “pointing down”.



And the other one:



The dawn redwood forest produced to TON of buds! To keep it under control, before they opened, I removed all the “extra” buds at the base of the branches, and everywhere I didn’t want any more swelling.

It looks really good as the leaves are still small at this stage of growth in the spring: