Yew

[just.wing.it]

I rewired most of my Yew today.
Didn't finish due to other obligations....
But after looking at it, I am not happy with the rainbow branch I made with the last wiring (highlighted in blue).
I was just trying to get some foliage on that side of the tree....but it's ugly...
The red lines are spots I thought about cutting....
But I thought I'd get some opinions first, so please...let me have it.

 

[sorce]

let me have it

Both those cuts don't solve your problem!

Sorce

 

[just.wing.it]

Both those cuts don't solve your problem!

Sorce

Yeah....
I'm thinking, shorten it and wire it a little different....I dunno

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

It looks two-dimensional. I'd wire that upper trunk and twist it gently counter-clockwise and upward. It will push all those side branches outward adding depth and interest.

 

[just.wing.it]

It looks two-dimensional. I'd wire that upper trunk and twist it gently counter-clockwise and upward. It will push all those side branches outward adding depth and interest.

By "upper trunk" you're referring my Blue branch?? Correct?
Here's a top view, I feel like I almost have too much going on in the "back branch/depth" department....
I'm struggling with the apex.

 

[just.wing.it]

Here is the branch in question.

 

[just.wing.it]

OK done for now.
Thoughts ?

 

[Daluke]

I like the change.

With a slight angle change on a repot and a slight reduction in the length of the second branch, I think it has the potential of a good tree

 

[just.wing.it]

Thanks!
I can't wait to get it out of that crappy nursery soil....next year...
I think once I get it in some good stuff, it'll grow even more aggressively

 

[just.wing.it]

Shorten up the red, grow out the blue, and generally fill all of the yellow out a bit....

 

[just.wing.it]

want to wait now, at least 2 years, before I mess around with it ag

I'm too impatient with this one...
It's OK though, it seems to like it...

 

[Potawatomi13]

My 2 cents loosen up your wiring. Looks too tight to allow expansion. Secondly keeping making tree so small with trimming/cutting trunk will not amount to anything for 200 years. Yes, too impatient grasshopper.

 

[just.wing.it]

My 2 cents loosen up your wiring. Looks too tight to allow expansion. Secondly keeping making tree so small with trimming/cutting trunk will not amount to anything for 200 years. Yes, too impatient grasshopper.

Yeah, thanks.
From what I hear, it won't thicken up much in my lifetime. So I figured, reduce the top, which still needs more reduction in the future BTW, to better match the trunk...
Colander next year.
Not trying to win any awards here you know....just for fun.

 

[M. Frary]

Yeah, thanks.
From what I hear, it won't thicken up much in my lifetime. So I figured, reduce the top, which still needs more reduction in the future BTW, to better match the trunk...
Colander next year.
Not trying to win any awards here you know....just for fun.

I think it's coming along nicely.
One of the things I learned from @Vance Wood is to make the smallest tree you can out of the stock you have in front of you.
But then again I'm a know it all in Pottys mind so I shouldn't be listened to. He doesn't like me for some odd reason.
Go figure.

 

[Vance Wood]

I think it's coming along nicely.
One of the things I learned from @Vance Wood is to make the smallest tree you can out of the stock you have in front of you.
But then again I'm a know it all in Pottys mind so I shouldn't be listened to. He doesn't like me for some odd reason.
Go figure.

That's the problem with the INTERNET, and the pseudonyms we hide behind. It's easy to let our lesser nature come to the surface and flourish. It's easy to call someone a shit when we have a name like Potty? We tend to be a bit more civil when we use our real names.

 

[AlainK]

Colander next year.

If you can find a spot in your garden, it will be much more effective to plant them in the soil I think.

Like most trees, they take a year or two to get established, but then they grow very quicly, at least much quicker than in a colander or pond basket. You can prune them while still in the soil, leaving the branches that are interesting to be designed later, when you put them in a pot.

 

[just.wing.it]

If you can find a spot in your garden, it will be much more effective to plant them in the soil I think.

Like most trees, they take a year or two to get established, but then they grow very quicly, at least much quicker than in a colander or pond basket. You can prune them while still in the soil, leaving the branches that are interesting to be designed later, when you put them in a pot.

There's a chance of that... Taxus are supposed to be OK in shade... due to the tall trees around my house, the deck is the best spot for getting sunshine...

 

[Vance Wood]

One more time: The idea of planting a tree in a colander is to take advantage of the process of air-pruning which is the automatic truncating of roots by exposure to air as they try to extend beyond the parameter of the screen on the colander. The exposure to air and light causes the auxins to retreat to the interior of the root mass causing nothing but the formation of feeder roots as opposed to the formation of larger support roots you get when you plant the tree in the ground. If this is not what you want you should not waste your time putting the tree in a colander in the first place. You would be served the same if you planted the tree straight in the ground.

 

[just.wing.it]

One more time: The idea of planting a tree in a colander is to take advantage of the process of air-pruning which is the automatic truncating of roots by exposure to air as they try to extend beyond the parameter of the screen on the colander. The exposure to air and light causes the auxins to retreat to the interior of the root mass causing nothing but the formation of feeder roots as opposed to the formation of larger support roots you get when you plant the tree in the ground. If this is not what you want you should not waste your time putting the tree in a colander in the first place.

I have one small maple seedling that is in a "colander", it's actually a stainless steel strainer from a commercial dishwasher, but as soon as the little root tips made it to the edge, the growth rate seemed to double...
It's still just a tiny seedling, that already had a trunk chop, courtesy of a Goldfinch, but the explosion in growth is no joke when it comes to the "colander" method.
.....or should I say, "Vance's grow box method".

 

[Vance Wood]

It does work. The encouragement comes from the roots developing by being hindered and not actually pruned off.