Clip and grow issues.

[Necrosis]

I have pruned and partially defoliated this small cedar but I’m only getting terminal buds that push and not much ramification from pruning. Am I doing something incorrectly?

 

[rockm]

View attachment 550190
I have pruned and partially defoliated this small cedar but I’m only getting terminal buds that push and not much ramification from pruning. Am I doing something incorrectly?

Is an elm? It' not a cedar, which is a conifer. To get ramification on elms requires pruning back to three or at least two-year old wood. If you just clip the end you get a single strong shoot from the resting bud at the nearest leaf.

 

[Necrosis]

Is an elm? It' not a cedar, which is a conifer. To get ramification on elms requires pruning back to three or at least two-year old wood. If you just clip the end you get a single strong shoot from the resting bud at the nearest leaf.

Elm! Typo.

 

[SeanS]

Is an elm? It' not a cedar, which is a conifer. To get ramification on elms requires pruning back to three or at least two-year old wood. If you just clip the end you get a single strong shoot from the resting bud at the nearest leaf.

Not sure I’ve had to prune back into older wood, I get multiple shoots from pruning the current growth on my elms.

To increase the chances of more shoots growing after pruning you need to prune harder and further back. Looks like you’ve left 9 leaves on that shoot and pruned way out on the shoot. The tree wants to get bigger, not bushier, so why would it want to activate more buds along that branch instead of just pushing from the tip (where it has a greater chance of achieving its goal of getting bigger)? You need to prune to 1-2 buds on a shoot and remove more of the leaves to encourage the tree to hedge its bets and push from those 1-2 buds.

Also you’ve cut some leaves in half, this might not be enough of a defoliation for an elm. Remove the entire leaf, and do it over most of the tree if you want a strong push from more buds in the next flush.

 

[shohin_branches]

Are you happy with your trunk diameter?
Let it grow if you want your tree to bulk up. When I'm doing cutbacks on elms for ramification I generally prune everything back to two leaves to keep the internodes small.

 

[Shibui]

I would be trimming that branch way back where your finger is. As mentioned, trees will almost always activate new buds close to the end of a shoot. To get good ramification you'll need to cut much harder.
Also important to trim everything above any branch you want to ramify. Most of any tree's effort goes into the highest branches because all trees aspire to be the tallest tree in the forest (even if the forest is not there now - trees can't be too careful about these things) Just trimming the lower branches while leaving the upper ones to grow will usually get a poor response. No pics showing the upper part of your tree so not sure if that's the problem here.
The other thing that can limit response to pruning is tree health. If the tree is bursting with energy it will bud profusely. If it is weak or unhealthy budding can be poor.

Building ramification can be a slow process. Initial progress can be frustratingly slow but it seems to be exponential so after a few years it sudden it seems to speed up and soon after you'll find you need to start thinning instead of encouraging more ramification.

 

[TimIAm]

How healthy is the tree overall? Looking at the photo (and I am judging just on one photo), it looks very sparse. I find with most of my trees, if they are growing vigorously they are more likely to put out more new growth when cut back. On the other hand, if they have already been cut sparsely and you keep trying to cut it back, you are not going to be rewarded with much new growth. I've seen it before with trees that I've tried to squeeze the most out of, there comes a point where the tree only pushes out one bud for every cut because it's in a weakened state.

My thinking is different from the others, I wouldn't be cutting back this tree any more, I would be letting it grow and leaving it alone for a year. Come back next year and start working on ramification if that's your goal.

 

[Shibui]

My thinking is different from the others, I wouldn't be cutting back this tree any more, I would be letting it grow and leaving it alone for a year. Come back next year and start working on ramification if that's your goal.

That's great advice Tim. When I said cut back where the fingers are I meant that as a general guide rather than specific, current advice for this tree. I also noted that a healthy tree will bud better by which I also meant to let the tree get healthy before trimming again. Just did not come out as clear as yours.

 

[leatherback]

side-note: Your tree seems VERY dry. The leaves look dull, at the point of welting, and also the substrate looks crusted and overloaded with long-release pellets.
My guess is you might be underwatering the tree.

 

[SeanS]

side-note: Your tree seems VERY dry. The leaves look dull, at the point of welting, and also the substrate looks crusted and overloaded with long-release pellets.
My guess is you might be underwatering the tree.

Good point! OP’s elm also seems to be dropping some of its scale foliage