Do you think that the triple flowering is part of the type of ume that yours is Fred? Interesting that the two methods outlined by you and Adair are so different, but work well for both of you. I have two, maybe I'll try one on each...
Looking really good Fred. I wouldn't let it lean much more, but you march to the beat of your own drum!
The method Adair described is in an article by Lynn Perry Alstadt in International Bonsai 1982 #1. It's out of print, but with
@William N. Valavanis blessing, I could post scans of the 2-page article. I am testing the described leaf removal process on a couple of tagged branches of my Ume to see how it responds and will post the results next year. I tried it in 2015, but was a little late in the season, so the buds were already differentiated to flowers.
Bjorn told me that they defoliate Ume at Kouka-en in May, at which point they prune and wire them. Their climate is very similar to mine. Sometimes they don't leaf out again during the growing season; they just sit basically dormant. I have not tried it, but my assumption is that the pruning and defoliation results in more vegetative buds, similar to removing the first 2 leaves of each shoot. Mine grows about 24" shoots, and then I prune them each back to 2 leaves in May. The flower buds are usually good, but I do need to start encouraging vegetative buds back closer to the trunk.
I am also growing an Ume trunk in the ground (Anderson flat now), and have
documented its response to trunk chops. Not much has been written on this topic, so it has been a bit of an experiment. They're great trees; nice in all seasons.
