Early summer pruning?

[Cypress187]

Hi,

I chopped/pruned my tree's before/in spring, and now everything is nicely growing, but on which species can i prune some more for faster ramification? My Prunus is exploding with growth i have a feeling i can chop some bud's (or to the first inter-node) of the top, but i want to be sure.

I already did some very minor pruning (some too strong apex (terminal-bud) i pruned) and some 'first inter-node' pruning on my Acer, and my fir i pruned like 3 or 4 buds because they forked in 3 in those places.

 

[Cypress187]

I found out that:

" To prevent bleeding, you could prune the following trees after their leaves are fully expanded in late spring or early summer. Never remove more than 1/4 of the live foliage. Examples include:

• • All maples, including box elder
  • Butternut and walnut
  • Birch and its relatives, ironwood and blue beech"

So maybe my birch is going to loose some foliage.

 

[Cypress187]

Don't 'like' my posts, i need some solid tree saving advice

 

[klosi]

I'm sorry, I'm such a newbie I don't dare to give any advice. But I liked that you wrote like a timeline, calendar thing for some tree species. This is very helpful to me, that's why I like it
Anyway, I can give a small imput. I read an article which link you can find below, that you can cut your branches to increase ramification, but as far as it goes, those branches that will develop in same year will have same thickness. So if you're trying to build branch taper consider that ones that start in may will be te same thickness as the ones that do in july (on the same branch or smth like that, see quote ).
Man that sounds so wrong Someone is going to butcher me.

Direct quote:
"New shoots grown in the same growing season as each other will always end up being the same diameter, even when comparing shoots that grew in the Spring and late Summer as each other (as I found out after trying to build branch taper on a small bonsai over the course of one growing season!)."

Article/Source:
http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATDeciduousBonsaiBranchStructure page2.html

I don't know if that helped you anything but that's what I got.

 

[jk_lewis]

i need some solid tree saving advice

OK. Here's some. Don't worry so much.

You can prune anything just about any time if you want and the tree won't die. True the sap will run in maples with early spring pruning, but that WILL NOT KILL THE TREE OR EVEN DO MUCH DAMAGE.

If you are pruning for ramification you probably are only cutting the tips of the branches anyway. NO BIG DEAL.

 

[Eric Group]

I found out that:

" To prevent bleeding, you could prune the following trees after their leaves are fully expanded in late spring or early summer. Never remove more than 1/4 of the live foliage. Examples include:

• • All maples, including box elder
  • Butternut and walnut
  • Birch and its relatives, ironwood and blue beech"

So maybe my birch is going to loose some foliage.

"Never remove more than 1/4 of their living foliage"... Say what? On a MAPLE? My back yard would be an impenetrable forest of expanding Maple branches if that rule was reality. What about... Leaf pruning? They remove 100% of the living foliage in early/ late summer on many species of Maples! When pruning one back hard, I probably remove 1/2 or more of the foliage at all times of year as needed/ when I get around to it, and JM, Tridents, Rubrum... All are fine with it. That is just completely untrue about never removing more than a 1/4 of the foliage. As is it a fallacy IMO that the tree "bleeding" is a big issue. Sap loss from bleeding on a Maple has never caused one to show any stress I could measure or see. Maybe on a Pine it is an issue, but more because of it being an ugly, sticky mess than any real danger to the tree I think...

Prune your trees when they need to be pruned. This will vary depending on what your goals are. If you have a developing tree, you want trunk expansion and scar coverage? Let it grow a little more between prunings or stick it in the ground and don't touch it for years... Depends on how much development it needs.

If you are going for ramification- especially on fast / strong growers like a Maple- prune multiple times over the season. Allow new shoots to extend beyond 4-5 nodes, then cut back to one or two, repeat. Spring, Summer... Doesn't matter to the tree. They don't grow as fast during the full heat of the hottest part of the summer usually, slow your pruning accordingly (the tree won't be TELLING YOU IT NEEDS A PRUNE, so this should be obvious at that time)...

Hope that helps... I am a keep it simple kind of guy, and I think people get too worked up about timing and schedules. Do the work when it needs to be done and you have time to do it. The tree will not just up and die because you cut 1/3 of the foliage instead of 1/4 off or because you did it on June 17th instead of May 31st...

 

[Eric Group]

OK. Here's some. Don't worry so much.

You can prune anything just about any time if you want and the tree won't die. True the sap will run in maples with early spring pruning, but that WILL NOT KILL THE TREE OR EVEN DO MUCH DAMAGE.

If you are pruning for ramification you probably are only cutting the tips of the branches anyway. NO BIG DEAL.

Lmao! Same thing, same time! I just use more "flowery language"!

 

[0soyoung]

A simple consideration. The foliage is what feeds the tree. We manipulate the growth of trees by selectively weaking (removing the foliage from) selected branches.
If you want a branch/trunk to thicken, you keep the foliage (i.e., let it grow). On the other hand, if you want ramification, you must remove the branch tip ('decapitate' the branch) - subsequent branching will occur at the most distal node (so you need to cut back farther that you where you want the final canopy to be).

Auxin is produced by the branch tips and foliage. New soft growth is a consumer of auxin. When hardened, auxin is exported down the tree. toward the roots. Auxin can be seen to signal that there is 'life above' to the rest of the tree. Auxin is rooting hormone. In additiona to stimulating root growth, auxin stimulates thickening growth in the stems through which it flows. Biologically active auxin is transported through the cell wall of one cambium cell to another by some special proteins in the cell wall which causes auxin transport to always be in only one direction. Pruning that causes the auxin flow to 'collapse' releases new branch tips (Thymann-Sloog). It also weakens the stimulus for root growth.
So, regardless of specie, prune hardened foliage to stimulate back budding. If you do air layers, polar auxin transport is why roots never form at the bottom of the girdle. If you do cuttings, you will see that roots only emerge from the end that was closer to the mother plant's roots.

'Bleeding' as a consequence of pruning is nothing to worry about. In deciduous trees, and most notably maples, the freeze/thaw cycles of early spring cause starch stored in living cells throughout the tree to be conerted back to sugars. The 'bleed' causedby pruning is just watered down maple syrup (or the equivalent in other species). Living cells in the wood dump much of their recovered sugar into the xylem lumens. A slight pressure develops because of osmosis.

 

[Cypress187]

Wow, thanks for the input i am a work at the moment, but tomorow i will read everything (and maybe prune some

 

[Cypress187]

I pruned some of my tree's now and they are still alive. I was wondering can i also do some pruning on a conifer (Chamaecyparis Obtuse 'Rashahiba') he has no name yet btw so he is a little sad:

and/or 'Spartacus' (Fir) (he is called Spartacus because a fir is called a 'spar' here in Netherlands not because he is muscular):

 

[M. Frary]

. I was wondering can i also do some pruning on a conifer (Chamaecyparis Obtuse 'Rashahiba'

Just remember, This tree isn't like the others. You won't get back budding from these. You need to leave as much foliage close to the trunk as possible. Once you cut it off its gone for good. Also they need/have to be in full sun all day if possible.
They like water but don't like having their roots in water. Make sense? A well draining water retention soil is the order of the day.
Constant pinching of new growth is a must. Or it will want to abandon foliage close to the trunk and have all of its growth on the ends of the branches.

 

[Cypress187]

I put Spartacus (Fir) in 'wetter' soil because i just collected him and the Rasha is in good draining soil. I guess ill let Spartacus grow and i can try some approach grafting with him. But on Rasha i want to prune some branches for shape and not ramification is that ok or not (should i wait next year?).

 

[M. Frary]

You can cut branches off of the hinoki anytime.
You really give them names? I'm getting a puppy in a few weeks and can't think of a name for him let alone a name for a tree.
I just yell Firewood when I go out there and the trees all try their best not to have that name. Like giving the name fillet to a fish.

 

[Cypress187]

I only name those who are most likely gonna stay with me for longer time so i can manage their photo/archive/history and not have to search in the folders: Elm1, Elm2, Elm3 and so on.

I already see on the Hinoki that the inner foliage is not growing/fresh/lightgreen, so i might need to take action on him, i pinched the top 2 buds on the Fir so i can see what happens.