DaveG
Mame
I did a little experiment a couple years ago with what appeared to be decent success, but I don't have a lot of need for the technique right now, as most of my trees are nowhere near finished. I could wait until I have space to experiment or I actually need it to develop my trees and report on more scientifically-obtained results, but it would be at least another 10 years. I figure I'll go ahead and share it. Any naysayers can feel free to just not try it out themselves.
Basically, sometimes you just want a certain bud to break, one that might not really want to. It might green up a bit in the Spring and then go dormant again, waiting for a time when it's really needed. My elm does this with the lower buds on its trunk every year, then they turn brown again. A couple years ago, after a hard pruning, I wanted some of those buds to sprout out and become lower branches. At the time, I'd been reading about plant growth regulators fairly recently and I'd read that coconut milk has a high concentration of PGRs involved in bud breakage and growth. I don't remember where I read it now, just that I did.
Anyway, we had some fresh shredded coconut in the fridge that was nearing expiration anyway, so I figured I may as well see if it would solve my little bud problem. I mashed a few shreds of it up between my fingers until it was sticky and stuck it to one of the buds that was starting to brown up again. To my surprise, in a few days, that bud was putting out tiny new leaves. So I tried it again on another one that had almost completely gone back to brown. The results were the same; it sprouted. I proceeded to try it on some buds at the base of the trunk and that was unsuccessful, but those buds had already fully turned brown again. I didn't ever expect this to be foolproof.
So my working theory is that with this technique it might be possible, at that moment of decision, to push a bud over the edge to sprout instead of staying dormant. I claim no more, as I've never seen it work when the bud isn't at least a little green. But if this truly works the way it seemed to for me, it's at least a handy little trick. And the awesome part is that if it doesn't work, the only side-effect is a temporary oily spot.
Basically, sometimes you just want a certain bud to break, one that might not really want to. It might green up a bit in the Spring and then go dormant again, waiting for a time when it's really needed. My elm does this with the lower buds on its trunk every year, then they turn brown again. A couple years ago, after a hard pruning, I wanted some of those buds to sprout out and become lower branches. At the time, I'd been reading about plant growth regulators fairly recently and I'd read that coconut milk has a high concentration of PGRs involved in bud breakage and growth. I don't remember where I read it now, just that I did.
Anyway, we had some fresh shredded coconut in the fridge that was nearing expiration anyway, so I figured I may as well see if it would solve my little bud problem. I mashed a few shreds of it up between my fingers until it was sticky and stuck it to one of the buds that was starting to brown up again. To my surprise, in a few days, that bud was putting out tiny new leaves. So I tried it again on another one that had almost completely gone back to brown. The results were the same; it sprouted. I proceeded to try it on some buds at the base of the trunk and that was unsuccessful, but those buds had already fully turned brown again. I didn't ever expect this to be foolproof.
So my working theory is that with this technique it might be possible, at that moment of decision, to push a bud over the edge to sprout instead of staying dormant. I claim no more, as I've never seen it work when the bud isn't at least a little green. But if this truly works the way it seemed to for me, it's at least a handy little trick. And the awesome part is that if it doesn't work, the only side-effect is a temporary oily spot.
