Prunus mume questions

Thanks for creating this extensive timeline, has really helped me see how a mume progresses over time as the idea of working with long branches and sporadic budding was a bit confusing for me.

I got my first mume last winter and am just embarking on my first growing season now (UK).

Still unsure whether to apply the inner leaf defoliation mentioned earlier, or the partial outer canopy defoliation linked more recently, and when each respective method is preferable. Have you tried partial outer canopy defoliation yet or are you still removing innermost leaves as before?

Hoping to find a reliable approach to ramification as I'm definitely not qualified to start grafting any time soon!
 
Leafing out and growth extending. Watched Bjorn video where he partial defoliated an old mume. Anybody here try it? I’m tempted to try something different this season but with the recent repot it may not make sense.

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I’ve very recently purchased a small prunus mume. It definitely needs to put on some size. I can’t put it in the ground because of my climate. So, I have to put it in a very large pot and move It inside the greenhouse in December. Then back outside in March/April. I Was thinking of using a 20 gallon pot to give it as much root run as possible for the next 5 years. Would you use a bonsai soil mix during that time? I see many people using regular potting soil mixed with perlite for pre-bonsai. Is there a benefit to using a full bonsai soil mix for pre-bonsai material? Your advice is appreciated.
 
Nybonsai12 said:
Leafing out and growth extending. Watched Bjorn video where he partial defoliated an old mume. Anybody here try it? I’m tempted to try something different this season but with the recent repot it may not make sense.

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Click to expand...
You have the healthiest looking mumes ive seen. Leaves look amazing. What do you do to keep them so healthy and vibrant?
 
LAS said:
You have the healthiest looking mumes ive seen. Leaves look amazing. What do you do to keep them so healthy and vibrant?
Click to expand...
Nothing special. Full sun, plenty of water, biogold fert.
 
I recieved my prunus mume in middle of June. I’ve had it in very shaded sun exposure. Basically, sun from 8am -
10 am and 5:30pm to 7pm. Its in shade for the rest of the time. I live in chicago (Zone 6 ). Do you recommend moving it slowly into full sun?
 
Canada Bonsai said:
The ideal situation is to be grafting dormant scions onto recipient plants that are waking from dormancy. There are a few ways to get oneself into that situation. When working at home with hobbyist-level of equipment (i.e. without temperature controlled greenhouses), one way to achieve this is by taking the scions a few weeks before you intend to graft them, storing them in the fridge, and then grafting them later when the recipient-tree is waking from dormancy. This is an especially useful approach if you are taking scions from the same plant onto which you intend to graft. If you are taking scions from a different plant onto which you intend to graft, you may simply be able to keep the scion-plant dormant while waking up the receiving-plant early (e.g. by bringing it indoors--but this could be challenging depending on what your Springs are like). Several Japanese books on Ume note that scions can be taken up to 1-month in advance. Personally, I have stored scions for 3 months in my fridge prior to grafting without affecting the success rate of the grafts, but the shorter the period the better.

I am starting my response this way to make the point that the moment when you take your scions will almost always be after flowering (I say almost always because I know a few guys in very warm climates who need to take their scions before flowering to ensure that they will be dormant and will remain so in the fridge--this brings another set of considerations that I will ignore here). With the flower buds out of the way, you should be able to visually identify where there are vegetative buds, and where there are no vegetative buds.

Untouched, Ume tend to send new shoots from the branch tips. Therefore, using scions from the branch tips will increase the odds that you will have vegetative buds on the scions. However, branch tips tend to be relatively thin, which decreases your chance of success with the grafts. I would not use branch tips: if you're defoliating throughout the summer (either using POCD as recommended by Bjorn, or using the trick described by Lynn Perry Alstadt but over a greater number of nodes than the recommended 2-3), you should have plenty of vegetative buds along your shoots. I am in the middle of the process now, and some of my shoots as long as 60cm have vegetative buds at almost every node. (If I were trying to ramify, I could cut back to almost anywhere on the shoot and expect shoots to emerge very reliably in Spring).

Here is an image of the majority of books I reference. The second one at the top (NHK, white, red flowers) is by far the most useful book for bonsai. The book on the top right (Bonsai Senka, maroon) is also very very good. (Some of these focus almost exclusively, and very technically on flower types--a taxonomists dream--which may or may not be of interest to you). Send me a PM if you want to any of them and I can provide ISBN and contacts/sources. They can easily be read with Google Translate app's live translation and some patience -- should not be a problem for a fellow academic @leatherback
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Are there any good books in English?
 
LAS said:
I recieved my prunus mume in middle of June. I’ve had it in very shaded sun exposure. Basically, sun from 8am -
10 am and 5:30pm to 7pm. Its in shade for the rest of the time. I live in chicago (Zone 6 ). Do you recommend moving it slowly into full sun?
Click to expand...
Yes, if you can keep up with the increased watering needs. Likely it was in full sun before you got it.
 
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My ongoing love affair with Ume. My Omoi no mama has lots of buds and should give a nice show, although branches lookin a little disorganized. Got a Beni chidori and a Josephine to go in the ground and one I wired intending to likely keep in a pot for a bit to play with. And last is a dawn variety in the ground, ugly and straight. Straight section will get carved one day and I’ll use the branch going right for future branching… I think.🤔

IMG_7721.jpegIMG_7720.jpegIMG_7722.jpeg
 
Nybonsai12 said:
My ongoing love affair with Ume. My Omoi no mama has lots of buds and should give a nice show, although branches lookin a little disorganized. Got a Beni chidori and a Josephine to go in the ground and one I wired intending to likely keep in a pot for a bit to play with. And last is a dawn variety in the ground, ugly and straight. Straight section will get carved one day and I’ll use the branch going right for future branching… I think.🤔

View attachment 522961View attachment 522962View attachment 522963
Click to expand...

WOW you got a good bend on the one on the right, maybe I should have tried on mine. It felt so brittle I didn't want to chance it.

So far I've been wiring every young branch that comes off mine, though, so hopefully it'll end up looking like your older one. Great work. Would love to know if you do anything for fungal infections, I seem to get shothole blight a lot. I have my own regiment already, but I'm curious to know if you're doing something I'm not.
 
badatusernames said:
WOW you got a good bend on the one on the right, maybe I should have tried on mine. It felt so brittle I didn't want to chance it.

So far I've been wiring every young branch that comes off mine, though, so hopefully it'll end up looking like your older one. Great work. Would love to know if you do anything for fungal infections, I seem to get shothole blight a lot. I have my own regiment already, but I'm curious to know if you're doing something I'm not.
Click to expand...


That one I bent as already kind of leaning that way so it wasn’t so extreme. They are very brittle as you indicated so it’s always a gamble pushing it. Getting movement early on when they are bendy is key and they get firm fast!

I hadn’t had any problems with fungal issues with ume until last year when a gall formed on a branch of one of mine. I removed the branch, sprayed with fungicide(copper or daconil I can’t recall) and then began using a granular systemic.
 
Last year my dawn variety in the ground produced three fruits. Animals made quick work to get to them except one which grew long enough and then got knocked off. I figured it was a long shot but took the seed, dried it and kept it in a drawer until winter approached. Into the fridge it went with my many other seeds. I planted out indoors as I normally do each year in late winter and lo and behold, it is sprouting. Should be interesting to see what happens with it as long as it survives.

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