Thank you for your post greatly appreciated. Are you saying that January is the best time to make serious shaping and wiring as I would think the tree would be at it weakest and most brittle. Still learning so sorry if my questions sound stupid. Just making sure
Well, I have pruned hard after the flowers fell mid winter this year, repotted and the Prunus is growing like never in mid spring. So I guess the answer is yes.
Important to take into account global variations. As far south as Brian is, he gets hardly any winter. Same for Clicio. Best to learn the growing phases of the trees, and not "just" go by calender dates.
Oh ok I never looked at it that way and i am glad i asked. I live in New York and January is probably the coldest month of thet year. I guess i need to figure this out as from what I gather after flowering is when the calendar starts the clock. Based on what I have read but I could be wrong.
Edits in red above. Feel free to modify and repost.
My Ume blooms around New Year’s Day pretty reliably. However, after it blooms, it remains dormant for the next 3+ months. I would not work on (hard prune/wire) an Ume in the dead of a New York winter. I fully wired mine last winter, and it did not like it.
I am thinking maybe it's worth posting the schedule (your posting of course) as a resource also. Maybe it can help more people, I guess.
Note: If they snap and are still attached leave in pace add some cut-paste. I find Mume is very forgiving for these breaks and will keep the branch.
Seeing this going to be used as reference material can you think about adding a few more items? But I think this is awesome but can you also add when feeding should be done as there are many different techniques from what I understand. As an example is there feeding/ fertilizers added? And what months? Also when repotting is done i have read a lot of people say they use akadami as there primary soil choice for this type of tree. Lastly a notation should be placed somewhere that says depending on climate zone as i just found out. Than there is also soil feeding vs direct leaf spraying. So much to learn and I can't thank everyone for such an amazing thread.
Michael, I can not answer for @Brian Van Fleet , but I remember there is a link about feeding in this very thread.
This great information and should be included to the reference material. I have been following the information in Peter Adam's book to the letter and it looks like it's working. But you have given me something a little different that sounds really good. I had another member here tell me they use kelp but he mostly does leaf spraying.
Absolutely true. In fact, on a gnarly trunked ume these more severe bends add character and are quite suiting to a rugged ume. This technique works so long as you don't break the same branch in multiple places at the same time. And the branch must be green, I have not tried it with a hardened branch.
Say I have several large ume in the grow bed this year. Come spring, I want to chop them (some have 6'+ leaders) and pull them out of the ground. Is this feasible, or does the work need to be split? As in, chopped this spring and dug up the following? This should be done after flowering, as buds are breaking, correct?
Awesome looking Ume Brian! This is the next tree I want to add to my garden. Any recommendations for a source to purchase quality Ume?
Thanks, they’re a bit tough to find. Evergreen Gardenworks has them at times. You might also try here:
omegagarden.wordpress.com
www.houseofbonsai.com
