Spruce/Picea Abies

[BobbyLane]

Ive been wanting one for a while, New to my collection is this Spruce, the plan is to get it more compact over time....

After some pruning and a little wire earlier..

 

[Alain]

Nice tree!

 

[aframe]

Nice kitchen too

 

[Cypress187]

Isn't that a decidious styling? It looks very good in the pictures, only i don't like the style.

 

[BobbyLane]

Isn't that a decidious styling? It looks very good in the pictures, only i don't like the style.

I didnt train the primary branches upwards, thats how i bought it a few days ago, the tree either grew this way or was trained that way. I could whack some heavy duty wire on to get them going downwards, or just horizontal, like Spruce's in nature, it will takes years to set as the branches are very thick..................so, im currently in two minds about it. ive done some wiring and pruning today, there is only so much a Spruce can take according to my research. so really no rush to train the heavy branches, i like my trees to look natural, but im putting the health of this tree first. may get some guide wire on them in future, will see how it recovers, if the recent cut back gives me some back budding on those heavy branches, they will set much quicker when eventually wired...

 

[wireme]

Nice, I think it's excellent material, good luck with it!

 

[sorce]

With all the pine maples,

I think there's room for a maple spruce!

I like it how it is.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

I'd rather hear
"Holy shit that's a spruce, beautiful."

Than, well, I'd really like that feeling myself.

Sorce

 

[BobbyLane]

This is the tree today with guide wire applied to heavy low branches, im happy to leave it for now and see how it responds to the careful prune and minimal wiring...

Will update later in year

 

[wireme]

Really a beautiful tree for a naturalistic upright, I would love to have one similar.
Obviously backbudding will be your friend with this, people often say spruce don't backbud well but that is sure not my experience with them so far.

 

[BobbyLane]

I guess being from BC, yours will be a alberta spruce, Picea glauca? whats your pinching/pruning regime? ive read that pruning in aug and pinching in may should induce some good back budding and tight foliage. what do you feed it? I plan to feed it the same way i feed everything else, slow release orgnanics....do you have a thread on yours? id like to see it, Cheers

 

[wireme]

I have white, black and englemann spruce, white in the pics above. My spruce are almost all quite recently collected and have had little pruning. It seems that when they recover they backbud a lot all by themselves. Having tried a few things on the few spruce I've had long enough I like the results from pruning excess exterior growth in spring and doing nothing else. Pinching extending buds hasn't been great for me at the stage my trees are at but once they are closer to a refinement stage I think it will be good. I'm not really ready to recommend any strategy yet, give me another 5 years and maybe.
I have a thread on the tree above, just after collection, I'll try to update soon.

 

[wireme]

Oh, I also feed organically, with kelp and humic acid added to whatever liquid organic I have.

 

[M. Frary]

Spruce are easy to get to back bud. That's why they can be made into those really dense Christmas trees. As soon as the new growth hardens in early summer cut it back to last year's growth. They use machete type knives to trim acres of them to shape here.

 

[Djtommy]

this looks very nice actually, its a bit strange styling for a spruce, looks deciduous but nevertheless an appealing image
i like it

 

[barrosinc]

I might sound noobish here... but I prefer the look of this spruce than the formal upright pointy spruce (I know it mimics nature in a better way, but I just like them less).

 

[M. Frary]

I might sound noobish here... but I prefer the look of this spruce than the formal upright pointy spruce (I know it mimics nature in a better way, but I just like them less).

Not noobish at all. I think it's pretty cool too. Some Scots and Jack pine take this shape if they sprout in an area where there is no competition and sun all day long.

 

[fourteener]

I pluck all the new growth in half while it is still tender enough to easily pull and have it snap in two. Generally waiting for new buds to extend an inch or more. If you do it early enough, all of the new buds will grow on old wood. If you wait for new growth to get harder, and cut the new growth in half, the buds will form mostly on the new portion you didn't cut off.

You've done the right thing, thinning out the canopy. Light is your friend in getting things to bud back.

The first pick is a birds nest spruce where nothing has been done to it. Just the natural growth that has now begun to produce buds for next years. Very limited new buds back toward the trunk.

The next two pick show the new buds forming on old wood and non forming on what I plucked earlier this spring. At the end of the growing season I go on and cut all of the bud less tips off.

The fourth pic shows the density of the pad being formed after numerous years of plucking.

 

[fourteener]

New extension before and after plucking. Tree in early spring and how it looks now. It's designed to look like the black spruce that grow in swamps here in northern MN. Big branches down low, dead middle, good growth on top.

 

[BobbyLane]

Thanks for all the comments,

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New extension before and after plucking. Tree in early spring and how it looks now. It's designed to look like the black spruce that grow in swamps here in northern MN. Big branches down low, dead middle, good growth on top.

Thanks Fourteener for these informative posts and sharing your trees, what you say about pinching the growth corresponds from what i read here http://www.bonsai4me.co.uk/AdvTech/ATPiceaPruningstylingandwiring.htm
and here
http://www.bonsai4me.co.uk/AdvTech/ATPiceaPruningstylingandwiring page2.html

as you said, if you let the new growth harden off, back budding will be limited...ive been reading that Spruce can be very temperamental and difficult to back bud, so its great to see folks having good success with them. according to the link above, timing is key with the species. Walter pall styles his from june to end of aug and his results are impressive. some experts work them in winter and also have good results.
You say at end of season, you cut all of bud less tips off, is that because those shoots are weak? in the link it says not to wire bud less shoots or shoots with one bud as there is a big chance they will die back.

Here's a branch that has a little wire on it
So these are dormant buds that will now open in spring? and if there were no buds on this shoot, you'd cut it off, why? im assuming a bud less shoot is weak and going to die back..