WHEN to cut old yew to get back budding on or near the trunk

[VWylie]

l've been combing this site and the internet in general for awhile seeking the answer to this question and am coming up short. I have several massive yews with foliage way out at the end of unattractive branches. I know you can cut them back and get budding on old wood, but WHEN do you do this? They've been in perlite & potting soil mix for 3+ years and are growing well. I live in the Champlain Valley in VT, zone 4, and here it's about mid spring. The yews and other conifers are just starting to push new growth. The foliage you see on this one near the trunk has been snaked around and an attempt at single point grafting made last year. Of about 6 grafts, it looks like only two or three MIGHT be successful, this is why i'm wondering if a hard cut back is a better way to go.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

In watching the patterns of yew in the ground, it seems they need no assistance to grow green where there is visible trunk.

It's kind of what the want to do, shade their trunk.

They can't do it without health, so trying to promote it, is futile.

Just keep it healthy, uncut even, and it will bud there eventually.

Sorce

 

[Dav4]

Best video on yew pruning I've ever seen...

 

[VWylie]

so.... this looks like it's how to get back budding on relatively thin branches - 1/4-1/2 inch thick. I'm asking about cutting fat, old branches so i can get buds closer to the trunk. This tree is not at the point of developing foliage pads. All the foliage is 2ft away from the trunk on uniformly thick smooth branches 1- 3 inches thick. this was a tree in someone's yard. There is one point in this video that kind of skims over what i'm asking about, but doesn't address. Yews are capable of budding back on old fat trunks when pruned aggressively and i've seen this in landscaping. Can it be done once the tree is collected and growing well in a pot? If so, WHEN?

 

[sorce]

Yews are capable of budding back on old fat trunks when pruned aggressively and i've seen this in landscaping.

There is no real correlation between the "aggressive" pruning and them budding back to the trunk.

90% of yews are pruned regularly, twice a year mostly.

Regularly and aggressive are 2 totally different things.

I took a ride a minute ago making sure to look at them, and sure enough, no matter how they are pruned, the trunk seems to become shaded.

This is one I think of. Eeew. It's seen better days. This must be a new picture. Winter sucked! But you can see the low folaige.

My phone wouldn't let me save the other, ...I'll get it. But it never gets sun to it's low extremities, so it doesn't need to grow branches there.

I think it's important to note that it's not sun exposure that makes it grow, but specifically, the need to shade the trunk from the sun.

This is a huge difference when we are trying to reproduce the mechanism that causes backbudding.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

This yew is the one that doesn't get sun to it's lower half, it's always shaded, so it doesn't need to grow branches to protect it from the sun.

We can go out and witness the same thing over and over.

I have yet to see a yew here not succumb.

Sorce

 

[_#1_]

"aggressive"

This big yew of mine grew 2 years without aggressive pruning and it became this big dome of green the whole time. No budding on old wood. I thought it has since recovered and very healthy, so I lopped off 80% or more the foliage recently. Now there's a single new growth on old wood facing directly toward morning sun.

Brought home April 2018


Untouched Jan 2019, entire year actually


Today, after aggressive pruning around 1.5 month ago. And like the fine gentleman said before me. I think a consistent pruning on a healthy tree might just get them to bud back. I'll wait until the new growth mature to open things up again to get more light through.

 

[Dav4]

so.... this looks like it's how to get back budding on relatively thin branches - 1/4-1/2 inch thick. I'm asking about cutting fat, old branches so i can get buds closer to the trunk. This tree is not at the point of developing foliage pads. All the foliage is 2ft away from the trunk on uniformly thick smooth branches 1- 3 inches thick. this was a tree in someone's yard. There is one point in this video that kind of skims over what i'm asking about, but doesn't address. Yews are capable of budding back on old fat trunks when pruned aggressively and i've seen this in landscaping. Can it be done once the tree is collected and growing well in a pot? If so, WHEN?

Even though yews bud back as well as any conifer out there, there is no guarantee a hard chop will force the tree to sprout from the trunk. If that's the path you choose, feed the tree aggressively and give it as much sun and water as possible to pump it up before cutback, which I would do in spring prior to bud break. The other option is to slowly force the growth back down the existing branches and build the tree there. Honestly, I've never seen a yew approach or bud grafted... doesn't mean it can't be done but I suppose there's a reason it's not talked about or done more often.

 

[_#1_]

Whichever path you choose, make absolutely sure your tree is healthy first. And from what I've read and heard on YouTube, always leave some green on a branch you want to cut back. Leaving no foliage will most likely lead to dead branch. There are around three branches on mine with no foliage that are indeed dead.

I worked on mine when the buds are like yours now.

 

[BobbyLane]

around mid june is a good time to prune taxus, for back budding permitting the tree is healthy and looks 'shaggy'.
this can also be applied to deciduous. there is loads of stuff on youtube for taxus, Tony tickle, Graham potter have countless content. even on Walter palls blog you will find taxus progressions/photos of work with dates.
you didnt look that hard

 

[BobbyLane]

so.... this looks like it's how to get back budding on relatively thin branches - 1/4-1/2 inch thick. I'm asking about cutting fat, old branches so i can get buds closer to the trunk. This tree is not at the point of developing foliage pads. All the foliage is 2ft away from the trunk on uniformly thick smooth branches 1- 3 inches thick. this was a tree in someone's yard. There is one point in this video that kind of skims over what i'm asking about, but doesn't address. Yews are capable of budding back on old fat trunks when pruned aggressively and i've seen this in landscaping. Can it be done once the tree is collected and growing well in a pot? If so, WHEN?

just saw Dav4 posted the same video.
watch the video properly....it tells you when!

actually, looking at your tree again, it doesnt look strong enough or shaggy enough. maybe best to leave another season.

note Potter works this shaggy yew in midsummer

 

[leatherback]

Generally, best time for pruning yew to get backbudding on healthy trees is late spring, after the fuirst flush of foliage is starting to mature / harden offf / looses the paleness.

For your tree, if you do get good growth in the first flush (That means, 4-6 inches on each branch tip!) cut the new growth back to ~8 needles. Pluck the old needles to only leave ~8 needles. That will give you a VERY open tree. And the tree will throw buds everywhere. Do this continuously every year ann the tree will remain fairly open and you will have buds on the old parts all the time.

 

[leatherback]

Two of my established Yews which I treat as above, pruning coming up the next 2 weekd, including annual removal of trunk-green. The top one is much denser & further developed than the second, which shows




And finally one which I found in a garbagepilecontainerthingyalongtheroad, which I cut back to fit my car, and planted. It sulked in 2018. In 2019 it popped some branches on the trunk. Now it is happy and going:

 

[VWylie]

around mid june is a good time to prune taxus, for back budding permitting the tree is healthy and looks 'shaggy'.
this can also be applied to deciduous. there is loads of stuff on youtube for taxus, Tony tickle, Graham potter have countless content. even on Walter palls blog you will find taxus progressions/photos of work with dates.
you didnt look that hard

You're in England. Where stuff is green in January. I have to look for info that talks about growth stages vs "summer" or "mid-june". What i've seen of Tony Tickle and Graham Potter are finer stages of development. the yews i'm trying to work on are not at that point.

 

[VWylie]

Generally, best time for pruning yew to get backbudding on healthy trees is late spring, after the fuirst flush of foliage is starting to mature / harden offf / looses the paleness.

For your tree, if you do get good growth in the first flush (That means, 4-6 inches on each branch tip!) cut the new growth back to ~8 needles. Pluck the old needles to only leave ~8 needles. That will give you a VERY open tree. And the tree will throw buds everywhere. Do this continuously every year ann the tree will remain fairly open and you will have buds on the old parts all the time.

THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[VWylie]

This yew is the one that doesn't get sun to it's lower half, it's always shaded, so it doesn't need to grow branches to protect it from the sun.

We can go out and witness the same thing over and over.

I have yet to see a yew here not succumb.

Sorce

Is it just yews that want their trunks shaded? I love weird things like this.

 

[sorce]

Is it just yews that want their trunks shaded? I love weird things like this.

I can't be sure. There are a few things pointing in that direction.
I saw a thing where a yew budded on the trunk near a nightlight.
People's struggles with them here makes it seem so.
They prefer or don't mind shade, so it would make sense that the trunk is also sensitive.
Preheating air sucked into a kiln makes it more efficient. So perhaps heated sap is less efficient in a yew?

Plenty of Weird things are possible!

When everyone's answer to every question is both right and Wrong, I tend to throw up my hands and look for the truth.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

Thing is, energy for the tree to make those buds and new shade, the branching we need, comes from what is there.

So of we continue to "cut back" looking for "backbuds", we are going to kill the tree.

With yew, just grab a beer and set in the shade with the tree.

Yew is pretty high on the list of set it and forget it.
Knobs can be shaved to jins. Kinda flexible. You can probably graft on em. I think they are better off forgotten. Till they really give you that sign.

Sorce

 

[Javaman4373]

I have been working on a fairly large yew planted in front of a barn with a full southern exposure. It is the subject of another thread in the New Bonsai forum. In early June, I gave it a trimming to reduce its height and I chopped off some fairly large limbs that were growing into the building. This resulted is some back budding on both the trunks and branches. There are however some long sections of trunk that have no branches or back buds at this time. So I am interested in the grafting VWiley mentioned in the OP. How is such grafting done on yew?