Drastic prune Azaleas ?
xjaxx
18 years ago
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
18 years agoRelated Discussions
Drastic pruning?
Comments (15)Please don't take it wrong. Mentha - I'm not being overly critical about what you said, but I'd like to reflect a little on how we can use defoliation and cutting back hard as a tool for managing our houseplants. First, I'll take a second to make the case that this would best be done midway between the big spring growth push and summer solstice. To defoliate before that means the plant will essentially rely on little sun, and what meager energy reserves it has left to push the new flush of growth. This will severely tax the plant and its recovery will be much longer than necessary. It we wait too long, (well into July) the plant will be reluctant to produce foliage. Plants, except winter growers, begin to store energy after day length begins decreasing instead of increasing. IOW, plants have just made the transition from wanting to make leaves and extend stems, to wanting to lay down layers of cells rich in carbohydrates in the roots and cambium. The plant is growing fatter now and is beginning to forget about adding foliage. Defoliation, partial defoliation, and cutting back hard all stimulate lots of branching in your plants. We use partial defoliation to stimulate branching in specific parts of the plant, or to slow growth in certain areas. Complete defoliation affects the entire plant, as does chopping back the trunk. (what a genius - right?) ;o) Most of the auxin in plants, which is the growth hormone that suppresses branching, is produced in the apex (tip) of the branch, but auxin is also a byproduct photosynthesis and is produced in leaves. When you remove either leaves or the apices (tips) of the branches, you get the same effect - a reduction in the hormone that suppresses lateral growth, which causes new leaves and branches to occur (the hormone reduction does this). The difference between the two, is that when you cut back hard and remove the apex, the branch can no longer extend - EVER. Another branch behind the pruning cut can take over and become the new apex, but the branch you cut back is done extending. This is how we do 'directional pruning'. If you want the branch to grow up, down, right, left, cut it back to a bud or leaf axil that faces the way you want the branch to grow. When the new branch emerges, it will be predisposed to grow in that direction. I just described how you can take a branch and cut it back so you can direct the direction of its growth, but you can also do this with the trunks of your vines & plants that get woody. Actually, you can do it with almost all dicots. If you have a schefflera or Ficus or philo that is too tall & gangly. CUT IT BACK. ;o) If you have a branch that is showing it wants to grow more toward the vertical, don't be afraid to cut the plant back to just above that branch. You can easily maintain the height of your plants by regularly cutting them back and training an emerging branch to vertical as the new leader. We should all learn these techniques and put another tool in our box. The reason for my saying that, is because most of the plants we grow tend to be apically dominant. That means that, as a survival strategy (in the wild) they are genetically programmed to concentrate growth at the tips of branches and top of the plant. If we don't learn to work with the plant to correct that tendency, we can end up with some plants that are less than attractive. I hope that you, Bobyoe, and others, find the comments useful. Al...See Moredrastic fall pruning
Comments (3)I always prune in the spring too,but the bottom of all the canes are completely bare and way too tall will it help or hurt to prune in the fall??????...See MoreShumard Oak trees pruned drastically, hope they survive
Comments (9)Katrina: You can find my posts about the fungicide by typing in the search box "liquid copper fungicide." But sometimes this can be difficult because only the overall topic that the posts are in comes up and you have to scroll through to find the posts about the topic you are searching. My posts are easier than some to find because I always end with "--Spruce." Anyway, I am more than happy to post again--this liquid copper fungicide treatment I recommend meets with a lot of skepticism, which in unfortunate, because I have been using it for more than 20 years now and it really, really works. I hate to see rot enter trees through wounds and large pruning cuts when it can easily be prevented. Anyway, enough of the sermon (for now!). Without a picture I am relying on your description of the cut at the top of this tree where you hope the new leader will take over. There should not be any stub that is more than an inch or so above where the new leader starts out. If there is, it should be cut back some. But an inch or so should be left above where the new leader starts to "stabilize" it--you don't want the new leader to be growing right at the rim of the main cut. If that happens it will be weak and liable to break. Also, the cut should be sloping away from the new leader somewhat. Maybe a 25 or 30 degree slope is enough--just what is best depends on the form of the new leader and the trunk where the cut has been made. If the slope is too much you create a larger wound unnecessarily. This slope of the cut serves two purposes--first it helps the water drain off, but perhaps more important it will allow the callus growth joining the new leader with the old main trunk to be stronger. OK, now you are ready for the fungicide. There were two brands I used over the years--the first, and the one I used the most, by Dragon, may no longer be available. The other I used was by Bonide. These were very similar with the exception that the Bonide brand had some kind of resin-like component that made the fungicide harder to use in a sprayer--the nozzle could become gummed up. But that is a minor problem and only a problem if you used a lot of it, which I did--at one time treating about 60 trees per year. And I did not always clean the sprayer after each days use. But now I use a paint brush except in rare cases when I canÂt reach the spot I need to treat. I use the brush now because it is easier to control the amount applied. These liquid copper fungicides may be a little hard to find in a garden center unless at really good ones with a broad range of products. You can also buy it on-line. I am not sure that any one brand is better than any other, but be sure it is "liquid copper fungicide." That will be the product name. You may find other fungicidal products that have copper in them, such as Bordeaux mixture, but these will probably not work. The key is the copper element has to be in a water soluble form. OK, now how should you apply it? First, you should wait about 4 to 6 months for the wood where the cut is has dried so it can absorb the fungicide. Then after a few dry days--no rain--mix the fungicide one part to maybe three parts water and then paint it on the cut. For the first application, give it a good coating like you would with paint. But give it just one coat--donÂt keep applying it as long as it soaks into the cracks in the wood--this is where there is a slight danger of doing some harm. And it is a slight danger, but if too much keeps soaking down into the trunk of the tree it can cause the inner part of the sapwood to die a little sooner than it normally would. At first I experimented with really large applications--I never killed anything with it, but I did notice some thinning of the sapwood as a result. A short time after you apply this, the blue/green color will fade and the wood will look normal. To be one the safe side, I would apply this again the next year, but this time and hereafter, apply lightly just so the surface is covered, and then a re-application maybe every other year will be enough. I have one red oak tree that I made a huge 13 inch cut on to remove a deformed semi-branch semi-second trunk, and after about 15 years now the wood on that cut is as fresh as the day I cut it. In a few more years it will be covered over with new wood and bark and I doubt any rot will be in this tree! And the tree will have a really nice shape. --Spruce...See MoreDrastic pruning of Mountain Laurel
Comments (2)Richard Jaynes, the world expert on Kalmia (Mountain Laurel) says: Plants lacking lower branches present a challenge. There are two approaches for these plantsÂneither are ideal, but each is better than cutting the tops off and leaving 2 to 3 ft. of naked stems. One approach is to remove the plants and replace them with smaller bushes of the desired shape; this is drastic but gives immediate results. The other approach is to cut the overgrown plants to within 2 to 3 inches of the ground, best done in early spring. The plants will re-sprout and become dense and multi-stemmed, but it may take three to four years for them to reach flowering size again. [Richard A. JaynesÂ"Kalmia, Mountain Laurel & Related Species",1997] Your success will be better if there is not too much shade. Shade is one thing that makes them tall and lanky....See Morejenny_in_se_pa
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