Hey, Mike! That lemon is blooming up a storm! I wish I could smell them! Aha, this must be the Thread with the question, yes?! Thank you for your vote of confidence, but I must second, third, and fourth what the others have said. Do the major sculpting at the start of the growth-season next year. I'd definitely want to get it off of that stake and into its own balance as soon as possible, though. It so happens that I pruned the tips of three branches on my Blood Orange last week. Of course, my weather is warmer than yours, and I'd just brought the tree from the northeast side of my house to the full eastern-southeastern back deck. Lots of new growth already. Josh

I would REPOT, as opposed to potting up. First though, I would reduce the top by about half - temporarily. I would: a) Unpot the plant and use a pruning saw or other to remove the bottom half of the root mass. Don't worry - here's a tree I root pruned this spring & it's doing quite well: B) After you remove the bottom half of the roots, bare root the rest - remove all soil. Then, prune out half of the remaining roots, concentrating on the largest roots not connected directly to the trunk C) Repot into an appropriate soil - one that is well-aerated and drains freely. If you can't flush the soil w/o having to worry it will remain soggy so long root rot is a possibility, it's not appropriate. You need something with better aeration & drainage. Lots more info on soils if you click me. The information at the link I just left probably represents the single largest step forward a container gardener can take at any one time, so please have a look. D) Secure the plant in the pot so it can't move in relation to toe pot. There are a lot of ways. One: Plants secured so they can't shift in the pot reestablish in a fraction of the time plants unsecured do. E) After about 2 weeks, cut the plant back hard. You didn't do that to start with because you needed a good amount of foliage to make food (photosynthate) so roots can regenerate. By the time you are ready to cut back, your plant will have started to back-bud profusely as a result of the first pruning. Cut ALL branches back to 2 visible nodes, then remove any branches that spoil the shape of the plant. F) You're done except for fertilizing. When you cut back, fertilize with a full recommended strength soluble fertilizer in a 3:1:2 ratio (24-8-16, 12-4-8, 9-3-6 are examples), but include 1/2 teaspoon of potash (where Espoma products are sold - it's cheap) in your fertilizer solution each time you fertilize. G) Repeat every spring. You'll be amazed at how much difference proper root care & pruning makes. Good luck! See additional resource below .... Al Here is a link that might be useful: This will be helpful, too!

Thank you eastmeetwest. Here is what Jen at Adams county nursery just wrote: G5 will make a smaller tree at maturity and on average starts fruiting a season earlier. We recommend staking and irrigation for that root, as it does have a weaker root system. G12 will grow a little larger, but anchors better and the root is more widely adaptable. G12 would be my recommendation. In the end, it will be the more productive tree. So what do you think of taking the same level of pruning and training on this naturally bigger (G12) root stock? Being able to reach and service the entire tree (especially since everything is on a steepish slope) could be at least as important as a more vigorous root system. As for the grass, I should be doing better there. My excuse is that because of the steep conditions, my mounds of OM are prone to erosion, especially with the birds coming in to thrash it up. A nearby invasive rose bush has proved very useful for its cuttings to protect from them and the annual rye did a good job of protection and holding in the winter. I figured it would be better to let it die out on its own so I could get free seeds in the process. I live down the street from a stump dump so Ive been meaning to detour some tree service waste as my primary ground cover.

The direction of the branches is what you allow: my first step would be to repot into terra cotta with Al's Gritty Mix. When you repot, do so with a future in mind: is there a branch you imagine being a future trunk? Do you want an upright? A multi-trunk? I'm going to bet you find 2 separate plants - do you want to separate them or keep them together? Look at some pics of Jade that are similar to the way your jade is growing to get ideas. If you want to go in the direction of a bonsai, one rule is that there should not be trifurcations (a single spot where the plant breaks down into 3-branches). I can see at least one spot with trifurcation (A, B & C in pic 1). Remove the branch that is growing toward the center, or too upward/downward. I'd probably remove branch A as it is smaller and the other two give more to work with, but I can only see a pic of the plant - you have the real thing in front of you. After that, I'd probably just let it grow. You could chop it way back, and get more branching (ramification) lower on the plant, but I'd let it settle into a new pot. There are really two pruning methods: clip n grow, and harder pruning. With the first, just let each branch grow until it has 5-6 sets of leaves (nodes with leaves growing out of each side) and cut/pinch it back to 2-3 branches (do all branches at the same time). With the other approach, you just let the plant grow for a season or two before each prune and trim it back harder, even removing all leaves.