To Prune or not to Prune Tall Brugmansia ?
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Ficus in a Pot - How to Prune to grow tall?
Comments (24)Yes, it's very easy, but you'll need to provide an image. As a bonsai practitioner, a regular part of how we make trees look very old is by inducing rapid taper in the trunk - very fat at the bottom, very thin on the top. Heavy branches low on the tree, twiggy growth at the top - just as you see in nature, only condensed. It's not unusual for me to dig up a tree which is 10 or more feet tall, immediately after shortening the tree to something like 4-6 inches in ht. At least 90% of my trees have had the 'trunk chop' procedure done multiple times. Examples: This ficus microcarpa ^^^ was chopped severely 3 times. You can barely see one major scar low on the right side of the tree. There's another between the leader and left branch, and another on the top of the right branch just to the right of the thinner part of the trunk. This tree ^^^ (having just been pruned hard in the image) has been chopped hard 5 times. In both cases, the chops are strategically planned so the scars aren't visible when observing the tree from its front, 'front' being it's best or most eye-appealing side. This ^^^ is the first (and second) chop on a maple (tree in middle - in black nursery can - big white scare. The branch with the wire is the new trunkline and the right fork (fatter side) of the trunk will eventually be cut off. It's purpose until that time is to add thickness to the thin part of the trunk. Same tree after several chops - notice the taper. The scars will heal. Same tree - still progressing. It has about 2 more years of growth and training before it gets a quality bonsai pot. This is last year's image, and it's made good progress this year. I hope you enjoyed that and were/are left with the sense it won't be too difficult to fix whatever you did to/for your tree. Trees are very predictable, so much so that we can plan ahead to utilize branches that don't yet exist, because we know at some point 'they will'. Ready when you are. Al...See MorePruning an overgrown Brugmansia
Comments (5)I live in Florida and ours grow year around, too. I cut mine back whenever they look crappy or when I can pawn the cuttings off on someone - no certain time, except when they are forming buds, which is right now. When Nov. gets here and they aren't likely to bloom again until March or May, I will whack them down to about a foot above the ground. Wherever you cut them, two branches will form. I think you can do it whenever it suits you....See MorePrune tall skinny ugly fiddle leaf fig?
Comments (6)Should I still wait until June? Yes. You'll get the largest return for your efforts if you do; and, if the tree was repotted, it needs the extra time to recover. If it was only bumped up a pot size or two, allowing time to recover isn't as important as it would be if it went through a full repot. A popular 60s song, borrowed from the book of Ecclesiastes says, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven ....", and that is very true where plants are concerned. A plant's vitality/metabolism is like a spinning top when all is well. When it's stressed, the top begins to wobble. Further stress leads to strain, and a plant that can wobble completely out of control and collapse. To minimize the risk of Mother Nature siding with the hidden weakness or flaw, (which she always does), patience is sometimes a forced requirement. Learning to work WITH your plant's natural rhythms not only makes you a better grower, it also has the added benefit of scratching that itch we all have to nurture. Just knowing you're in sync with your plants is sort of therapeutic - at least I look at it that way, YMMV. Instead of cutting off the top, why not air layer it? Lyrata comes easy from cuttings, but odds of success are still much higher by way of the layer route. I currently have several air layers going on plants that are often hard to find and expensive when you do. I'd spend the next 5 or 6 weeks making sure you have your watering down and the plant is on a good nutritional regimen. Whenever it's above 55*, I'd make sure the plant was outdoors in open shade - it will make a significant difference; but, make sure the plant is secure in the pot. If you DO want to move the plant outdoors and are concerned that the plant's ht will make it too unstable, there's your 'out' for chopping it back. The boost from being outdoors should allay concerns about recovery ....... but I'd still wait until late June to do the chop. Al...See MoreRoses growing too tall and bare at bottom. How/when to prune?
Comments (7)Roses are traditionally pruned in early spring.......when the forsythia is blooming. And it will not hurt to prune them hard. As far back as you like :-) I once cut a big, rangy rambler/climber back almost to ground level and it was full and lush and nearly back to the same size by the end of the season. Whether or not a hard prune will stimulate budding from lower on the canes is a bit of a toss up. Old, very gnarly grayish woody canes are unlikely to produce low buds....younger canes might. This is pretty typical for many large growing roses - they tend to have 'bare legs'. If you routinely fertilize your roses with an alfalfa product, you are very likely to get new stem growth from the base - what is known as basal breaking. This is often the best way to rejuvenate old leggy plants as once these new canes begin to mature and produce, you can remove the older, bare ones....See MoreRelated Professionals
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