Steven wrote:Thanks for the update Grant. What a great pictorial progression!
How long do you expect it to take until you can cut the donor branch?
Looks like a beautiful day in Canberra too.
Regards,
Steven
Hi Steven,
We have had glorious weather the last few days; up to
21 degrees; however just 13 days ago we had
minus 9 degrees.
We have virtually finished re potting all the deciduous trees at the collection and some are already bursting; Catlin elm, Seiju elm, Chinese elm, Trident
maple.
Any how re the
thread graft; going on lasts years experience this will be our schedule;
Let the two buds at the tip of the new branch elongate to 3 or 4 sets of leaves and then , if the bud on the underside of the new branch has elongated, then pinch.
If only the two buds at the tip elongate and no others grow then I would let those two grow a little longer before pinching.
Do the usual pinch out technique on the rest of the japanese
maple as usual.
Defoliate the whole tree
except the new branch as usual around mid December.
Once the new branch looks fatter on the "out side" than the "in side" we would consider half cutting the donor branch or possibly three quarters or total cut off by about late Feb. We are trying to keep this new branch small and elegant as it is about 2/3rds up the trunk, so we are trying to control the thickening..
We will probably cut off some (two) heavy short branches just above the new branch when we defoliate in mid December as well.
This tree should look very respectable by autumn.
Grant