Jacaranda
- delisea
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Re: Jacaranda
Hi Steve,
This is just my opinion. I am not an expert. I'm yet to see a good one of these that also flowers, but it well worth having a crack.
Options 1: There is a straigt bit at the top of the trunk. This might annoy you in an few years time so you could chop there.
Option 2: keep the main trunk and remove one of the secondary trunks, I would pick the middle one. Shorten the left branch. Then let shoots grow until the first leaves have hardened off - there will be 2-6 sets of leaves by then. At this point cut back to the first to set of leaves. There should be a dormant buds visible at the base of each of first set of leaves they will start growing. Let these grow until the first set of leaves have hardeded off and repeat. You might get 4 or iven 5 goes at this in a summer. Try and cut all shoots at once as it stimulates the buds better.
At first you will get both of the buds growing at each cut and your tree will start to ramify. After a while the leaves will shade the buds, or one of the shoots will dominate and only one of the two buds you cut back to will grow. This is where life becomes difficult. The trick is to spread the branches and cut back dominant branches more than others.
Don't fertilise now you will just get long internodes. Only fertilise in late Autumn and winter. If you want flowers you need to stop cutting in mid-late spring, and pot full of roots. Most important, have fun.
Cheers,
Symon
This is just my opinion. I am not an expert. I'm yet to see a good one of these that also flowers, but it well worth having a crack.
Options 1: There is a straigt bit at the top of the trunk. This might annoy you in an few years time so you could chop there.
Option 2: keep the main trunk and remove one of the secondary trunks, I would pick the middle one. Shorten the left branch. Then let shoots grow until the first leaves have hardened off - there will be 2-6 sets of leaves by then. At this point cut back to the first to set of leaves. There should be a dormant buds visible at the base of each of first set of leaves they will start growing. Let these grow until the first set of leaves have hardeded off and repeat. You might get 4 or iven 5 goes at this in a summer. Try and cut all shoots at once as it stimulates the buds better.
At first you will get both of the buds growing at each cut and your tree will start to ramify. After a while the leaves will shade the buds, or one of the shoots will dominate and only one of the two buds you cut back to will grow. This is where life becomes difficult. The trick is to spread the branches and cut back dominant branches more than others.
Don't fertilise now you will just get long internodes. Only fertilise in late Autumn and winter. If you want flowers you need to stop cutting in mid-late spring, and pot full of roots. Most important, have fun.
Cheers,
Symon
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Re: Jacaranda
My suggestion is to do a trunk chop - option 1 noted above but a bit lower pick one shoot and then grow out and do another trunk chop in a couple of years after the first chop has healed. From that point I would develop the branches by which time you should have some reasonable bark formation as well. ( Assuming you are after an informal)
Another option is to trunk chop about an inch or so from root base ( so much much lower) but let two or three trunks develop for a Raintree like look.
Jac's are difficult as they have long leaves and while they reduce in size still need to be grown out to a reasonable size to be proportionate.
Another option is to trunk chop about an inch or so from root base ( so much much lower) but let two or three trunks develop for a Raintree like look.
Jac's are difficult as they have long leaves and while they reduce in size still need to be grown out to a reasonable size to be proportionate.
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