Encouraging Bud growth

[MattA]

I have recently been rereading an old tome about pruning fruit trees and came across a tip for encouraging dormant buds into growth. I thought it would be of interest to some here, I don't have a scanner or I would have included the diagram with the following text.

SAP BARRIERS
An incision or "nick" is a simple transverse penetration with a knife-blade, seperating the tissues without taking any part of them away. A notch is much the same kind of operation but includes the removal of a small strip of bark. The distinction between them lies in the period of time over which each is effective. This period lasts as long as the sap barrier lasts, that is to say until the gap has calloused over. Both nicking & nothcing only act on one bud at a time. The result of the operation varies according to the place it is done in relation to the bud. A sap barrier placed above the bud favours its transformation into a wood shoot; placed below the bud it turns it easily into a blossom bud. In the first case nitrogenous food materials furnished by the roots travel normally, but the carbohydrates, the products of assimilation, are arrested in their downward course. The proportion of nitrogen will be high so there will be wood growth. In the second case the ascending circulation is impeded, while the elaborated sap flows normally. There will be excess carbohydrates resulting in fruit bud formation.
'The Pruning of Fruit Trees' by Paul Champagnat, english translation 1954

Its a great old book that goes into everything including a number of unique styles of training that I have found nowhere else.

Matt

[Hackimoto]

A lot of old gardeners use a similar technique by bruising or bashing the trunk of fruit trees with a hammer or lump of wood,to make them flower. Same principle. Not recommended for Bonsai though. Bordering on child abuse really.

[shibui]

This technique was recommended to get a shoot to grow where you need a branchon a bonsai. Cut above a dormant bud and it is more likely to shoot then you can develop a new branch. From experience this does not always work though.

It was common practice to cut through the bark right around the trunk of a bush or tree that was reluctant to fruit (especially currants?). The cut interrupts the sap flow long enough to initiate flowering then heals up. There is a term for this but I cannot bring it to mind just at the moment.