Cedar layer

[Neli]

Matt, it is hard to find any species in Zambia...Most of my plants I bring from abroad...Singapore. Thailand...London...SA and other countries... Brough some from India last month:http://www.sabonsai.co.za/forum/index.p ... entry18226 Every time I travel I make sure I bring a suitcase full.
Thanks for the valuable advise. The tree has a bend on the bottom.
Here is my cedar....http://www.sabonsai.co.za/forum/index.p ... costa-day/
And what I brought home that I could carry.
http://www.sabonsai.co.za/forum/index.p ... ge__st__20

[MattA]

Isn't dead, yet

Dscn0352rz.jpg

It pushed a strong flush of growth after cutting back & has since had a light trim to direct energy where I want. Healing has been great around all the cut areas with no signs of any receding of the sap flow (so far). I am considering an approach graft to fill a gap but will wait & see how it grows out next season before doing so.

Dscn0358rz.jpg

[Neli]

How do You direct the energy? Like in pines or deciduous? They are somewhat opposite of each other. In pines you reduce first the weaker growth in deciduous the stronger.
Looking good and very encouraging.

[MattA]

How do You direct the energy?

In this instance it has been a case of letting the weaker shoots remain to gain strength while stronger ones were shortened back to the first pair of buds along the new growth.

[Neli]

So you did them like deciduous. Maybe you should do them like pines???? Cut the candles of the weaker growwth first and later the strong growth.
I dont know ???? Just asking? How are they supposed to be done.

[thoglette]

So you did them like deciduous. Maybe you should do them like pines???? Cut the candles of the weaker growwth first and later the strong growth.
I dont know ???? Just asking? How are they supposed to be done.

I'm confused: the various opinions i've run into w.r.t. pines suggest early/extensive cutting of the stronger/misplaced growth and later/lesser cutting of weaker/to-be-encouraged growth.

Clearly you've got a different source: what is it?

[MattA]

Neli & thoglette,
While it is a conifer it behaves differently to Pinus & trying to compare with them or any other is a bit pointless.. Now thats said I am also working by feel more than following anyone elses guidelines.. The layering was a completely new experiment in techniques not advised for this species so why not keep pushing the envelope & just keep letting the tree tell me what's doing.

[Neli]

thoglette,
In pines You always cut the branches that you want to grow more first, and cut the candles more....and a week later the stronger branches.
Reason been Auxin hormone that is produced by the leafs ...makes the plant to send a signal to the roots to send more sap to that area.
Example:

Autumn : pull needles, top leave 6 pairs, middle leave 8 pairs and bottom leave 10 pairs
Spring : just before buds start to push start fertilizing heavily and reduce needle pairs on each section by 2
Summer: this is the tricky part...to get your timing right...best way is to count a 100 days backwards from the avg date of first frost...two weeks before that day stop fertilizing. On the day you cut all the weak shoots back to 2mm above the previous needles...ten days later do the medium shoots, and ten days later the strong candles...new buds will pop and form new shorter shoots with shorter needles. Start fertilizing again only after the new shoots resulting from your decandling have hardened off

2nd method is much the same as the 1st one in terms of needle pulling, only difference is that on the day for decandling you cut all the candles, except the very weak candles, at once but you leave a bit of shoot in proportion to the shoot's thickness, aka strong thick shoots will have longer stubs left on them, medium strength shoots will have a slightly shorter stub(length of stub is the same as the thickness of the shoot) and weak shoots will have no stub.

This technique tries to fool the tree, longer stubs will have a longer time dying back to its origin before auxins are released to activate the latent buds, thus in theory weak shoots will grow first and demand sapflow before the stronger areas...thus strengthening weak areas en weakening strong areas.
There are more methods...but this is juat an example.
Matta sorry for hijacking your thread. I would follow your thread with interest to see how You are progressing.

[thoglette]

thoglette,
In pines .....

Thanks Neli - a nice summary.

Matta sorry for hijacking your thread. I would follow your thread with interest to see how You are progressing.

+1

[MattA]

Matta sorry for hijacking your thread. I would follow your thread with interest to see how You are progressing.

+1

Not a problem at all, I joined the forum to share & learn, doesn't matter how or where that happens