Growing leaders

[Paulneill]

I have only been doing bonsai now for a few years so I'm still a rookie. This year I realised something important regarding growing out new leaders to thicken them .

Originally I thought let a leader grow because that's the best way to get it to thicken. And this is true up to a point

I have come to realise most of the time its much better to cut the leader back to a stub and regrow it . Using as many low sacrifice branches as possable This way instead of having one long leader (2 meters plus) that will take forever to thicken because the long branch is thickening along the entire length and we are only Intrested in the very bottom section. So it's much better to reduce it back and concentrate growth were it's needed most ,

I also found wounds heal much better the closer the foliage is.

Am sure a lot of you already knew this but I thought I would post it any way as it may help some people and create some good discution

[Elmar]

G'day Paul,
What do you mean by "I also found wounds heal much better the closer the foliage is."?
Is that "closer as in proximity"? Or closer as in "the leaves are tighter in formation"?
Cheers
EZ



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[siddhar]

G'day Paul,
What do you mean by "I also found wounds heal much better the closer the foliage is."?
Is that "closer as in proximity"? Or closer as in "the leaves are tighter in formation"?
Cheers
EZ

Its all a little vague really isnt it Wounds heal very well "the closer a branch is located to the wound site"

[Bougy Fan]

I read it as a wound heals faster if there is a branch nearby acting as a sacrifice which accelerates growth at that area. Which makes perfect sense if we traditionally use a sacrifice at the baser to thicken it. And even more sense because we remove multiple branches emerging from the one spot to stop it from thickening there.

[Paulneill]

Here are some examples of leaders being grown out.



If you are growing a leader and it has plenty of sacrifice branches all is good. But most of the time they will have a lot of foliage at the end and just getting weaker and more sparce down low. That's when it maybe time to cut it back to a stub.

[Paulneill]

[Paulneill]

This one is a good example for what I now try to aim for when growing a new leader. In this case I let 2 branches grow about a foot long each and cut them back to get more budding at the base of the leaders I will let all these beaches grow strongly keeping an eye on it and remove any that to get too thick or spoil the look . eventually it will be reduced to one leader with plenty of low branches coming of it.

[Paulneill]

This is a large privet air layer . It has good taper but also a huge wound on the back. It healing very well.

[Paulneill]

This is a Chinese eml that's growing in my garden. It is about 2 inches thick and 8 foot tall . was chopped early spring . I chose one cluster of shoots and from it grew one strong leader with 4 equally Strong sacrifice branches in perfect positions to help heal the wound. 5 months later I'm left with this.

[Paulneill]

I plant to layer this and make a little sumo . It's 2 inches tall and 2 inches wide.