Large Azalea trunk chop

[Homer911]

Just collected the other one.
Soaking in Seasol until I can get to pot it up later.

Thanks Homer, I owe you a beer and we can compare one day

Plan is to pot into a large tub in Kanuma and cut back the top to open it up and shorten the growth. Once active growth starts I will layer off the top and see what I can get out of it.
The trunk base has very nice radial roots and a great Basal flare from the trunk. it will make a very nice tree once the top section removed. The bark on the trunk is to die for IMHO and has good coverage of lichen too
The top section has great potential too so this one should be very exciting to develop in the years ahead

ps, The trees are about 30 years old, as that is when the houses were built in this area. (I grew up near there).

Ken

Great stuff .... would be great to see some pics Ken...

[kcpoole]

I collected the last one left yesterday and potted up this morning.

I put it into an old large pot to use as a grow pot for the recovery. It is potted in recycled Kanuma which i wash and reuse on my trees in grow pots

I cut back the top section quite hard to remove all the crossed branches and all the ones coming from the same places to avoid reverse taper. Cut back all the leggy growth too and hopefully back budding lower down will result
The roots were reduced to fit in the pot, but there are quite nice radial roots and lots of fine ones so it should be fine.

The trunk is about 4 inches at the base and has a large scar running all the way from about 12 inches from the bottom to the top of the tree. i suspect it had some burn or disease there before, but has grown back well. The apex section of the tree is all regrowth from that one section of bark.
It will make layering a little more challenging, but hope it will be OK.
the base of the trunk will most likely end up as a Broom Style tree with the top 2/3 being a Slanting or informal upright about 6-800mm tall assuming all goes to plan.

Now watered in well with Seasol and will wait until recovery on the way before doing anything else to the poor thing

Ken

[Homer911]

I thought it may have been better to leave most of the leaves on...... Will leaving the leaves on cause too much evaporation from the leaves.

I trimmed mine back slightly to let a little bit of light through.

I thought that sever trim would shock it too much...... As I said before , not much experience with this tree planting stuff!


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[kcpoole]

I thought it may have been better to leave most of the leaves on...... Will leaving the leaves on cause too much evaporation from the leaves.

Will not hurt to take off as much as needed, Azaleas will shoot back from nothing so no fear in that. Re leaving them on, only issue is that if you remove a lot of root, then the plant will not be able to easily take up water to keep the new growth alive. on mine overnight, the new shoots were wilting as if they’re drying out. Removing the new growth and leaf mass will eliminate much of the water loss as that happens via the leaves

I trimmed mine back slightly to let a little bit of light through.

If the terminal foliage is not droopy at all then it is OK. if it starts to drop then cut back the growing tips.

I thought that sever trim would shock it too much...... As I said before , not much experience with this tree planting stuff!

Not with Azalea, You cut them off to just a stick and they will 99% of the time recover. check my progression thread I posted earlier and see what foliage was on when i collected that one.

Ken

[kcpoole]

I thought that sever trim would shock it too much...... As I said before , not much experience with this tree planting stuff!

Not with Azalea, You cut them off to just a stick and they will 99% of the time recover. check my progression thread I posted earlier and see what foliage was on when i collected that one.

Ken

Poking around today and noticed new shoots appearing already.
Tree is in full sun and nicely sheltered spot

One entire branch structure I have removed all shoots on, and the remainder I have left foliage on to compare, and both sections have new shoots appearing on them. The upper section of the trunk also has new shoots on it as well although I did not take any pictures of it.

Ken

[kcpoole]

Hey Homer, how are yours doing?
Mine have backbudded where they were chopped ( and where not!) and are covered in Pink and white flowers.

Ken

[Homer911]

Yeah, mine too. I think I gave mine a light trim when I initially planted in the ground. Then I realised that azaleas are so robust and decided to give it a dramatic chop months later. Mine is in flower now and back budding. When I cut off the air layer I will cut back a lot more to give it some more structure.

Not great photos, sorry.

[Homer911]

Yeah, mine too. I think I gave mine a light trim when I initially planted in the ground. Then I realised that azaleas are so robust and decided to give it a dramatic chop months later. Mine is in flower now and back budding. When I cut off the air layer I will cut back a lot more to give it some more structure.

Not great photos, sorry.

I air layered this a couple of weeks ago. fingers crossed it will take.

Ill keep you all updated.



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[Homer911]

2.5 months and still no roots in my layer. Should i remove it and start again? I did a layer on a bouganavillia at the same time and its got some good roots. Do azaleas take longer or should i remove and inspect?

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[kcpoole]

Thay can take longer yes, Particularly on larger / older stock

[Homer911]

Cheers mate. Appreciate it.
my layers are turning green. Will this effect the root growth?

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[Homer911]

Thay can take longer yes, Particularly on larger / older stock

How's yours doing ken? Any movement?

[kcpoole]

Thay can take longer yes, Particularly on larger / older stock

How's yours doing ken? Any movement?

I have not put mine on yet, Probably in the Chrissy break i will get it done.

Ken

[kcpoole]

I did not get my layer on last year, so will do so next week probably when finished flowering. I can never resist Azaleas flowering and will not cut them off to hurry up the work required

Anyhoo thought you might like to see the special flower on this one this week. Very cool Verigated one

How did your layer go homer?

Ken

[KIRKY]

Hi Ken, if I was you I would put a tie on the special flower so you can id the branch after flowering and look to propogate it as it is very special. its nice when they surprise you with a sport like that.
Cheers
Kirky