Jacaranda - defoliation

[Matt S]

After looking at Ken's great Jacaranda - viewtopic.php?f=129&t=5621 - I took the plunge on my own tree and cut off most of the existing growth in the hopes of getting some back budding. I forgot to take a before picture but all those branches extended further out and all the growth was at the tips.

jacaranda Jan18 hard prune.jpg

I bought this tree off a friend 5 years ago and regrew all the branches, letting them get quite long to thicken them up. I'm hoping to start the ramification process now and this will be the first step.

Fingers crossed I get some shoots in the right places!

Cheers,
Matt.

[melbrackstone]

That's barked up nicely Matt. Looking forward to watching it develop.

[her0d]

That is beautiful bark!
Did the tree develop this depth in the bark in the last 5 years or was it like this before you purchased it?

[Matt S]

I needn't have been concerned about reshooting. Exactly one month later and all the branches are covered in new shoots, and the longer branches have backbudded nicely.

jacaranda feb18 1.jpg

jacaranda feb18 2.jpg

For those asking about the bark, it was originally dug up with the mature bark already present, although it has really improved over the last couple of years.

Matt.

[wrcmad]

Wow,
Rare to see such a fine specimen of this species... well done!
Does it flower? That would be the ducks nuts.

[Matt S]

Thanks wrcmad.

I haven't let if flower yet as I'm just trying to get some finer ramification happening, so its a couple of years away yet. Since it's a big tree I reckon I could get away with letting it flower occasionally.

Anyone have any flowering tips?

Matt.

[Ryceman3]

Sorry, no idea about flowering but wanted to say that the texture on that bark and the taper on the trunk are very impressive.
Looks like you have got the back budding and branching under control ... cracking effort! I think this is going to look great as it ramifies, flowers or not.
Please keep updating - would love to see how it comes up.

[melbrackstone]

The only hints I can offer regarding flowering is to let it go now til you see trees flowering in your area, if it doesn't produce any buds this season, then you could try pruning and shaping and wiring for the summer season, and let it run again. They flower at the ends of the growth, so you need to find out when it's going to happen in your part of the world to work out your timing. The tree certainly looks like it would be mature enough to flower, given the time to grow those flowering stalks.

[Boics]

Looks awesome.
I reckon you might be able to treat this similarly too Ash?
Defoliate and remove the terminal bud to force ramification and occasional back budding.
Would love to see flowers!
Great tree!

[delisea]

This great Matt. What approach are you taking to get ramification?

[dennismc]

I think that the tree is progressing nicely. However from many years experience I find (as many others have) that it is very unlikely to flower in a bonsai pot. I tried many techniques to get one to flower, despite the advice I was regularly given, without success.
Allowing shoots to mature and remain uncut works with many trees but not with Jacarandas. The specimen that I worked with for about 20 years had previously flowered when being on grown in the ground so was capable of flowering.

Dennis Mc

[Matt S]

As far as ramification goes, Boics is on the money as I treat it similar to a Desert Ash. Now that the primary branches are in place the plan from now on will be:

- Over the growing period, let each shoot grow to about 4 pairs of leaves, then cut back to the first or second pair. I've found that unlike the Ash, the first pair is really close to the base and it gets crowded pretty fast. I then cut some of the remaining leaves in half or less to let some sunlight in. As both the Ash and Jacaranda have compound leaves it's a similar process to both.
- Completely defoliate if I'm not happy with the growth of the inner buds. Not sure how often I'll need to do this, maybe once every year or two.
- If I want to show it with leaves then completely defoliate about 3 weeks prior.
- Over winter cut out the terminal bud of each branch.

Dennis - thanks for your input, I understand I will probably never get it to flower. I'll give it a bash anyway but it's good to manage expectations! Do you have a previous post or photo of your tree?

Matt.

[delisea]

Thanks for the explanation Matt. I am pinching out every tip at the two leaf stage and as you are doing cutting leaves to let light in. It will be interesting to see how the different methods work.
Cheers,
Symon

[melbrackstone]

davidmac.jpg

MichaelZ.jpg

DavidLisarow.jpg

It's not impossible in warmer climates...

[Matt S]

Thanks Mel.

Those pictures make me extremely happy.

Matt.