the party ends

[craigw60]

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During the first half of spring I let my deciduous trees romp a little and grow as they please, but it doesn't last too long or ramification which takes so long to achieve will be lost. As the new growth on my trees starts to harden off a little then its time to defoliate and I will now be moving through my collection and defoliating most of the deciduous trees ( the natives will come later). Once the first defoliation has been performed then the foliage will be worked hard for the rest of the summer and into early autumn to increase branch ramification and reduce foliage size. The tree shown is sambucus nigra or common elder
Craigw

[Mojo Moyogi]

Hello Craig,
very nice, I love the baseof that trunk in particular. It's great the way that you are so thorough with your deciduous trees year round, given that many people are not. You have certainly begun to influence the way I grow my deciduous trees.

I'm curious, have you ever practiced continual partial defoliation over the whole rowing season? Peter Adams recommends it for safety as well as results in his more recent books, I have had good results with small Tridents also with Zelkova, European Hornbeam and English Elm. The latter 2 species I have found do not always bounce back into leaf folowing full defoliation, or if they do it is quite late. I tried full defoliation on these in mid November and also early January with a similar poor or slow response.

Partial defoliation as described above, by cutting and leaving a little of the leaf base seems to work well for me with trees that have short petioles (Elms, Zelkova, Celtis, Hornbeams etc.). Of course full defoliation is great because it allow you to see the tree's structure during the growing season and allows access for wiring if needed.

If you have tried partially defoliating, then decided that you prefer fully defoliating, what was the reason for the change?

Cheers,
Mojo

[craigw60]

Hi Mojo, partial defoliation is good to. I have used that technique very often. Cutting the leaves in half or in the case of maples removing the lobes, also taking off the leaves on the tips of the branches(these tend to be the biggest), and the leaves hanging under the branches, also taking out the big leaves shading the top of the branches. The whole idea is to get light into the branches to the new buds can break out. I usually do this type of work after the first defoliation. From now until mid autumn is full on foliage work. Most of this work is done with fingers its a good season to grow your nails a bit. The thing with deciduous bonsai is that if you want that lovely twiggy winter look you have to work for it in the summer and not be too concerned about how the foliage looks ie when you cut the leaves in half they can look pretty ratty but I don't care its twigs I want. With hornbeam you need to do the leaf work early like in the next couple of weeks January would be out of the question.
Craigw

[Jarrod]

Tree is looking good Craig. If I have time tonight I plan on doing this to a plum and a trident.

One thing I think may be important to note would be that it may pay to hold back water slightly as a tree with out leaves uses less, I believe.

[craigw60]

Yep thats correct Jarrod they don't need too much water until the regrowth, its also advisable to be careful with hot sun on the new twigs which have been shaded and are suddenly exposed. If a hot day is forecast put your tree in the shade.
Craigw

[Jarrod]

Well I got defoliation done. But it was dark before I finished. The wiring will have to wait till tomorrow night. I'll show you the before image so you can see how out of shape I have let this guy get.

[craigw60]

G'day Jarrod, you have really let the plum run, will be interested to see how it looks after some work. Its going to rain all weekend here yet again, so I might start on the hornbeams.
Craigw

[Jarrod]

Yes i have let this tree run. I am letting it build up some energy and i will cut it back really hard and start building some ramification in nice and close to the trunk. I may even shorten the small trunk as we have discussed previously. Will post a picture once the work is complete.

[craigw60]

With your tree growing that strongly you should have a huge number of buds to select from after a major prune, will look forward to seeing it bare.
Craigw

[Gerard]

Thanks for this post Craig,
I was thinking about defoliating but as I lack the experience I was unsure of the best timing. Now I am more confident to proceed.

[craigw60]

Hi Gerard, the timing of defoliation is dependent on the species, the more serious cool climate trees need to be done in mid to late spring that is hornbeams or linden for example. The tough customers like tridents or liquidambar can be done up to mid summer. I am surprised there has not been more interest in this subject since its that time of year, maybe its been done to death in earlier threads.
Craigw

[craigw60]

This is I guess a partial defoliation although I have taken off most of the leaves. Its European hornbeam I would say Mojo this is how you should treat your hornbeams if they don't handle full defoliation. I also took off all the wire which had been applied during winter, almost every twig was wired and the spring flush of growth was enough for them to set. For many years this tree has been in a very shallow tray I and I have put it in this deeper pot for a bit of a spell.

[Jarrod]

The tree is looking terrific and I think that is exactly what Mojo is talking about. I have also read about the consistent removal of overly large leaves though I always thought that was just common sense.

You'll be getting photos off me in about 3 hours

[craigw60]

Hi Jarrod the persistent removal of large leaves comes next after the almost defoliation, its an almost daily chore until the trees stop moving in late summer.
Craigw

[Mojo Moyogi]

Craig, despite the less than ideal pot compared to it's usual home, it is still a beautiful tree.

Cheers,
Mojo