AusBonsai

question dave? i ve recently repotted that plum i got from you and now having a serious look at branch selection. have cut most back hard. i am thinking about growing a new configuration of branches. will these plums pop lower down the trunk? thanks in advance.

hi ant, yes they will pop down lower, but you may have to force the issue a bit. 1st, let them shoot wherever they want to, then feed fairly well with a liquid fertilizer, as they get going, don't remove the top shoots but hold them back & bring them down.( they will be very easy to snap off the trunk, be careful ). 2nd, start your branch selection, let all the lower shoots grow as hard as they can in whatever direction they want, but dont prune or pull down, this will reduce their strength if you do. as things get further along, remove the ones you don't want & keep the others going straight up until they get fat enough, but still pliable enough to bring them down. this is when you wire them & get em down, shape & shorten now & the secondary branches will start very quickly. depending on how well they have grown, you may have completed a whole growing season, or you may still have time to get them down while they are still growing strong. if you are close to the end of the growth season, then don't wire or lower until next june. remember to vary the timing from the top to the bottom, this will give you thicker branching as you get lower & you can get credible branch variation as you go higher up the tree. if this sounds confusing, tell me & i'll try & clarify because i'm sure others would like to know how to drive these things as well. cheers, dave.
P.S. - i'm putting up more prunus photos tonight, stay tuned.

thanks pal i think i got ya but my stomach is still doin the talkn at the moment. will read again later.

here is an update on one of the plums that i posted originally. i didn't get as many blossoms as i wanted coz the storm last weekend got to them. there are still some blooms & there is some fruit forming, tiny dark red match head size. starting to leaf up now & is looking ok. the other tree has no blossoms left so i won't include it here today.

cooooooooool!!!

just to keep the momentum going. here is my oldest plum tree. this was dug about 10 years ago & is about 30 cm high. this one has bright green foliage & produces little green fruit that turnd yellow as it ripens. they taste delicious too. dave.

Hi Dave,

They look much better with leaves and flowers on too, but for this species they look more romantic
in the winter with no leaves on. It is hearth-gripping to see bust of flowers and then leaves on those
trees in the spring...

Best regards.

thanks daiviet, i get a real kick out of seeing them go through their seasonal changes. another tree coming up soon. cheers, dave.

Yeah nice Dave. Im one of the lucky ones to have seen them in the flesh. The attachments dont do them any justice.

sorry if these plums are getting boring, but i wanted to post this last one that i am still working on. this is about 75 cm high, still needs to be finish carving, and will need its final shaping wiring. will post a new shot of it with carving & wiring done. dave.

This is a great thread to read. Your plums are simply spectacular Miyagiman. Their nebaris are great! I really like how you styled your branches. The first one you posted gave me an idea of what to do with one of mine chopped trunks. Thanks for the inspiration!
Si

never boring dave always inspiring. that one is a rippa too.

These trees are beautiful ^_^ I have a soft spot for fruit tree's, jsut haven't got any in my collection as yet =(
Not boring at all mate, they are fantastic!!

Wow they are awesome.
I bought some small trees from Nesci last weekend just to try them out. Would not have known what to do without this post.
These look great.

a couple of update photos