Early Month
1. Leaf-Cutting Season
The purposes of leaf cutting are to:
- Produce smaller leaves
- Make fine, delicate branchlets in a short time
- Remove damaged leaves
- Balance the growth of branches to have even-sized
leaves and equal denseness
- Allow transplanting, if needed
Ten days prior to leaf cutting, apply liquid fertilizer
to give the plant extra strength.
Maples
To balance the size of maple leaves:
- On outer, larger leaves, cut the leaf off completely
(defoliation), leaving part of the petiole attached to
the branch. (Figure 1)
- On mid-sized leaves, cut half of the leaf off the
petiole. (Figure 2)
- On small, inner leaves, do not cut anything. (Figure
3)
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Figure 1
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
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Elms
Hold the tip of a branch securely with one
hand and draw the leaves backwards through the fingers of
the other hand -- pulling off the leaves with your fingers.
Mass elimination of leaves using this method does not harm
the elm tree.
After the trimming and/or defoliation, hold back on
watering for a couple of weeks, but spray-mist the branches
in the morning and late afternoon. Turn the pot around
frequently for even exposure to sunlight.
2. Fertilizing
If you are using cake fertilizer (as opposed
to Osmocote or other timed release fertilizer), it is time
to give a second application of cake fertilizer to the
following trees:
- The black pine being cultivated for short needles
(the cultivation should have started last fall)
- Ume, crape myrtle, willow, and other trees being cut
back for the purpose of inducing secondary buds
- Berry/fruit trees -- only after the fruit has set.
- In all cases, the cake fertilizer should be placed on
the vacant spots, not the same spots where the first
application was placed.
3. Pinching
Now is the time to pinch needle juniper,
cryptomeria, elms, and Shimpaku -- keep pinching from now
through the end of September.
4. Summer Cuttings
This is an ideal time to take the cuttings of
Miyama-Kirishima (Kiusianum azalea), elms, maples, and
camellias. Summer cuttings should be selected from the
hardened part of this year's growth, and should be four to
five inches long. Eliminate leaves from the lower halves of
the stems, then soak the cuttings in water for 20 minutes.
Reduce the remaining leaves on the upper halves of the stems
to one-half by cutting off their tips. Dip the cuttings in
Rootone(R) to cover cut surfaces,
then insert the cutting 1-1/2 inches deep in a soil mixture
of one-half sand and one-half #6 perlite. Keep moist by
spraying and protect in a frame house for two weeks. Slowly
reduce the moisture and gradually increase the sunlight.
Within two months, all the cuttings should be rooted.
Mid-Month
Satsuki Azaleas
Before Satsuki start to bloom, spray them
with Benolate to prevent flower-blight disease. During
bloom, protect the flowers by placing the plants in
semi-shaded areas. Be careful not to wet the flowers when
watering.
Black Pines
Black pines have hard, sharp needles,
two needles in a sheath. Our goal is to shorten the needles
so the tree looks more in scale. There are two methods to do
this. If you follow the traditional three step of shortening
the candles (described here on our
website) the you should
do this now. If you follow the new technique, wait until
next month (here's the description now).
New Technique
Recently Kathy Shaner has been teaching a new technique
learned in Japan that requires only one step but yields the
same results.
Because the candle becomes the new branch and we want the
length of branches to be short and compact, we need to make
the candles short. Initially the candles will be longer than
we want. But, if we remove the first candle and force a new
set to grow this new set will be shorter. In addition,
rather than just one single candle (branch) we will have
multiple buds from which to choose -- allowing us to produce
more branches and going in the direction we want.
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Cutting the candle will force new buds to form
at the base of the old candle.
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Pine trees grow more strongly at the top of the
tree, so those candles will always be longer than the
candles at the bottom of the tree. Candles on the tips of
the branches receive more sun than candles nearer to the
trunk so they will also grow more strongly. Our goal is to
have candles (and thus branches) that are nearly the same
length, and the following technique helps us achieve that.
When To Cut
The time to cut back is as soon as the candle is open and
needles on the candle are fully open. See the figure
below.
Once the needles are open, you will have about 3 weeks to
complete your pruning.We will cut all the candles back at
the same time but the length of the stub being left will
vary according to the size of the candle and acording to its
location on the tree.
Stubs that are different lengths die back at different
rates. Longer stubs will take longer to die back, and so
when new buds form at the base of the candle, they will
start growing (aka "pushing") several days later than on
shorter stubs. As a result, the new candles will be more
nearly the same size.
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On top branches, or candles that are on the ends
of the branch and receiving full sun, the stub
should be 2 to 3 times as long as the diameter of
the candle being cut.
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Candles located on branches in the middle of
the tree would be cut so that the stubs are
about twice the diameter of the candle.
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On bottom branches, or candles that are
"inside" the tree (partially shaded) the stub
should be as long as the diameter of the candle
being cut. (as on the right)
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Important Note
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Your scissors should be extra sharp for a
clean cut. Also, make sure that you make your
cuts perpendicular -- cutting a candle on
a slant means the dormant buds at the base will
get an uneven start.
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For information about other kinds of Pines, see Sandy
Planting's June 2001 presentation
here.
Late-Month
Deciduous trees (beech, birch, stewartia,
etc.) should be protected from the wind and westerly sun if
one wishes to enjoy the fall color. Change the location or
make special shades for them.
Some trees dry out more than others. The pots should be
submerged in a tub of water periodically to give these trees
a good soak.
Satsuki Azaleas
For the tree's sake, eliminate flowers before
they wither. After the blooming peak is over, there will be
many flowers, but remove them. It is hard for the tree to
keep the blooms for long periods.
Now is the time for bud nipping, elimination of excess
branches, and shaping of the tree. Transplanting should be
done every other year.
For more info see Jim Ransohoff's presentation on
Satsuki Azaleas.
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May Work
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