Tuesday 16 December 2008

trunk growth factors

What factors cause the tree to increase in girth. observations of maples.

i currently have 3 maples - various random japanese varieties. one rescued from the exit of M&S one afternoon after being the last forlorn one left there - its was £4.99

1 - number of branches. the grafted plant has a lot of fine branches and foliage and was freshly repotted into good pottign soil - it has a vigorous root onto dwarf foliage. it was regularly fertilised through the growing season. fantastic growth on the trunk durign the season. i had pruned almost all the branches back 4 nodes fromt he tips - the two new shoots added about 4 inches this season and added a lot to the root branch thickness.

2 - number of leaves. the dwarf wins here with a tonne of foliage during the growing season.



3 - pruning. in these plants pinching and encouraging ramification durign the growign season seems to slow the plant down and reduce the growth in the trunk and parent branches.

4 - growth conditions. soil or fertiliser.

i used a bit of soldering wire trunk to track growth over the season. reasonable results on the M&S plant.

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