Oak buds are out!!

 I was out on the lawn today with the cat doing my daily check of all the trees when I noticed that the Oak was extending its buds.

I've cut it back quite a lot over the winter and done some light wiring to keep it all going in the right direction. With experience growing this species I'm learning the correct shape and size. Its important to match the size of the ramification and length of the nodes with the leaf size. I've also done a better job of aiming the new growth this year.

Really suffering with water stress on the maples after they were repotted. The new growth has been explosive and the poor trimmed roots just cant get enough water up. The terminal buds are aborting on a lot of branches - which leads to very ugly nodes later on. I took them outside and hosed them down to cool them off and give extra moisture. Almost like treating a recently collected tree. Shade and loads of water on the foliage.

Luckily the roots are growing almost as quickly as the foliage and the pot will be full of them soon - if not now already. This one seems to be throwing out big thick white roots - whereas the Deshojo roots are finer. A lot to learn about this subject. The pattern of drying on the Akadama is quite noticeably different to a month ago so the roots are spread much wider already.