gbhunter77
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trunk chop conifers

I wsd tld you cannot do this on conifers... What rea uo supposed to do
?

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Gnome
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gbhunter77,

Pines are usually grown with this limitation in minde right from the start. You must somehow develop the trunk while simultaneously leaving a path open for future branches. This is often accomplished with the use of sacrificial branches and/or leaders. While the sacrifices are allowed to grow unchecked branches are developed at the same time.

I'll see if I can get a picture of one of my young Pines up later today.

Norm

gbhunter77
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I had a very large conifer. I had trunk cut it before reading you cand do that. The rest of the tree blew up with growth, but that flar tob is uuuuuuuuggggggly. Is there any hope for this

kdodds
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A pine without a leader will certainly die. As for other conifers, I don't know. I'm fairly certain Junipers don't tolerate a complete chop, nor do Chaemacyparis, Picea, Arborvitae, etc., AFAIK. Whatever you have that "exploded with growth", it's a fair bet it's not any of the above. Maybe you have Taxodium? Bald Cypress?

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Gnome
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gbhunter77,

Here's one way to get around this problem.

[url=https://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/pinegx.jpg/][img]https://img718.imageshack.us/img718/428/pinegx.jpg[/img][/url]

The leader is not intended to be a part of the finished composition and will later be removed. This is possible because I was careful to preserve the small shoots at the base of the tree, one of which will become the new leader. Note that the trunk is bare immediately above the small shoots, this is to prevent the upper foliage from shading out the shoots.

The branch to the right is also a sacrifice, it serves to thicken the base. At some point both the sacrifice leader and branch will be removed and the future bonsai will be developed from one or more of the small shoots.

Norm

LonghornRancher
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That's gonna be an awesome lil shohin norm. Any chance for a closeup?

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Gnome
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LonghornRancher,

Thanks for the interest, athough this one has a long way to go. I'll try to get a better picture up soon but it might be as late as this weekend.

Norm

gbhunter77
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[img]https://www.angelfire.com/on3/shellandpaulsphoto/2011-09-29_12.57.41.jpg[/img]



when it was cut 1.5 months ago only the top branch remained...then all this![/b][/quote]

gbhunter77
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Can anyone Id this tree...er stump with branches?

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gbhunter77,

Hard to say from that photo but it reminds me of Spruce.

Here's the closeup of the little two needle Pine.

[url=https://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/268/dcp1439web.jpg/][img]https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5515/dcp1439web.jpg[/img][/url]

Norm



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