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| Hello, I am trying my hand at growing a potted Compact Stella as an espalier. I ordered my bareroot tree for this spring, and gave it its heading cut. I left one bud at the top, and two buds facing opposite directions below where I wanted the laterals. It looked like this:
After this I was away for a month or so and had someone watering my plants for me. When I came back, my two "laterals" had a couple leaves, and a bud below them grew out a couple feet. I pruned off this branch, and now it looks like this:
All fine and well, but now I have an "espalier" with no laterals! Is there any way I can force branching at this point? Do I need to head it back again to do this? Sorry for the basic questions but this is my first attempt and I'm not sure where I went wrong. Thank you for the help! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| You went wrong by only leaving 3 buds. Cherries have a mind of their own and grow where they want as you found out. Right now I'd say there's no sense trying to force more shoots. Let the tree size up. The bigger it gets the more buds it will push next spring when you head back. I'd say don't remove any buds next spring. Accept growth where it comes. |
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- Posted by palazzophoto 8 (My Page) on Fri, Jul 11, 14 at 15:32
| The apical dominance or vertical growth of the tree will continue until the apical or top bud is clipped off or the orientation of the tree changes. In other words if you make the veritcal shoot a horizontal shoot it will force lateral buds to break. You can wrap the pot in a cloth and turn it over on its side to accomplish this. Also refer to my post on this topic here http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/large-air-layers-sweating-trees-6978216?pid=1283483641#post1283483641 |
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