bud removal

Hi, the buds on my acer buergerianum are starting to swell, but only on the tips of branches.
It has no buds along the branch,? if i break off the tip bud, will it promote back budding along the branches ?

TIA

Hey Mr Barge. Walter has recently added an interesting read on his blog ( see I did read it ). It may help you with your querys. In my brief ( I'm still learning ) experience you will not get back budding with this method, you will just get a set of smaller leafs at the point where you took the bud off. Knowing what stage of the trees development you are you at would help too, any photo's ?

Walters Blog http://walterpallbonsaiarticles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/refurbishing-japanese-maple-hedge.html

Rather than go off site to read that, you can find it right here: https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t12681-refurbishing-a-japanese-maple-the-hedge-cutting-method

although I'm not certain that it will answer barge's question.

The answer, BTW, is "probably."

In my experience, this can be hit or miss. Sometimes you'll get back buds buds, sometimes the plant with just send out a new bud in the same spot as the last. I think it has a lot to do with the growth habits of the plant itself. For instance, I hard pruned back an azalea in December, and it sent out probably over 100 buds. I had to whittle everything back to 2-3 shoots on each branch so I could get a few strong shoots, rather than tons of little weak ones. However, a tree that is really apically dominant, it might be reluctant to bud anywhere but near the cut. And even then, will simply focus it's energy on top growth.

hi,

a better result will come from letting these leaves open and harden off. they have then given the tree back some energy through photosynthesis to replace the energy used in making the terminal bud in the first place. Then fully defoliate the tree...this will make buds form at the tip again and some further back. Once the back bud is opened though and forming a small shoot you need to cut the branch back to this inner shoot or all the energy will do to the end again and the inner shoot will either fail or just stay weak. The tree needs to be well fed prior to this though.

if the tree is very strong and the branches very long and bare it may be better to cut them off and regrow from scratch - depends on the actual tree

cheers