First prize (Deciduous): Luis Vallejo (Fagus crenata)

A short movie from the First prize (Deciduous): Luis Vallejo (Fagus crenata) at the Noelanders Trophy 2013.
Gr Ed

Great tree. Congratulations!!

Thank you Ed for sharing.

Greetings Pavel

Any1 have any tips to rejuvenate a weak lower branch on Fagus crenata? They seem to be a funky species ... no leaf pruning and one flush per year.

marie1uk wrote:Any1 have any tips to rejuvenate a weak lower branch on Fagus crenata? They seem to be a funky species ... no leaf pruning and one flush per year.

here is a link to one of mine
crenata blog post

You definitely need to prune, but not fully defoliate. The bud that forms this year contains all next years leaves formed already, so a weak year will be followed by another.

this group is my third crenata, all doing well, 2 sold to new owners and this one on my bench.

I let all the buds open properly and all the leaves extend. after they harden you can look closely and see small buds at the leaf bases. In the strong areas cut back to 2 buds - not as written sometimes 2 leaves as 2 leaves may have no buds!. now you have reduced strong and outer areas to just 2 buds for next yearr - these will develop (internally) into strong buds while the weak inner shoots now get light and energy so they get stronger too.

to sort out the bottom branches feed well, keep watered properly, cut all upper and middle growth as outlined above so energy goes to low and inner shoots. As the inner shoots get stronger cut these also to 2 visible buds - this drives more energy down.

Be prepared to cut all branches back to well formed inner buds and regrow them if they have very long bare sections.

in winter i cut the very strong areas from 2 buds back to one, but you must have fed the tree well the year before as sometimes one bud does not open.

i think they are my favorite deciduous species as they need to be looked after properly.

They hate drying right out - branches can fail totally if they do - i let moss stay on the soil in mid summer

hope this helps a little

Thanks Marcus ... I've copied your advice and blog info into my Bonsai Notes.