The tree looks great Fred, it's come a long way. I've grown out an UME from a pencil sized tree bought from NEBG about 20 years ago. It was in the ground 10 or 15 years and when in the ground bulking up it did flower, now potted the last few years not so much. I've been working on ramification in expense of flowers , but now I want to let free growth to help flowering maybe. Keep us updated on yours. And any help with flowering techniques please share.
Boy, that trunk on your ume is
huge. The canopy has a nice shape, too.
I can tell you a little about flowering techniques, though they may not apply to your tree.
My ume was very cranky about flowering. It took me a few years to figure out what I needed to do.
When I bring my tree into my garage for winter (garage=something like a greenhouse, but not quite), it's automatically watered 4 days a week, along with all the other trees I have. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I water my contorted ume by hand, along with several others I have. This is to say: these trees need lots of water.
Additionally, I feed all my ume 0-10-10 fertilizer once a week until they stop flowering. These guys need lots of fertilizer.
Others I know who have ume, like Brian Van Fleet, don't do this. Their setups are most likely different than mine. I started out with quick drain soil, but about 4 years ago, moved to inorganic soil. The results were the same.
WOW!!
I need some cheer.
