SU2 -- When you are happy with the branch thickness -- keep it chopped to length. The buds behind it will start to pop and branch out. Train those out and wire those in shape.
They dont really have any dominance, they respond to cutting them. Where you cut, buds come out. Where you cut, behind it, more buds come out and those turn into branches and fast.
One inch thick in a year. Easy. (for a branch, assuming you have a reasonable trunk)
No photos! I bought a YouTube camera setup instead. Will make a video when its time to start chopping mine, probably in 1-2 weeks at best. Yours probably started growing a little earlier than mine, as you're a quarter zone south
Thank you!!
So to be sure I'm on the same page as you here, branch-structure
in general for crapes is achieved by letting the shoots hit the height I want, then simply 'hedging' it at that height? (interestingly, that's precisely how Erik Wigert describes bougainvillea maintenance in his bougainvillea-development article- but bougies back-bud
way more profusely than crapes, when I cut a bougie shoot I'll have buds popping beneath the cut, on the stem above the collar, and on / below the collar - when I cut a lignified / 4mo+ old crape branch to 2 nodes, I see 1 strong growth from the top node, a very delayed and weak growth from the second node (but that means it
is happening
), and little else)
On the shoots that, while in active-growth, I either pinched a tip or defoliated the bottom 80% of a shoot, did this to probably 3 or 4 shoots between my two larger crapes, and got no distinct response (just a general branching that's occurred on the mid-nodes of the tallest branches that've ceased lengthening) So if I instead just let it get to my desired finish height, and then keep cutting it / 'flat topping' at that height, eventually enough nodes down-shoot will fill in? (that'd certainly make it a far simpler process! Just hoping to be sure I understand you, as I've had little luck with controlling growth patterns on these..)
And wow time flies I just realized how old this post was (apologies for the delay, I had too-many threads going and am finally catching-up / closing windows lol), but yeah mine were flying 3 weeks ago when you posted that, at this point they haven't really grown for at least 1.5wks, nothing noticeable really except for some branching occurring at the tops of the tallest shoots, can't tell if it's branching or preparing to flower (I've only seen them flower once so don't have a good eye for it, w/ a bougie I can see the lil bracts when they're like 1/4mm lol!!), but it's they both just grew-out ~2-2.5' max shoots and halted growing on height (did start putting out new shoots at nodes in the mid-area maybe 6"-->1' from the trunk), this halt is kinda bothering me tbh because I'm unsure if they're trying to start flowering or bush-out or what!
For my older one, ~1yr old and by far my thickest crape, what height would you suggest is in the ballpark for final-height, the height I should be cutting at? (and to be clear, even though shoots have grown and stopped lengthening / begun branching
below my final-height, I shouldn't touch a thing- simply let them branch-out longer, until vertical growth resumes, and
then when they reach that height I cut?) Love that it's such a simple approach (if I'm understanding you properly ;p), would truly appreciate your thoughts on height for this (obviously there's no ruler in the picture so general '5x the trunk's height' guesstimates would be hugely appreciated!! I just tried to take a more recent shot but my camera's display just died while turning it on to do so...for convenience here's the thumbnail again, I'm just clueless as to what height I should be thinking of as the 'final height' / cut-height:
Thanks again for the help, haven't found a lot on crape-development so really appreciate it
[edited-to-add: over time, I'd completely remove a good amount of the shoots on this guy, right? Like, as I let it branch-out, then (presumably) it's going to flower and then re-start vegetative growth, once the shoots are lengthening, have branches etc, I'm imagining that I'd want to remove some shoots from the trunk? Imagine it'd be
far too bushy with this many shoots! And btw if you took any shots(vids, rather!) of yours I'd love to see them!! I'll figure-out a camera after work, my two large guys filled-in very well those pictures are just it getting-going lol, but yeah that left crape the blocky one it looks impossible to ever get any 'real' style out of it ie true primaries, seems like the 'best' approach is going to be 'bush on a stump' lol, I mean the trunk has such serious inverse-taper it's insane!]
