Katsura tree

[Forrestford]

Hello all,
I wanted to share and document my Katsura tree.
First purchased back in February 2019 at an old nursery. Junk stock I wanted to play with, got it for $10 and chopped on sight. I chopped a bit high to some low growth, I wasn’t sure if it would back bud on mature wood. Turns out it can...

wife for size reference
Repotted in mid March, the roots were/are terrible. I was pretty brutal with them and wasn’t sure if it would make it tbh.


some of the new growth. It has really nice spring and fall colors.

mid may... as I mentioned before, it did back bud on the old wood. Really lovely leaves that are honestly not that big.

 

[Forrestford]

It was this time I realized I had an ugly stump with some growth on top, I wish I had chopped lower..here it is in September with lots of new growth

and here it is at the end of November.

again, should have chopped lower. A stump with hair...

 

[Forrestford]

But then I saw @MACH5 bald cypress and like most, got inspired. Here is my first attempt at a weeping style tree. I’m enjoying it, I have to tweak a few branches, however I’m happy with how it looks for now.

 

[vp999]

One of my favorite tree on my bench, I was lucky to acquired a nice one from Will Hiltz last year. Last fall, most of the leaves was falling before it got the chance to turn red for me, hopefully this year I will get to see the gorgeous fall color.

 

[Forrestford]

One of my favorite tree on my bench, I was lucky to acquired a nice one from Will Hiltz last year. Last fall, most of the leaves was falling before it got the chance to turn red for me, hopefully this year I will get to see the gorgeous fall color.
View attachment 344557

Oh wow that is beautiful. Yeah this autumn most of my leave got crispy. I’ve found this tree gets thirsty!

 

[vp999]

Oh wow that is beautiful. Yeah this autumn most of my leave got crispy. I’ve found this tree gets thirsty!

Yup..Most of my leave got crispy too, very fast growing tree and gotta trim it like every week in the summer just to keep the shape. I read that when the leaves turned red or pink they're supposed to have this wonderful sweet aroma, I have not experienced that yet.

 

[Paulpash]

I keep it because I love the purple leaves in Spring. Second year in training.

 

[ThornBc]

I'm happy to see this species is more popular than I thought, these are all wonderful examples.

 

[Forrestford]

Update.
2021, it grew, I cut back, nothing special.
2022, Repotted this year and we are a few months into summer. I’ve already cut back and defoliated once. I dare not wire now, the whips break very easily.
The bark is amazing! Best part about this tree.
I’ve been thinking a lot on how to take it to the “next level”. I’ve been contemplating reducing the trunk to the first branch, putting it in the ground and letting it grow. It will add several more years to this project but the end result will be better imo.
ill sit with it for a while.

 

[Daniel son STL]

Why do you prune the leader of a tree in the developing stage that just wants to thicken?

 

[Forrestford]

Why do you prune the leader of a tree in the developing stage that just wants to thicken?

My rambunctious dogs snapped it... my plan was to leave it...
At least the Deer don't like the Katsura leaves, so I got that going for me.

 

[rustygarden]

Share some pictures of mine . Herons wood globe . I cant get it to do anything I want ,but I love the cotton candy smell .

 

[vp999]

Glad to see other folks have Katsura too, any tips for trim the branches so I can shorten the internodes and not get 4 shoots coming out of the same place like on azaleas? Thanks

 

[Kievnstavick]

This is a picture if my Katsura from October of this year. I had just purchased it from a local Bonsai club market.

Do any of you have some species specific advice for this tree? (Thinking along the lines of timing of pruning, things to look out for during repotting, etc.) The information I have come across on the internet has thus far been pretty sparse.

 

[vp999]

I think we all are all in the same boat...learning as we go along lol.

 

[Forrestford]

Spring time.
Leaves are reducing nice.
Need to add some wire.

 

[leatherback]

Fair warning: I do not have this species, and am gong by what is on the pictures..

In your post of last year you indicated the idea of chopping to the first branch.
I would not. If you look at the grain of the bark, it makes sense to have a "left connected" top. The flow fits better.

Your top-chop cannot heal over at the moment. Look at the ring of new growth: It sits well below the chop. I would consider using a carving tool and remove the deadwood on top a bit, so the tree can more easily start growing over. If you let the new leader triple in thickness you should be getting a more natural transition, and the chop might heal.

 

[Forrestford]

Fair warning: I do not have this species, and am gong by what is on the pictures..

In your post of last year you indicated the idea of chopping to the first branch.
I would not. If you look at the grain of the bark, it makes sense to have a "left connected" top. The flow fits better.

Your top-chop cannot heal over at the moment. Look at the ring of new growth: It sits well below the chop. I would consider using a carving tool and remove the deadwood on top a bit, so the tree can more easily start growing over. If you let the new leader triple in thickness you should be getting a more natural transition, and the chop might heal.

Thanks.
That thought of chopping it and starting over has ended. That was my solution for alot of trees. Trunk chop and start over! I’ve grown past that apart in my life(mostly)
It’s a rather large tree once the branches fill in more it should be more convincing.

I’ve been meaning to carve it back. Meaning to do a lot… maybe this year I’ll do that.
I’ll let a leader take off this year, it does grow super fast which is good.
Been playing around/abusing this tree.
Last year I defoliated twice. This year the internodes are a lot tighter and shorter.

 

[vp999]

I haven’t defoliated the tree yet, maybe I will this year to get the internode tighter, around what month did you start last year for that ? Thanks

 

[MMJNICE]

Updates? I'm thinking.... welllllllllllll I already chopped my bare root katsura back to two inches so I guess I'm creating a shohin/mame katsura... I grew it all last year and the year before and it hasn't thickened one millimeter.. but to be fare I'm chopping everthing back to little trees if I don't see a future for them or I don't want to put them in the ground .. so happy chopping