Some azaleas not budding after hard prune

[Seany]

Hello,

This year I did hard cutbacks on several of my azalea trees. I have 10 or so. Most of them have responded remarkably well, and are already covered with their post-bloom-cutback growth.

The cutback was done back in early June/late May, after flowering. The problem I'm having is that three of them have not responded well... they haven't responded at all. These were all vigorous trees so I'm not really sure what I did wrong and if there's anything I can do to save them at this point. On two of them, I still have not witnessed a single bud anywhere. One has had very sparse buds forming, but they are few and far between, and don't really seem to be getting bigger or spreading around the tree. At this point, it seems like they are dead, but the roots look kind of OK?

I live in Orange County CA. The climate here between June and September is mostly just dry, warm-hot days. All of my azalea trees get heavy shade this time of year, including the ones that have vigorously recovered from the cutback. Is there any chance that they recover?

Two of the three are kind of special to me, so I am a bit sad about this. I can go on with my life having killed these, but not if I have no clue what I did wrong. That will drive me absolutely crazy. I feel like I was very careful with watering, and indeed 'most' of them have thrived after. But obviously I did something wrong, or have a very secretive disease on my hands to deal with. Any advice is highly appreciated.

https://imgur.com/UFFmHqI

https://imgur.com/FLYIPqY

 

[Glaucus]

So sorry to see these trees.

My guess is that the dry, warm-hot days don't combine well with having no foliage at all. A plant cools off by evaporating water through the leaves. They are cooling pads for the plant, as well as shading the very think bark if they were not under 'haevy shading'.
Without leaves even in the shade, they could get too hot. And they will give you no sign that they need to be cooled, because there is no foliage for you to look at to realize the plant is stressed.

It looks like there is a bud on one of them? Are there is algae growing on the trunk of one of them?
As long as that bud does not go crisp-brown, there are odds that it will push growth eventually. If it does happen, it may still mean some parts of the tree died. Or that it will be weak for a long time.

In Japan, the rainy season starts after the flowering is done. Additionally, most bonsai artists have a greenhouse with a misting system. If they do a hard prune like this, they know exactly the conditions for them to bud back quickly.
I'd recommend you to do these types of hard cuts just before dormancy breaks. And to keep on the plant at least some leaves to keep the sap flowing.

 

[Pitoon]

Those look pretty dry. Try scratching the bark at different locations to see what is still alive. In the future always try to leave at least a leaf on the branch to keep the sap flowing. Once the branch back buds then you can cut that leaf off.

 

[sorce]

Giraffe .

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Ugo]

Hi!

Can you tell us more about the cultivar.
Very nice trees.

For the tree on the left.
The problem can lie in the live vein..
If bigger branches are cut down with no foliage left on the tip you can experience die back, following the live vein down to the roots.
Sometime bigger branches on azalea cant be reduced for that reason.
Im not saying this is your case but theses scars were pretty big with no cutting paste which dry out fast and could have impacted the whole branche system, affecting the live vein.

For the tree on the right.
I can see this tree is sitting high in the pot with roots exposed.
My understanding is azalea doesnt like that.
Following the hard cut the roots had no canopy to protect them and could have been impacted by direct sun plus the tree had no way to cool itself without foliage.

 

[Mikecheck123]

My understanding is azalea doesnt like that.

I'm not disputing this, but just pointing out that it seems counter intuitive when exposed root azaleas are a mass produced style. Google "exposed root azaleas" to see what I mean.

 

[Seany]

Appreciate replies so far. The one on the left is a Kozan, the one on the right is a Hakurin. The Hakurin does indeed look to be sitting high in the pot. This probably has a lot more to do with the fact that I unwired it to look at the roots, and it isn't sitting as tight as it otherwise would be (some of the moss and kanuma fell off and made a pile below the tree when I pulled it out to inspect).

I just put that in a deeper pot and 'submerged' it a bit more to cover the nebari. The roots still seemed alive, but I'm probably just being optimistic.

 

[Ugo]

I'm not disputing this, but just pointing out that it seems counter intuitive when exposed root azaleas are a mass produced style. Google "exposed root azaleas" to see what I mean.

Hi!

Good point as I should have been more precise Im not talking about the style "roots exposed" as theses trees are prepared and trained for this but more about the right tree in example that is sitting high in its pot with his root mass exposed.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hmm… hard times. So sorry to see these trees struggling.

The folks earlier covered the salient issues your trees are faced with. In addition, there are some cultivars and some trees that just don’t like hard cut backs. As was stated above, it is not a good idea to cut back to bare wood, nor leave cuts exposed at any time.

The reasoning is that leaving leaves on a branch and sealing the wounds keeps the sap flowing throughout the tree, protecting the tree from dehydration and dieback. I’ve an old landscape azaleas…. Over 40 years old. Before I started studies azaleas I decided to cut back some of the lower branches, leaving about a foot for backbudding to develop some taper on the branches. Those branches but one died back, the one has a single cluster of leaves that formed in the 5th year after cut. The growth has very slowly pushed for the past year. Now some of the branches with leaves are starting to dieback!

So what to do. Well, I’d keep the trees in in a cool spot strongly dappled sunlight or “bright” shade. Mist frequently. Water if media drying. (Cover roots on tree without).

Cross fingers! I will too - these are nice trees.

I'm not disputing this, but just pointing out that it seems counter intuitive when exposed root azaleas are a mass produced style. Google "exposed root azaleas" to see what I mean.

Good thought. Two things. The first point is the tree is already in a dehydration state and exposing an azaleas roots to the air with exacerbate this situation. The second is negari azaleas are built by creating a narrow column of Kanuma for the roots, then slowing breaking down the column from the top down slowly over long periods of time, allowing the tree to recover and respond with positive growth before removing more of the column.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[crea7or]

Same thing happened to me.. I already regret my decision with the hard prune.. but the internet... told me to do so. Well sometimes we have to learn the hard way.
Here is the "powerful growth" since June 13....

 

[Pitoon]

Same thing happened to me.. I already regret my decision with the hard prune.. but the internet... told me to do so. Well sometimes we have to learn the hard way.
Here is the "powerful growth" since June 13....

Looks like it may have a bit of chlorosis going on.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

This is the response azaleas should make to a hard cut back. When doing a hard cutback I leave a couple clusters leaves on the apex and and one on the ends of wherever each branch is cut back to. I seal every cut end as cut.

Yama No Hikari (satsuki) and Bixby Dwarf (Kurume) on the right.



This has been a normal practice out here in the past two years after I lost a couple satsuki by one of those severe cutbacks. Last year I was rereading some satsuki material and the author, a Japanese Master said something like …

Why cutback all the way and get 60% guaranteed response when one can cutback, leaving foliage everywhere and get guaranteed 100% response?

Anyways I’ve tried various derivatives of cutbacks in the past couple years, one advantage of having lots of plants is the ability to experiment on. All showed the same story, leaving foliage to keep the sap lines flowing has yielded a markedly better response. Perhaps someone with more expertise has a better idea, but that’s where I am at in my experiments with cutting back.

There is one caveat…. The response to radical cutbacks may be change with certain cultivars. @johng had a really successful response with radically cutting back (mostly) Chinzan satsuki (Sport of Osakazuki) in the humid South.
Gondo, in Callagham’s book, posted hard cutbacks of certain satsuki that didn’t respond positively in the spring.

….. also certain age tree…. For example @Shibue has excellent response with radical cutbacks on of huge landscape azaleas, although some other members on the forum report the same technique failed on their tree. I suspect two things may be involved. First @Shibue‘s azaleas are tough landscape azaleas. Secondly, @Shibue knows azaleas extremely well and gives excellent care for the plants in his nursery….

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Glaucus]

@Deep Sea Diver I think you are confusing our very own @Shibui with mr Shibue of Satsuki Mania en Shibue Satsuki En (and of Hanabin, Benikage, Hanatsuzuri and others fame).

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Nope, our very own Aussie, @Shibui, of collecting Azaleas fame.

…although those other folks are pretty cool, not sure they are interested much in landscape azaleas'

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Shibui]

I was surprised to see azaleas NOT bud back strongly after hard prune. They rarely fail here but, as mentioned all my experience is with landscape indica varieties as Satsukis are rare here. Few satsiki have survived more than a year in the garden here.
I can't offer any advice or explanation as to lack of regrowth on these azaleas, especially as the OP has some that are growing well so unlikely to be conditions, soil or fert.