Splitting Beech buds before break for compaction and leaf reduction?

[Aiki_Joker]

Anyone heard of this? I heard it on one of Bjorn's recent podcasts. He said it is common in Japan. From what I understood, this involves cutting the bud in half bilaterally just before it breaks. This practice was presented as much less severe than later season defoliation (extremely high risk). But smilar to plucking the first leaves that appear on the bud. Can anyone corroborate? And what about spp. variation?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Hmmm? By bilaterally you mean lengthwise? Seems a good way to kill bud off or only have half left if surviving. Micro surgery?

 

[Aiki_Joker]

Indeed Potawatomi, I understood it as down the line of bilateral symmetry, not cutting the tip off so to speak. This is what I thought would happen too. Not even half would survive if done precisely surely(?).

However, some of the tissue arguably isnt leaf tissue yet in the bud and if timed correctly, I was wondering if the plant could pull off reorganising the undifferentiated tissue like plants do all the time. There is obviously something in this technique, but is it as good as or better than plucking on bud break I wonder. Seems it would be catastrophic or at minimum result in damaged leaves (?). He did not mention any after care or clean up procedures following elongation either so at a long shot this might infer no damage(?)

 

[Forsoothe!]

The arrangement of the bud is set in stone when the bud becomes, at the very least, assigned as secondary or primary status. Almost any mechanical damage to the leading edges kill the bud.

 

[Aiki_Joker]

I watched some damaged buds this year burst and they did ok though? I had some with mechanical damage during Autumn last year. One is still damaged and looks like it may not burst. I must get pictures of these. I feel a catalogued experiment coming on next year!

I just re-viewed Bjorn's podcast in video format and his hand gestures seem to depict snapping the tip off the bud. Snapping it in half that is. Not splitting it down the line of bilateral symmetry.

 

[fredman]

I watched some damaged buds this year burst and they did ok though? I had some with mechanical damage during Autumn last year. One is still damaged and looks like it may not burst. I must get pictures of these. I feel a catalogued experiment coming on next year!

I just re-viewed Bjorn's podcast in video format and his hand gestures seem to depict snapping the tip off the bud. Snapping it in half that is. Not splitting it down the line of bilateral symmetry.

I find this interesting. Maybe snap off a bud (or two) that you won't need...see what happens. Put some before and after pics up

 

[Forsoothe!]

[QUOTE="Aiki_Joker, post: 751487, member: 20268"
I just re-viewed Bjorn's podcast in video format and his hand gestures seem to depict snapping the tip off the bud. Snapping it in half that is. Not splitting it down the line of bilateral symmetry.
[/QUOTE]
How about a Link to watch this? The more I think about this, the more I am convinced that something is being left out of the narrative. I often alter growth patterns by removing or damaging the primary bud. On Maples, that is the larger, middle of three buds at the tip of primary twigs. The easiest way to do that (for me) is to reach a skinny scissors diagonally between one outer bud and the other outer bud and cut maybe 60% of the middle (primary) bud off. To do otherwise, for instance try to break the center bud off by pressing up or down, that damages one or both of the other two, outer buds which are tightly united at the base of the buds, so that doesn't work for me. I can't remember one middle one that leafed out after that. I'm not saying that buds that have some modest damage don't occasionally leaf out with ugly leading edges, but the damage has to be "modest", and not productive from the standpoint of changing the secondary status of buds closer to the trunk and effecting new back-budding. Please show me the whole enchilada.

 

[leatherback]

and his hand gestures seem to depict snapping the tip off the bud.

This is what I have been trying this year on a beech. Instead of waiting for the bud to open and the leaves to become visible before removing the growing tip, I have been twisting the tip of the buds as soon as they started to swell, and were probable a week before opening. It is a sort ot turning - bending movement and the tip comes out with no visible damage to the rest of the leaves. Spend a week or so doing this once a day as buds were swelling.

 

[leatherback]

Went out and took some pictures. In the first pic, top left, you can see the spacing of last years' growth where I did the regular pinching as the leaves unfold. I am telling myself that this year the growth is tighter