Deciduous conifer pruning timing

Horticulture
1

Hi all,

So I just watched the March 1, 2022 recorded livestream on “radical” first styling of a larch. There is a comment about pruning (and timing thereof) of deciduous conifers in the middle of the stream that I cannot fully understand even though I listened to it five times.

The section is at about the 91 minute mark for about 2 minutes. Ryan adds several comments parenthetically in a rambling answer to Bentley’s question about cutting back to 2 buds at this time of year (spring), but the main thrust seems to have been that one CANNOT prune deciduous conifers in the fall after leaf drop (like Ryan recommended and demonstrated last fall for non-coniferous deciduous trees). But I have no understanding of WHY he says that and what exactly the logic is. He states that “there will be dieback” from pruning deciduous conifers in the fall after leafdrop. He discusses the whorl of buds at the base of stems in elongating species but I still don’t understand how that relates to pruning out on the branch itself. The more I listed to it the more I’m lost.

This is of interest to me as I have several dawn redwoods in refinement, some of which I pruned last fall.

A related question is whether one can wire and bend branches of deciduous conifers in the fall in the 1-2 weeks after leafdrop like one can with non-coniferous deciduous.

Help!

Brian

2

I’m willing to take a stab at the why but my experience is limited , so I encourage a seasoned practitioner to recorrect my misunderstanding…

First question is what is the state of yor tree ( development/ refinement) and was that aligned with what Ryan said and was working on?

By pruning at this time you can offset the hormonal hierarchy of a tree that’s not in a energy postive state (assistance need: what would be the energy state for a deciduous confirm post leaf drop, energy neutral? With the tree being mostly dormant the ability to compartmentalize the wounds at the cut location or even back to the last node is much lower at this time with it’s resources being tied up in the vascular system ( elongated species specifically). I take it as: to gamble at this point with these odds it’s unnecessary and not sustainable on. Long enough timeline.