Hello everyone if you can please offer some clarification/guidance. Im in zone 5 chicago. Via the Mirai app Ryan was talking about the 2 week period post-Leaf Drop for pruning in the fall. To what extent can we prune? Is it “light” pruning or can we take bigger branches as well? Depending on who I talk to I’m told to wait until spring. Their point being that it will not callus over during dormancy. However is that really an issue? Will it not start callousing over in the spring once it warms up? Appreciate any feedback. Thank you
I’m pretty sure the reason for the 2week window is to allow for compartmentalization at the cut sites. Outside that window cuts will experience serious die back. This is why general pruning for shape is really the best practice in fall, heavy pruning leaves wounds open to die back and disease since the tree’s vascular system is working extremely slow and no healing takes place. By the time spring rolls around die back would already be complete, so healing would not start at the cut sites.
1 Like
@SCBonsaiGrower SCBonsaiGrower many thanks..
How I understood it: ‘ leaf drop’ actually means the majority of leaves have completed color change (thus, resources have been reabsorbed) leaves come off easily, start to fall. The closer to this point, the bigger the cuts you can make and still compartmentalize. The farther, the smaller.
Watch: leaf drop deciduous pruning, deciduous fall work, japanese maple secondary work
Many thanks @BanzaiDeshi and also appreciate the video reminders.