Hi,

Yesteday I've picked up a little Alberta Spruce from local garden center. Yes I know they grow really slow, don't budback easily, foilage grows pretty much only on the tips of long branches, they want to be cone shaped no matter what and the branches are made of rubber and take ages to mould into position when wired, but it was £6,99 and I really like the colour and needles are really dense and fine so I though, well sod it I'm having it!

The thing is I never had a conifer tree before and I don't really know the way around them. I can learn most of the general knowledge from uncle Google but there's one thing I couldn't get direct answer for:

Can I cut quite a lot of main branches to thin the foliage NOW (June/July)?

I've already cleared up the bottom of the tree as most of those branches were dead (the tree went dry at some point this year apparently, but now is growing strong), also the branches tend to grow out of one spot on the trunk which make it to bulge and I'd rather get rid of them asap. I want to tie most of the branches down with guy wires. I've read that it's best done from November till march but that was regarding wiring and reshaping the branches, but I'm thinking if they are so flexible and almost impossible to damage and make grow back together in a way you want them to, maybe I could just bend them down with guy wires now? I don't mind waiting until winter but I'm really curious to find out what am I dealing with here

Anyway, this is how it looks now:

as picked up from garden center:



slightly cleaned up:




So what do you recon then? Can I safely get rid of couple of branches up top or shout I leave it be for now? Any other things I should know about taking care of a Spruce?

Thanks,

Tom

Yes you can continue to prune at thi time of year. Make sure that you cover the wounds with cut paste. You don't need both the branches low down, one must go.
What country are you in?
for species guides look at bonsai4me.com

Thanks i'm in the UK

I think I'm going to get rid of two bottom ones anyway but might leave some of them out and turn them into a Jin later on. I've looked at Bonsai4me and they say it's best done around August time as it might bleed a lot of sap out. I'll monitor how much sap is going out of the wounds so far and gauge if it's serious or not.

I haven't got any cut paste... are there any homegrown alternatives? Am I mistaken or could I read somewhere about using Vaseline if there's nothing better about?

Thanks.

Tom

I typically trim when it suits me, except for periods of serious frost.

As for wond sealent: It is an outdated technique: The risk of locking in disease, and starting rot is bigger than leaving it open. I only use it on very large wounds made in hot summer, to avoid drying out of sapwood in the first days after cutting. Generally considered, it is better to leave the wound as is. The plant will heal the wound itself. On conifers, vaselin (Petroleum Jelly) may be used as this is -especially by larch- a substance that encourages natural healing

Ok, so I've cut off a lot of small and bare branches and couple of branches that grew on a hub with those I left. I've probably cut 3 out of 7 on each 'hub'... It still looks crap but I don't want to do too much damage to it at once. I left couple of stumps for future Jin.

Here's how it looks now:



It looks like i've taken off much more then I actually did.

Let's see if it survives. I have got doubts about it now as I've noticed that the pot it's been growing in has got a bit crappy drainage and roots are sticking out of the holes anyway... If it does it's a keeper, an ugly keeper but a keeper. If it doesn't then it was 7quid worth of wiring practice.

What do you think guys? What are the odds of it surviving it?

The cut paste is to stop the bleeding and heal the wounds, It looks better nwo, don't worry too much abou the roots out of the bottom, You could if you are concerned about it pot on into a larger pot without disturbing the roots.

It doesn't bleed as much sap as I thought it will so so far so good. I was thining about moving it into a bigger bucket without raking the roots out... Should I go for it or should I leave it for now and move it into something else in winter?

m5eaygeoff wrote:

The cut paste is to stop the bleeding and heal the wounds,

Wounds never heal. Healing is the repair of damaged tissue. Trees cannot do that.
In stead, they wall off the damaged area. The area will eventually be overgrown by new material (or may not, if the wound is too large) - the damaged tissue will never disappear and even when overgrown, it will still be there, isolated within the tree.

Leatherback is right. The myth of wound dressing has been debunked decades ago.

You can pot on into a larger pot now if you want. I would have said wait a bit but the weather has cooled down a bit. Just don't disturb the roots.

Hi spuker1... Just a suggestion. In your photograph it is not clear if you used some material to isolate the guy wires touching your tree´s branches. I mean, with time guy wires might carve into the bark of these branches leaving behind ugly scars. So, if you haven´t used nothing, it probably would be a good idea inserting some kind of a small rubber, raffia, or any other isolating material between the guy wires and the bark.

Alain