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winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #847

  • hein
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Hey everyone.

Here in south africa our winter starts from june and goes until august. Or that's the way its supposed to be according to any season calendar. Due to all the lovely global warming and other influencing factors the seasons aren't that precise anymore. We are in the last week of middle winter and with august upon us, I am getting all my potting supplies ready for when I can repot.

NOW,....some of my friends trees already started showing signs of bud swelling and in short he send me an sms saying :"Spring seems to have come early this year, some of my trees buds are swelling. Nearly time for repotting.".

That worries me A LOT! Last year this time, swelling of buds were not even mentioned. I don't know if any of you follow the news from south africa, but even the fruit farmers here are worried about the early blooming. Should I also be worried about it. For the past 2-3 weeks our temps were anywhere between 25 and 29 degrees celcius and this week its down to 13,15 degrees.

Will this present a problem when I repot and should repot according to the calendar or to the tree. I am just really worried about late frost.

Thanx dor your time.

Hein

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #852

  • BassandBonsai
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DEFINITELY listen to your tree, and not your calendar! Your tree will often tell you what it thinks is best, and is often right! If you are concerned about frost, however, perhaps you could provide some protection? I learned a new trick on another part of the forum that planting a tree in a styrofoam container before putting it in the ground can add that extra layer of insulation, if you plan on placing some in the ground. You might also consider moving some temporarily inside, until the danger has passed and summer truly begins in your neck of the woods. Good luck!

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #853

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Styrofoam? I would never have guessed that. Funny what stuff you learn when joining forums. Thanx a lot bassandbonsai. I will give it a go when I repot.

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #854

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Hm.. a little though.. styrofoam containers may be usefull when a hard cold winter is at hand, with lots of deep frost. the container reduces the peak cold reaching the roots, and therefor a tree hardy till -10 may survive occasional -15 peeks. However a.f.a.i.k. most of South Africa does not get prolonged frost, but only the occasional night time frost (lowveld areas? ) or incidental snow, where such protection may not offer you what you need.

Just swelling of the buds is not per se a problem. If occasional light nighttime frost is what you are worried about: Bring your trees to a sheltered place, say a shed, for the days that frost might occur. Also, ensuring a good amound of moisture of the area where the plants stand may help: The moist areas cool down must slower than dry areas.

The reason fruit farmers are worried is that one individual night with -1 degrees might ruin the complete harvest: Fruit flowers are VERY susceptible to frost, and will drop the flowers after a few gusts of frost (Frostbite). Depending on the trees you are growing, they may be more of less influenced.

What trees are you growing? I used to grow Mopane in a greenhouse in the Netherlands for some of my PhD work on Mopane in northern Kruger. Unfortunately I could not keep some of them for my own use, as the project continued after my departure. But i love that tree, and think it would make amazing bonsai.

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #859

  • hein
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my tree list ( in the ground and in pots)are:

Japanese maple
Chinese maple
Celtis africana
Ficus natalensis
Juniper procumbes
Japanese black pine
Crasulla ovata ( money tree )
Azalea
Wild olive
English oak
Peach tree
Chinese elm
Pyracantha
Acacia burkei
Bougainvilla

Just a question about the chinese maple. I want to cut it back to a really short stump. When is the best time to do this. After I cut it back, there will be no brances, so I will need to build new branches.

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #860

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When the plant is deep asleep in winter:
www.ehow.com/how_7328296_trim-chinese-maple-trees.html

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #861

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Cool th,x for the link.

One last Q. When I cut back the tree, should I cut the roots back as well? The tree is currently in the ground and it has reaced the desired thickness.

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #862

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Leave the roots alone for now. The tree has than an overwhelming amount of 'power' to quickly throw out some your branches.

Be carefull to remove the young branches that you do not want to develop: When you do this as soon as they show up, you get much less scar tissue on the bark, you could probably just rub them off with your fingers. Also, to encourage nice small branches, I would remove the growing tips every time one or two sets of leaves have formed: That way the internodal distance is reduce a little, and you get a lot of structure (As it will resprout with 2 branches).

You probably want to get rid of the ugly stump that results from blunly clipping away the main stem. I understand that having a leader branch grow out from the top may help. In a few books I have read that Japanese do not like this way of forming a solid trunk. They rather spend time witing, and not have the scars. But if you take the western approach: Grow the trunk. Cut back to 1/3 od desired tree height. Let one leader grow out to form a natural transitution between old stem and leader. Then trim that back to about 1/3*1/3 = 1/9 of the desired tree heigh above the original cut. (The tree becomes 4/9 of desired hieght) and then start building your canopy.

Managed to find the website where I read this: www.evergreengardenworks.com/trunks.htm

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #870

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Holy cow. That is a lot of usefull info. Thank you very much.

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Re: winter/spring and confused weather. 12 years 8 months ago #883

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Holy cow. That is a lot of usefull info. Thank you very much.


Sorry.. Thought that you wanted some ideas :D

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