My wife just bought me this Jaboticaba. Here's what it looked like when it arrived:
I gave it a few weeks to recover from being shipped and then started looking at the structure.
There are two kind of parallel trunks that have the bulk of the leaves:
I trimmed a few of the shoots and some of the branches that seemed obviously in the way.
I'm wondering what to do now. My two main questions are:
1) The branch between the red and blue lines has some reverse taper.
If you were me, would you trim it off completely (red line) or prune 2/3 of its branches off and try to focus growth lower, or ???
2) I'd like to get more growth in the lowest left branch, which I think means I should cut back a lot of the growth on the top to encourage more buds down low. Is that correct?
3) WHEN should I do these more major pruning operations? I know end of winter is often best, but from what I've been able to find about Jaboticaba, when you prune may not matter much since it's tropical. I was thinking of either A: leaving it as it and doing a repot / structural pruning in the winter, or B: doing some structural pruning now and a repot in the winter. Any guidance?
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2) I'd like to get more growth in the lowest left branch, which I think means I should cut back a lot of the growth on the top to encourage more buds down low. Is that correct?
3) WHEN should I do these more major pruning operations? ...when you prune may not matter much since it's tropical.
Ah, yes, it's a tropical.
Are you in a tropical country?
No winter at all?
High temperatures and humidity?
Plenty of sun?
IF so, go ahead, they don't care.
BUT...
If you are in a temperate country, things happen way different.
I'm in Nevada. The tree is indoors by a window, so temperature won't change but humidity is low and the amount of light will definitely change in the winter.
"Nevada" means snowy in Spanish and Portuguese.
And Jaboticabas don't even know what snow is.
Yes, of course you can grow tropicals in Nevada, taking them to shady places in the summer, and protecting them from cold snaps in the winter.
It's more work, and maintaining the same temperature with air conditioning all year round could be harmful for the tree.
They need breeze.
They need changes in humidity.
They need to be outdoors most of the time.
The main problem with air conditioning is low humidity, as you have said.
Perhaps trying to create an environment where you can control the dryness?
As a parameter, I live in Brazil, and we can't grow Japanese White Pines or many Acers here, because they need winter to go dormant, and it just won't happen here. They die, UNLESS many precautions regarding summer heat and fridges simulating winter are taken.
This is NOT to discourage you, it's just to find a way for your tropical to thrive there!