I inherited yew this a lot of years ago and have not done anything with it. I have kept the canopy down but it doesn't really want to back bud or anything. There is also a lot of rot where a branch was cut off and not sealed.

After seeing others' results with heavy pruning I am thinking about cutting it down to around a foot high, somewhere less than half a meter. And, not repotting for another year.

I am thinking early spring. Would that force back budding which hasn't happened yet?

Ivan, Tony Tickle has a great video on yew and backbudding , you can find it on YouTube .
My experience: yew backbuds enormously if you cut back really hard, which I would do anyway with your tree. I have cut back a garden yew of about 2,5 metres high to about 40 cm beginning of July which is already completely green again, backbudded even on the trunk.
I Like your tree btw, can become something nice once it has foliage in the right places.

strange.. I am continuously removing buds from mine. How heavily do you fertilize?

For me, fertilizer, water are enough for budding, also on the trunk.
As said above, cutting back can work. But I am concerned that the tree is just not in optimal health.

Also, I see old bark on the trunk. Not sure how you managed that: Mine peel. It could be that the old bark is stopping light from getting through. Have you ever cleaned it off?

leatherback wrote:

strange.. I am continuously removing buds from mine. How heavily do you fertilize?

For me, fertilizer, water are enough for budding, also on the trunk.
As said above, cutting back can work. But I am concerned that the tree is just not in optimal health.

Also, I see old bark on the trunk. Not sure how you managed that: Mine peel. It could be that the old bark is stopping light from getting through. Have you ever cleaned it off?

The yew gets Biogold. Usually I put four pieces on it, and then repeat when they look like they are starting to shrink. That means the old ones overlap until the next one, usually. Usually this means Friday or Saturday, but sometimes 7 days turns into 10 days. I may miss one sometimes.

Most of the summer - which began in May and ran to last weekend, every morning, if no rain. Usually the soil is dry on top and a little damp just below not long before sundown, and then dry in the morning half a finger down. Sometimes the flowers are starting to wilt at sundown, and I water everything then.

I don't like to do anything to the bark. I like the peeling bark on this one and on the jaboticaba. The elms are all growing from seeds off of some elms on campus that have peeling bark and orange underneath. I do peel the moss of carefully. The tree tries to grow new branches and lengthen existing. I have pinched back and pinched back for years and it won't take the hint. It seems healthy enough, it just won't grow like I want it to, sort of like a teenage boy....... (In 1993 I had three in the house.)

Maybe the plan should be chop it off at appropriate height and seal it off, long about end of February, or before if the buds start to grow, then see about bark and maybe peel a little off. Don't touch the roots - I repotted last spring so it won't need it for a while.

There is a chill in the air (at last) and maybe growth will slow down. Fertilize it now with low nitrogen? Next spring after chopping back to biogold?

If it has grown well all year, I think chopping might be the way to go to stimulate buds. I would do it as late before budbreak as possible, as you will leave the plant without any foliage.

I am always a little hesitant with such drastic steps, and contemplate whether I would be devastated if the tree did not make it.

yours to decide


How long do you let the growth extend before chopping? I tend to let them grow bushy every once in a while for exceptional health.

Did you see www.growingbonsai.net/developing-taxus-bonsai/

leatherback wrote:

If it has grown well all year, I think chopping might be the way to go to stimulate buds. I would do it as late before budbreak as possible, as you will leave the plant without any foliage.


Did you see www.growingbonsai.net/developing-taxus-bonsai/

Good stuff there. I will save this.

I will plan on waiting till the buds pop, then go back two days in the time machine, review the link there, and then chop.

When you are done with the time machine, can I borrow it?

I super like the tree, they look strong!