Tree Tips
November 2023
What a great show we had this year. Thank you all for your hard work in putting it together. All aspects went together easily from set-up to tear-down. We all felt proud of our 2023 display. Bravo!
At our November meeting we are asking members to bring in some of their trees they showed and give us a little information regarding where you got the tree, how you have been developing it and where you would like to improve it in the future. See our president's remarks for more details.
Fall Maintenance
It actually seems like fall is here. Cooler days and nights. Growth is slowing down.
Each year I save a lot of water from my down-spout diverter off of the roof. I store it in 32 gallon trash cans to use later after the rains shut down. It's clean water I can use to hand water specific trees with a 2 gallon can. I also have a water pump in a 50 gallon can attached to a hose to make it easier for general watering. Better than San Jose Water out of the tap at this time of year.
It's time to style, wire, pluck needles and make big bends on conifers. You can work on practically everything now except black pines (next month). Here in the Bay Area, continue to fertilize your trees with low power fish emulsion (5-1-1). This will fire up a good energetic spring response in a few months. As the leaves fall after color change on deciduous trees, you can cut back to two buds from December to mid-January, to set up growth in the spring.
The growth that has been coming on since summer should be hardening and will no longer snap like a bean if you bend it. But try this — exercise the branch before you bend it. By this I mean pre-bend it, using the fleshy part of your fingers and palm, supporting and twisting the branch in the direction you wish to ultimately bend it — not back and forth! — before actually putting the wire on. Trust your fingers to tell you if you have gone far enough. They are actually more reliable than your eyes. You can get much more acute bends this way. If the branch still resists, you may need to use raffia to support it. Spray the bent branches with an anti-transpirant like Anti-Stress 2000® or Cloud Cover® or Wilt-Pruf®. This is an ideal time to fashion those branches before they harden off totally during the winter.
Deciduous trees should be wired when most of the foliage has fallen off, but before they become brittle later into the winter dormancy period. Remove the foliage when about 75% of the foliage has turned color. If you wait until December, any cutting may cause some trees to bleed excessively.
You can still style those junipers and even transplant early flowering trees, but do protect them from frosts if we get some cold weather.
For most trees, now is the time to clean off the top layer of sphagnum moss we had on during the hot summer season, and the top soil that has accumulated spent fertilizer and weed seeds and is growing seasonal moss, to make sure it doesn’t get up into the bark of your trees. Silver moss that you used for the show can be taken off and put in your landscaping where it will get early morning sun and regular water. You can grow a new crop for next year. Clean off dead leaves and remove weeds. Add some super phosphate to the top soil and with any transplanting that you do.
Be sure to clean out the foliage in the crotch areas and allow the sunlight into the interior to stimulate new buds and expose bugs.
December is usually the best time, but if pine needles have hardened, clean out the old needles on your trees to let the sunlight in. Leave more needles on the bottom branches, 10 to 15 pairs, and 7 to 10 pairs on top. At this point we want to encourage as much sun as we can. Later we’ll thin out even more. But watch that you don’t damage tender needles that haven’t hardened. Use tweezers or use scissors if plucking causes bleeding. Days are getting really short and cooler.
Remember to make your first application of dormant spray at Thanksgiving. Ultrafine® oil, Neem Oil, copper and lime sulfur sprays do well. Do not mix them together!
Water your trees when they need it. This means that you should wait until the upper soil has dried and is lighter in color before watering. Then water thoroughly. Don’t keep them too wet and remember that as their growth slows, they use less water. If too much water is accumulating in the pot, tip the pot up on one side with a block to help drainage. 🌳
