Last summer I took a conservative approach to pruning a Chinese wisteria. I shortened long runners down to five or six inches and leaf-pruned to four-to-six leaflets (see “Cutback on Chinese wisteria” for details).
This year, I want to cut back to two or three buds per shoot and leaf prune to two leaflets. The idea is to keep the internodes short as I try to improve the branch ramification.
Here’s the tree before I started pruning.
Chinese wisteria – June 2020
And here’s the tree after cutting back to two or three buds per branch.
After cutback
It’s hard to see what the branches look like, so here are close-ups showing new shoots with two buds and three buds.
New shoot cut to three buds
New shoot cut to two buds
I’ll be curious to see how many of these buds produce new shoots as this will guide future cutback efforts.
The next step was to reduce each leaf down to two leaflets. After making the cuts, it was easy to see the branches again.
After leaf pruning – 31″
Depending on how the tree responds to the work, I’ll decide whether or not to prune again in late summer. In the meantime, I’ll continue to fertilize the tree and keep it well watered.