Should you remove fall foliage or let it fall off naturally? Eric explores why he removes leaves from deciduous trees in fall using a large old imported Korean hornbeam raft.
00:00:40 – Eric Begins pulling off leaves.
00:01:02 – Why pull off the leaves? You can leave (ha!) them on if you prefer, unless you want to see the winter silhouette on a tree like beech.
00:01:45 – Pay attention when pulling off leaves that you are not damaging the buds for next spring – if you see damage, use scissors instead.
00:02:25 – Assessing the structure – each branch can be cut back to improve taper, ramification and movement.
00:02:45 – cut back to a bud on hornbeam – the branches don’t die, but they don’t bud out as well in spring.
00:03:40 – an example of two good buds – Eric removes the outer one. Don’t mistake the remnants of last year’s buds for the buds that are set.
00:04:10 – Eric talks about improving structure, branching and twigging so that the tree can be shown in winter.
00:05:00 – a part of the raft was added by a previous owner and is actually a separate tree. Eric explains why he plans to remove that separate tree.
00:06:15 – Eric discusses his plan for using an approach graft to add another trunk to the raft to replace the tree he plans to remove.
00:07:15 – Eric plans to repot later in winter and do the approach graft in spring. He discusses the removing the longer large branches.
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