Eric removes the leaves on a big Valley Oak that he started from an acorn he collected near Sacramento, CA 18 years ago. The tree is just starting to go dormant. It’s gone on an interesting journey, as Eric started it in the ground in San Francisco, moved it into a container, planted it back in the ground in Southern California, dug it up a second time, put it in a container again and brought it back up to San Francisco.
00:01:23 Eric needs to see the structure before a branch cutback.
00:02:13 After Eric removes all the leaves, he removes the wire.
00:03:02 Eric discusses his cutback plan to contain the size of the canopy and increase the taper of branching and fine ramification.
00:04:39 Cutting off a lot of small branches that have died and cutting back less useful larger branches.
00:05:15 Eric shares a discussion he had with Peter Tea as they worked together on a different Valley Oak – why you need to cut back the top hard to stimulate growth below, allowing access to light.
00:06:25 “Escape roots” and a look under the bonsai container.
00:07:01 Eric hopes today’s work will help the tree continue to development. He won’t be wiring it while the tree is dormant; he’ll wait until Spring. He also discusses a low branch he doesn’t like, and why keeping it for now helps taper develop on the trunk.
00:08:56 Eric might actually put the tree back into a box to drive vigorous growth while also keeping the large Sara Rayner oval pot from getting damaged in the field.
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