Shaping an older Operculicarya decaryi
Bleedfoot
15 years ago
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lucy
15 years agoBleedfoot
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Trees in Containers III
Comments (236)Peach and apricot often bear heavily in alternate years. IOW - a heavy crop one year and a light crop the next. If you can detect and identify this habit in your trees, it would be best to root prune while dormant in the spring of the lighter years. That said, for the peach/apricot trees, root pruning shouldn't have much of an impact on yields or fruit size. In fact, root pruning of in-ground trees is making a comeback as a way to tame wild growth and increase yields in for many types of fruit. It is a fact that root pruning is an ESSENTIAL part of long term care of trees in containers, unless the tree's care giver is willing to tolerate the decline and loss of vitality that always accompanies root congestion. So, even if it did have an impact on yields, you'd still be pretty much obligated to do the root work. You probably have seen how growth can come to a virtual standstill due to root congestion. A famous tree biologist pioneer, Dr Alex Shigo, contends, "A tree that isn't growing is dying", and it's true. Trees grow when they create more food/energy (via photosynthesis) than they need to maintain respiring organs and keep their systems orderly, simply because they need a place to store the excess food. Trees stop growing when they make as much as or less food/energy as they use. No organism can sustain itself long term when it uses more energy than it can produce. So literally, as a containerized tree starts to slow down due to root congestion, it will eventually stop growing and start its terminal decline unless the grower intervenes on the tree's behalf. One might think that trees suffering from root congestion in containers regularly die from the fact they are using more energy than they are using, but that seldom occurs. Plants have a 'pecking order' determined by how strong different organs are in terms of their demand for energy. The stronger the energy sink, the more obligate the plant is to deliver energy to that part. Energy is first allocated to respiratory function, i.e. to maintenance of living tissues, then, to production of fine roots, followed by flower and seed/fruit production, then primary growth (extension of both roots and shoots), then secondary growth (thickening), and finally, the synthesis of defensive chemicals. Notice that defensive chemicals are at the end of the list. Most plants in steep decline, regardless of the reason, usually die from insect herbivory or disease pathogens due to the plant's inability to defend itself. You can also see by the pecking order (1 - living tissues, 2 - fine roots) that fine roots get the lion's share of energy outlay when the plant's chemical messengers signal an imbalance between top mass and root mass. So the first thing that will occur is, the plant will start regrowing the the roots you pruned off. That puts a temporary hold on top growth until roots catch up. For dormant tree which have been root-pruned, root pruning puts a temporary hold on bud activation until enough new roots have developed to support more top growth. Let's say you start 2 tree cuttings from the same genetic source in the same size pots. One gets potted up in the spring after you notice the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, while the other gets a full repot based on the same trigger (root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact). After 10 years and all other factors equal, the repotted tree will be many times larger that the tree potted up, it will have far greater vitality, will have produced much more fruit/ nuts/ seed/ ....., and will still be growing in a pot a fraction of the size of the tree that was potted up. Root pruning makes that much difference. Al...See MoreOperculicarya decaryi
Comments (44)@ sf rhino.... At the time that I bought the seedlings they were $3.00 each. Back then and to this day, I cannot find any source for Operculicarya decaryi seeds in the USA. Not one major succulent grower that I contacted would sell me seeds, or, had seeds to sell, including the major Botanic Gardens with succulent collections. The small seedlings seemed to be a good option, and, they were, as opposed to importing expensive seed from European sources. Seeds are sometimes cheaper, but germination rates are unpredictable, and you still have to wait, and grow, and feed, and protect, and wait some more until you have decent sized plants. However, I have read that this plant grows fairly rapidly and develops a nice fat trunk rather quickly. The posted photos show the progression from a skinny to a fatter plant in a few years. I'm a little long-in-the-tooth to be waiting for some fancy chop stick to fatten up, so I usually start with older plant$$$. The seedlings were growing very rapidly and were beginning to fatten up when I exposed them to the freezing weather, and killed them. I would bet that within 5 years, I'd have had some thick, respectable plants. My general philosophy now, especially when one becomes known as a man or woman of a "certain age".....buy big, and spend the money for an older plant... and leave the wire-like twigs to the youngsters. Anyone know a good seed source for this plant???? Frank...See MoreLeafs dying on Operculicarya decaryi
Comments (11)- tom_termine Mine has recovered very nicely. Mainly old leaves have fallen off and now a whole new set of leaves have grown out and more are coming. I have been watering it like it's still summer. I think I'll do that as long as possible since it looks like this fall it is not getting cool as quickly as last year where I am. Based on your picture, it looks like yours was "droughted" like mine. Just based on the way your leaves are shriveled, and how some leaves have stayed green. Looks very much like mine did. Sunburned leaves don't usually get so damaged, and when they do, the damage looks different. I did some research on sudden drought, and I found taht it's similar to a sudden freeze in early fall. Alot of the leaves just go straight to brown. However, Opy will sacrifice the old ones and save the newer ones in emergency situations like that. But it seems that it can recover easily, though I would not "drought" it suddenly more than once a year. Last fall I let mine go dormant by reducing watering once it got cool -- which seemed to work really well. It went to sleep slowly, and leaves turned bright red before falling off. Temps where it was were reaching low 40's at night. Possible causes of "drought": Even though it was outside in really hot weather before I brought mine in, inside it is much drier, there is less transpiration from neighboring plants, less air circulation which can cause window sills to really heat up in direct sunlight....See MoreOperculicarya Pachypus Progress
Comments (100)Hello to old and new forum members. Back in 2013, I decide -after being inspired by some of the excellent fat-plant growers found on this forum- to take on growing Operculicarya pachypus. I already was growing Bursera fagaroides, and Operculicarya decaryi...btw, two of the easiest plants to grow...and now I needed an Operc. pachy for my collection. So, I bought one, at Botanic Wonders. A small, skinny, twig of a thing....about 1/4" diameter. I potted it into the the Tapla classic gritty mix, and it's been there since. I live in 7b/NYC. A climate that is lousy for growing any respectable-looking fat plants. It's definitely NOT like and deserts in Yemen, Madagascar, or Baja California. My plants go out onto my broiling, back deck, grow in full sun, get watered when it rains, and then they go dormant by mid-October. I have a very, very, short growing season, then a long, dark-dreary winter-spring. Over the winter, I occasionally mist the gritty mix, just to keep it humidified, and not bone dry, but never moist. The plants are quiescent at this point. Then plants go back into full sun, and when green buds start to pop out. If nights are still too cold or frosty, the plants come in to spend the night on my kitchen table. This usually starts around late-March/early-April. I start to water as plants push out new leaves, and as soon as weather warms up, the plants go back out onto my sunny, back deck, and roast in full sun until Autumn puts them back to sleep, again. I've grown my plants as described since 2013, and had no failures...yet. So far, easy-peasy. The plants thrive, and get fatter each year. Remember me mentioning that the O. pachypus started out as a twiggy, 1/4" runt? Now, the trunk is about 1-3/4" in diameter, and has a rack of branches at the very top. i trained it to look like a Baobab, and when the trunk really thickens, it will look like one of these strange trees. Know this:...the training process is a work-in-progress. I use the grow-and-clip method. Pinching back does little. Dormant buds sprout usually only at the pinched back branch tips, and back budding is not the general rule. So I let the plants grow wild , with very little clipping, until I prune them back when plants break dormancy. I wire-train branches into desired positions, and remove wire when branches fatten up. Rewire if necessary. Bursera fagaroides is just as easy. Same culture, wiring, mix, watering, dormancy treatment. Ditto: for the Operculicarya decaryi. I once had a nice, large Cyphostemma juttae growing on my back porch. I paid good money for it too. It was probably the most boring fat-plant that I ever grew! Dormancy lasted almost 10 months....then it quickly sprouted and grew, thick, plastic-textured leaves, flowered (ugly flowers, too), set seeds, and then, back into dormancy the plant went again, for another 10 months. If you try to "force" the plant break dormancy, the caudex/roots usually rot out. :((( The pineapple-size caudex never increased in girth, and the only two top branches, grew maybe a total of an inch longer, each season, but died back after each dormancy period began, so the plant's branches never elongated, but instead, lost any length that was gained. B O R I N G! The plant is gone now. It took up too much valuable real estate, so I gave it away....and good riddance to it! If you enjoy watching paint dry, grow a Chypho. Next, Adeniums. Again, I am going to attempt to grow some of these PITA plants. Dormancy issues, aphid infestations, caudex rot, spider mites, collapsing flowers, difficult to train, poor branch placement, yellowing leaves, etc, etc, turn me off. There are easier fish to fry. But, oh... those beautiful flowers! So my back deck has a few Adeniums growing on it too. So, now you guys are up to speed. Took a hiatus from all the forums to take care of two ailing parents, who have now, both passed on. I'll check in from time to time and let you know how my chlorophyllic blobs are doing. Frank NYC/7b...See Morelucy
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