Fracture pruned induced bud formation from callus tissue

[Stephen Blair]

Not really Stevie, as there are many variables. Time of year, orientation, species etc......?

 

 

.

 

Ok what about in the way you have created the natural fracture, mechanical break versus cut with saw and then cut to mimic a real break.

Is there any obvious differences in re growth within the same species?

I would think it would have a much different effect. The bigger the force the larger the survival mode so to speak.

What's your thoughts on that ?

[Jon Heuch]

I doubt whether you have "callus" tissue (it's unlikely to be found naturally), just laterally spreading cambial cells from which the shoots have appeared.

 

Your picture looks like my beech pollards all of 2 metres from my bedroom window - regularly pollarded over the last 17 years!

 

In terms of encouraging further regrowth have you considered ring barking or at least wounding below the cut? I imagine that a key part in encouraging shoot growth is to get the hormone levels right. By removing any green matter above you've removed the main source of auxin, but the living cells may well then be overrun by root hormones.....cut them back (but not to eliminate them) and you may get a better response.

[David Humphries]

Hello Jon,

 

thanks for stepping in and sharing your wisdom and for the subtle typo correction on the correct use of the word "callus".

 

My focus here is more about observing and potentially crudely replicating what would appear to be adventitious buds sprouting from the living edge of (as you quite correctly describe) cambial cell tissue, which can be found (depending on exposure levels and desiccation) along the edges of natural and man made branch tears.

 

To try and encourage new shoots from intact functioning bark (whether nodal or not) we have tried ring barking branches and trunks, replicating what Ted Green and David Lonsdale (and others) have carried out at both Windsor and Burnham, and also tried axe wounding. All to little success so far.

 

I've talked casually with Nev Fay around where the various hormones build up at root, union and tip and how prunning/wounding effects their natural and redistributed presence.

I don't begin to understand how one goes about determining the levels of hormones at any given time and position within a trees framework.

I guess I'm not a scientist, I'm more an observationist.

 

And what appears to be being observed is that shade and protection from direct sun light might be a reason why adventitious budding can occur.

 

 

Are your beech pollards street pollards?

What diameter have the pollarded branches been recut at?

 

Nice to have trees within such close proximity to a bedroom window.

I'm currently looking out at the sterility of a dentists surgery, a pub, a mega grill, an oflicence and a few satellite dishes...........oh to get the Archway Road greened up !

 

 

.

[Jon Heuch]

 

1) To try and encourage new shoots from intact functioning bark (whether nodal or not) we have tried ring barking branches and trunks, replicating what Ted Green and David Lonsdale (and others) have carried out at both Windsor and Burnham, and also tried axe wounding. All to little success so far.

 

2) I've talked casually with Nev Fay around where the various hormones build up at root, union and tip and how pruning/wounding effects their natural and redistributed presence.

 

3) Are your beech pollards street pollards?

 

4) What diameter have the pollarded branches been recut at?

 

5) Nice to have trees within such close proximity to a bedroom window.

 

1) I wasn't aware that they had attempted anything; I am sure there is an art to it, but this can only come from experience. I once got bamboo seedlings to flower using hormones....great excitement.....all reproduceable now....but the first step was luck stepping in.

 

2) I doubt whether hormones "build up"; they are fragile molecules, possibly light sensitive, so you need a flow or a source that keeps delivering them during cell differentiation. Clearly moisture is required. Shade is a mixed blessing as a bit of warmth is also useful to get cells working.

 

3) Well, they're mine but on the edge of a country road.

 

4) 5,10,15 cm. They have been turned into Disney-style, small-Champs Elysee style cubes due to the proximity of the house and the need to maintain 5 metre clearance over the road....and my broadband wire which runs over the top of them.

 

5) The cats used to jump from the branches into the bedroom window at night..not so nice when they arrived with either live or half eaten prey. ...

[treeseer]

Litt le success with the extra wounding; no surprise. i see a lot of response low in the crown from light reduction to nodes. Guess I'll check your other thread!

[David Humphries]

On 2/15/2016 at 16:52, David Humphries said:

After watching and trying to record this phenomenon for a number of years, we finally came across what are undoubtedly adventitious epicormic buds, forming on callus tissue formed on the edges of a deliberately torn/fractured branch.

 

The tree below is a lapsed 350 year old beech pollard which is subject to a cyclical pruning regime to manage down the lapsed pollard poles back toward the bolling. Removing branch weight (which can lead to pollard poles naturally fracturing off the tree due to lever arm and decay issues) whilst where possible, maintaining a retrenching canopy where buds develop lower down and within the existing canopy. This technique hopefully leads to a more stable tree which aims to both continue to exist and maintain a cultural woodland practice and enhance the sites fragile biodiversity.

 

On assessment, this branch had no buds to prune it back to on its last cycle (some 4/5 years ago) so it was sacrificed back to a relatively long stub to remove significant wood weight from the delicate bolling.

 

The fracture was created to expose the maximum amount of potential callus tissue as was possible, without ripping it back to and past the bolling point at the top of the trunk.

 

This practice, (although not scientific and looking like a 'cowboy arborist' has been attacking it with a pole saw) has the potential to offer up additional options to help with the reduction process which can be stretched across decades.

 

 

More buds forming lower down, the better !

 

.

 

Couple of years on and the epicormic clusters are still viable and growing toward the light.

 

 

 

[David Humphries]

Additionally we're starting to find shoots developing on other 'sacrificed' trees where tears have been encouraged to see if the shoots can develop on light orientated branches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steve Bullman]

I know i've said it before David, but it really is beyond me how you keep track of this stuff and where you posted it

[David Humphries]

Just now, Steve Bullman said:

I know i've said it before David, but it really is beyond me how you keep track of this stuff and where you posted it

I have a worrying knack of being able to catalogue my images and knowing where I've used them across the forum, but often can't remember where I've put me car keys down ! 

[MattyF]

Do you have any pics of this happening with simulated chainsaw coronet tear cuts David or does it only work with actual tears ?