Re: standards

Not sure how this would work for the plant in question, but it has worked for everything I've tried it on. It usually produces an immature standard in 3 years and a mature one in 4.

Start with a tip cutting or seedling. Keep it staked, heavily fed, and devoid of side branches. But leave any and all side leaves in place--they seem to make the main stem fatter. Tip cuttings grow faster than other cuttings, so monitoring and staking is important to keep the stem straight.

When the stem reaches the height you want the trunk to be, nip the bud. It will then branch like crazy below the truncated tip. What this means, actually, is that you have to let the main stem get about a foot taller than your ideal trunk to allow for branching.

Finally, most standards will require a fair amount of maintenance because they will not be shy about sending out lateral branches at any time. Caught early, however, these laterals are easily knocked off--and as the trunk gets older, they appear less frequently [I have a Surinam cherry standard, for instance, that has not put out a lateral branch on the main stem during the last 2 years].

Note: even in small sizes--say, 3 gallon--standards will command a higher price than non-standards. The price ratio, I think, is about 1.5:1.0

On Tuesday, April 27, 2004, at 11:16 AM, Kitty wrote:

Sounds nice. How many years do you think the training would take? From
what size plant would you start? I've never trained a standard.

Kitty
----- Original Message -----
From: <Cersgarden@aol.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:02 AM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Re: blackhaw viburnum


In a message dated 4/27/04 8:34:01 AM, kmrsy@comcast.net writes:

<< A std carlesii? But they don't get all that tall, do they? Off the
top of
my head, 6-8ft maybe? Hmmmm.....does have possibilites. >>

I keep my pruned about 4' so I don't know how much it would go beyond
that.
The std I saw had approx 3' stem/trunk and a nice full round on top. This
would allow plants below so would be ideal for a sm garden.
Ceres

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index