pittosporum progression

[Josh]

Some time ago I dug a pittosporum out of the garden. The area was watered logged and the tree was very loose so I dug it out.

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These trees natural growth habit is straight up. As soon as a bud forms it starts heading up. Once they harden off at all they are very brittle and hard to bend and get a realistic angle coming of the trunk. Because of this they need to be wired early and gentle bent to get the right angle hapening. They grow incredibly quickly so when I wired them for the first time I wired them loosely so as not to damage the bark.
I broke off several branches when wiring so not happy about that. They back bud along the branches well so I just pinched the tips regulary to get them to branch out.

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I need it to bud a bit more along the trunk to form a more dense and believable canopy so feeding it like crazy and hoping it pushes out more buds and not just grows longer branches.
I have wired it 5 times now so wiring is intense as they need to be wired early and grow fast so wire cuts in quickly. If I can pull it off I think it will make a nice park type tree with big rounded canopy.
What do you think, thoughts and comments welcome.

Josh

[Ces]

Nice work so far mate. Been wanting to try out this species myself so I'm interested in its progression.

Just a question mate... by park style tree do you mean broom style or conifer in perfect growing conditions style?

Cheers,

Ces.

[Josh]

Hi Ces, These are fun trees to work with, My biggest comment is if you want the branches to come of the trunk at a decent angle then wire early but be gentle as they tear away from trunk really easy. I wired them down a little then let them harden slightly then move down again. I have broken probably 4 or 5 branches when wiring so be gentle. I'm hoping if I pump in the fert it will throw out buds, I have also damaged the bark in a couple of spots to help it throw buds.
This is the sort of shape I'm looking for

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It won't be as full as this but that's the shape I want.
I didn't want the tree to simply be clipped around the edge to form the shape. I want to actually have branch structure/ramifacation so it has a nice rounded canopy shape but with branching.

Josh