AusBonsai

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. 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. 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

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.

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 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