AusBonsai

In November 2008 I reduced a nursery 6' ash to 20 cm, ripped away the ground grown roots, spent 2.5 hours removing the massive melded together tap and support roots to leave a few feeder roots and planted the remains in good soil and into a semi shade position. After an expected period of readjustment five new shoots popped out around the stump in early January. They have survived the high 30s temps with not a frizzle, the stump has been moved to a full sun position, it receives a shot of SeaSol one week and Charlie Carp the next but I can't get the shoots to elongate. They are healthy, they are fresh and green and they refuse to move out from the trunk and form branches. Any hints or encouragement??? Am I just super impatient or is this taking an awfully long time??

Just prune? Mine had top branching, but i didn't like the height so i cut it back to two trunk buds. From there I made sure only one shoot fro each side (they shoot from opposites). I had 9" of top growth, and have just cut back again. next step is to pinch out tips to force back budding.

It may still be sulking as well...

It doesn't sound as those yours had such a severe root removal as this baby. The job damn near killed me and it is the first major root prune when I really needed electrical equipment. But when you have to do it - you do it. And I did. Now it is getting its own back on me......

I would say patience, its probably using all its strenght to regrow the roots, let it be for the rest of the season, thn let it go mad next spring. Though I have never met an Ash that didnt just go mad after a hard root prune and hair cut.

Jarrod

MelaQuin wrote:It doesn't sound as those yours had such a severe root removal as this baby. The job damn near killed me and it is the first major root prune when I really needed electrical equipment. But when you have to do it - you do it. And I did. Now it is getting its own back on me......

We collect them here, and I have seen them collected with NO roots.
Give it time to gather its panties and it will be off and running.

Damn!!! And here I was... hoping 'patience' wasn't the answer!!! Ah well....patience it will be - especially since it is green and alive.

I have been advised that patience is not necessarily the answer. Like a recent olive, the tree could be living on stored food and not developing roots. So today I have carefully dug down along the trunk line, in several places scored the bark exposing the cambium and dusted each area with rooting hormone. It was decided to be too risky to remove the tree from the soil to see how it was doing as this could remove any roots it might be growing and throw it backwards even more. I will also be treating it with Super Thrive to promote root growth. Having gone closely around the trunk at eye level, I noted two tiny buds starting to open. They are not yet big enough to offer real hope but I take them as a positive sign.

I killed a big one by being impatient. Let it do its thing in its own time.
You can then abuse the heck out of it later. I have defoliated my ash 3 times in the last three months. A certain person in Hay(hellisly hot) can defoliate up to six time per year but I would not recommend it for cooler climates.

i have ripped these out of the ground before

all of them i soaked for about two weeks in water, and all of them sent out a few shoots that didn't get too long, and they also sent out some shoots that just went for the sky straight away.

i have no real experience in patients, i am just learning of it lately