Deciduous Plant Clinic

compiled by Jerry Sortomme

Pruning Hints (Pruning is the selective removal of unwanted limbs, branches & twigs)

1. Know the name of the tree, you must pre-determine the desired plant style or pattern

2. First remove THE THREE Ds (DEAD, DISEASED, DAMAGED wood)

3. Remove: Watersprouts, Root Suckers, Growth below the graft/bud union

4. Eliminate crossing and rubbing branches. Shake the plant hard to “hear” contact.

5. Eliminate weak branch crotches (too narrow “V” intersections)

6. Reduce surplus wood to promote quality production of: fruit, flower or foliage

(keep the correct productive wood: current wood, year old, 2-3 year or older, spur wood) *encourage sustainable fruiting wood, plan for adverse scenarios

7. Pull soil and mulch away from the trunk, cane or graft union

8. Root-prune or grub roots if necessary along walkways, edgings, etc.

9. Delay the removal of herbaceous perennial thatch-growth until new sprouts appear

Maintenance Hints

1. Dormant Oil Spray on leafless plants

   1. use a commercial petroleum based spray or >>>>

2. use a sustainable concoction

example: One Gallon of Water Recipe

1 TBSP Canola Oil or similar vegetable oil

1 TBSP Baking Soda or Bicarbonate of Potassium

1 TBSP Cheap Vinegar

1 Teaspoon, Organic Soap, Safers Soap, Shaklee (3 drops), etc..

2) For existing disease control of Peach Leaf Curl (when the tree is in leaf)

use a mixture of liquid kelp and fish emulsion

3) Topdress the soil with horse or beef manure and mulch over the manure

4) Seed or plant companion or allied plant (living mulch)

Propagation Techniques

1. seed-propagate: cool-season crops, grains and wildflowers. Spore-propagation

2. deciduous, hardwood cuttings: tip, stem (straight), heel, mallet, cane, root

3. layering: ground (branch), tip, aerial

4. division of clumping plants, divide rooted “pups” and offsets

5. bulb separation (bulbs, corms, tubers)

6. runner stolons & runner rhizomes

7. apomixis, detach plantlets from flower heads/stalks or fern leaves

8. spawn, divide sub-surface mycelium mushroom masses. also plug-spawn

9. meristem/tissue culture, specialized laboratory culturing of undifferentiated cells

10. grafting & budding, unite scion wood (the selected wood) to rootstock

Bareroot Plant: Dormant trees, shrubs, vines, herbaceous perennials and vegetable crops

1. judge whether to amend the soil of the planting hole for woody-rooted plants

2. the first watering should slurry the soil around the roots and add a wetting

agent or organic soap to super-saturate the root zone soil blend

3. consider incorporating a wicking stake or rock-stacks into the watering well to

encourage deep percolation of surface water into the soil strata zone

4) consider using the method of, vertical-mulching or compost-holing with a

wicking aide to help encourage expansion of deeper woody root-growth,

hint: grow the roots before you grow the fruits