On 28/05/15 18:52, Emery Davis wrote:
Otherwise known as Toona sinensis. I am growing the garden variety, not
a pink variety like 'Flamingo'. The new leaves are quite pink anyway.

One of the reasons I planted this was for the culinary value, young
leaves are quite delicious with a mild onion flavour. But the issue is
the tree has shot straight up, it must now be 5m tall with leaves only at
the top, and one small branch where the deer bit the top off when it was
very newly planted. It looks quite bizarre as it can't be more than 2
inches diameter at the base, and puts on at least a meter in height each
year.

I don't want to top it, but I'd like to get some branching further down.
Any clue how to make it do that without cutting?

Does anyone else grow the Toon?

-E

I seem to remember reading somewhere that if you make a cut a few mm
above a bud that will result in a sideshoot forming. It was something to
do with restricting the flow of an inhibitor (auxin) from the growing tip.

I've tried Googling for this but can't find anything. Doubt it would so
any harm to try it, though, as you'd be leaving the growing tip alone.

Otherwise, might it be possible to get some buds from the only branch
and use those to try some bud grafts lower down?

--

Jeff