I talked with a botanist friend awhile ago, and he said the
primary/secondary idea is valid, but it applies within the year. That is, A
tree can make it through stressful situations per year, but if it still has
strength, the next year it gets to start anew leaf wise. The stress causes
stunting of the tree.

Dave wrote:
"W. Watson" wrote in message
. ..
An irrigation line break caused a dawn redwood (9' tall) and a crabapple
(9') tall to lose their foliage in the heat of August (90F+) period.
Intense watering for two weeks brought almost all the foliage back on the
crabapple, and did a fairly good job on the dawn (meta sequoia). The dawn
usually has some trouble each August (we live 60 miles outside of
Sacramento and August has lots of 90F+ days). I generally spray it lightly
for days during such a tough stretch, and each year it comes back fine.

I was talking to a gardener about this and she offered that trees have
something like 1 main leaf and an auxiliary leaf, if the main dies the aux
takes over. Sometimes they have a few extra auxs. Does this translate into
a tree having two, maybe three lives if hit by a lack of water?

--
Wayne Watson (Nevada City, CA)

Web Page: speckledwithStars.net

No, there is no translation from trunk failure and branching rebound, AND,
drought conditions.

What the multi-tiered thing is when the trunk is damaged to the point it
can't produce any growing, a primary branch takes over, and so forth. A
pecan tree here is on the 2nd branch attempt. Culprit is a dog with anxiety
problems initially, and 2 dogs later.
Dave



--
Wayne Watson (Nevada City, CA)

Web Page: speckledwithStars.net