I've was reading brent's article "understanding pruning" trying to come up
with a game plan for training specimens in the ground. specifically one
that is wild and well established. After an initial trunk chop the growth
is course and vigorous becaseu all of those roots in the ground that were
left untouched and were feeding a much bigger tree are now pumping all
their energy to a much smaller one with fewer buds. which is good for
developing a strong leader and creating some thick begginings of
branches . then comes the initial pruning of the roots using a spade aroud
the tree. when would be the best time to do this? I'm thinking mid
summer...when.. as brent puts it.. the tree is shifting gears, and all the
energy up top is now going to go into root production. thus you would get
the best of both worlds... getting all the stored energy from the old root
system.(spring to summer).. and storing all the new energy in a new root
system.(summer through fall) or would it be best to root prune a season or
two before you actually collect.. leaving the larger root system intact for
a while?

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