After several days of rain, the trees absorbed a lot of water from the soil. Let's take a closer look at the branches and leaves of the trees at this time. It will be different from peacetime, because its body is full of moisture at this time. When we touch it with our hands, we will find that the leaves at this time are extremely fragile, and the bark at this time can't stand being touched, so it will be easily scratched. We may have to come back to see these touched leaves in a few days, and we may have to look for them on the ground.
Broad-leaved trees have large leaves, which can quickly evaporate the water in the leaves after the rain clears, while conifers have low evaporation efficiency, and it takes several days to discharge the excess water from the body. For the same species of pine, we can find that the leaves of some people are very hard, while others are very weak, because of the control of water supply.
Pine trees are particularly sensitive to excessive water, so one day when we want to do homework on black pine trees and we have to keep touching its branches and leaves during the operation, please note that if there is too much water in its body at this time, you will see it begin to shed leaves after the operation, so it is often necessary to soak the pine trees for a few days to move them and let the excess water evaporate.
Common sense of black pine in front of short leaves
The leaves of black pine in the wild are quite long, which seems to be a little fly in the ointment in imitating the miniature of nature. In order to shorten the leaf length of Pinus thunbergii, Japanese potted experts tried and introduced the short leaf method of Pinus thunbergii, but various reference books in China did not explain it in detail. In addition, due to the differences in climate and environment between the two countries, this method cannot be completely accepted in Taiwan Province Province, China. Here we tell you in our own narrative way.
Characteristics of black pine:
This unit is represented by Pinus thunbergii, and the growth characteristics and control methods of other tree species in Pinaceae are similar.
Black pine is an evergreen conifer. If the total leaf area of pine and cypress plants suddenly decreases by half, the growth of trees will immediately shrink and stop, and even lead to death. Moreover, if there are no leaves on any single branch of conifers, the survival rate of this branch will be very slim and almost regarded as death. This is the key point that should be paid attention to when dealing with a large number of conifers. No matter what changes we want to make to it, it is safe to keep its leaf area above 60%. Pines and cypresses can't pick leaves like miscellaneous trees, and they can only control their growth by thinning leaves.
(For potted plants, defoliation means to defoliate all the leaves on the branches, but in certain conifer species, defoliation will lead to partial or total death of conifers, so in conifers, physiology can only be controlled by defoliation, that is, the number of leaves can be reduced to a certain proportion, preferably more than 60% of the original).
As shown in figure 1 right, two needle-shaped green labels are regarded as a leaf of black pine, and their leaves grow spirally around the branches. At the junction of the branch and the bottom of the two needles, there is a growing point of leaf bud, which must be mature before it can reproduce and reproduce new branches and leaves. This growing point will not mature until one year after it leaves, and this leaf bud point will always fall off or suffer together during artificial leaf pulling.
Spring buds and autumn buds:
Chun Lei: (known as Chun Hong in Taiwanese in the industry)
In the wild, when the branches and leaves of Pinus thunbergii grow normally, brown stamens can be seen in the center of the leaves of Pinus thunbergii, as shown in the second picture on the right. Usually, it is responsible for absorbing and accumulating nutrients, and incubating young leaves waiting to grow in its stamens, which gradually become longer and thicker. When the growing season comes, the young pine leaves in its stamens will grow through the stamens from the bottom, and the stamens will quickly flee upward. Most of the time, there is only one stamen. If it is bifurcated, it will develop additional branches. This kind of stamen grows most obviously and rapidly every spring, so it is called spring bud, which is the mainstream growth mode of black pine in nature.
After the development is completed, the leaf bud growth point of Pinus thunbergii generally does not play any special role. Only when the main growth mode of spring buds is destroyed by external forces, the leaf bud point will receive nutrients that are suddenly transported nowhere and be activated, and then new leaves will grow from the leaf bud point. Because it inherits the growth of spring buds, its growth is different from that of spring buds, so we call it secondary buds (autumn buds). The growth of secondary buds will first burst into tufted needle-like fetal leaves as shown in Figure 3, which will protect the tender pine leaves bred in them. After the tender leaves are bred, the fetal leaves open and the tender leaves will begin to grow between the fetal leaves. At first, there were no brown stamens like spring buds in the center of the leaves. After seasonal growth and cultivation, brown stamens like spring buds will slowly grow from the center of pine leaves, and life forms will gradually transform into spring buds.
Almost all trees have the phenomenon of mainstream growth and secondary growth, because there is a particularly obvious difference in this feature of black pine, so here is a special explanation. )
Cutting off the spring buds in the growing period will force the mature secondary buds between the branches and leaves to grow new leaves. This kind of bud replaces the original mainstream growth characteristics and is often used as the method of making branches and short leaves of black pine.
Black pine as a branch:
Spring bud branch
When we get an unformed black pine, we must first cultivate its branch shape. Spring buds of Pinus thunbergii begin to store nutrients and reproduce young leaves after the end of the spring growth period. When the growing season comes next spring, the energy in the leaf core has been fully accumulated for about a year, and the growth rate is quite amazing, and the branches are deformed very straight, and the bark on the branches looks smooth and ugly.
Secondary bud branch
The growth of secondary buds comes from natural or man-made accidents, unlike spring buds that have accumulated enough nutrients in advance. From the secondary bud to the mature stage of needles, stamens contain less energy than spring buds, and the nutrients available in their growth are much less than those in spring buds. Only when it also grows stamens, can it be considered that it has spare capacity and can begin to accumulate nutrients, but it is a vigorous growth in the next spring.
Because the secondary bud grows more leaves than before, when its leaves are very short, the whole light-receiving leaf area can reach the balance between supply and demand in the tree when the needles are very short. Therefore, the branches and leaves developed by the secondary buds in that year are much smaller than those of the spring buds. Good potted plants are the epitome of nature. If the secondary bud is selected as the branch, the bark left after the secondary bud branches will look much older and better.
Key points to balance the potential of each branch
Bud selection
When the black pine grows day after day, when we find that it has sprouted spring buds everywhere, we have to start to observe that each leaf bud will have differences in strength because of different conditions. If we divide it into three grades: strong, medium and weak, we must estimate which grade has the most leaves on the whole tree, and first remove other leaves that are too strong and weak. After several years, all parts of the whole black pine will tend to wither.
Shooting skill
When we find that a stamen does not absorb too much nutrition in the short leaf stage, it grows too early or is extremely vigorous, we can remove the top of the stamen, and after removing the top, the stamen will stop growing because of injury.
Shoot tip refers to removing (destroying) the top of the leaf pistil, so that the leaf pistil can no longer grow upward, but the tender leaves contained in the original leaf pistil will still escape from the bottom up, so the original nutrient supply can still be digested by the growth of leaves. When the leaves grow to the necrotic bud tip, after this buffer adjustment period, the growth of secondary buds will not be catalyzed by the sudden excess of nutrients, thus inhibiting the local strength of pine trees.
The practice of removing the whole stamen completely destroys the growth of stamen, and the nutrients originally provided for the growth of stamen will suddenly have nowhere to vent and catalyze the growth of secondary buds.
Cut spring buds before Dragon Boat Festival
Before the Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan Province Province, we began to thin the leaves and cut off all the spring buds of black pine. When thinning leaves, we must try to keep the old leaves (the mature growth point of autumn buds is only about one year), so as to force the mature growth point between the old leaves to produce autumn buds, as shown in Figure 3.
Note: The growing point of autumn buds is not mature until two opposite needles are mature. Black pine often carries out leaf thinning maintenance and various treatments from time to time. When the spring buds are cut off, if all the leaves in the foliage are new leaves without mature growth points of the autumn buds, the autumn buds will not be forced to grow immediately after the spring buds are cut off, and all the branches and leaves will die next spring because the spring buds have been cut off.
Adjustment of strong and weak buds
After the above-mentioned operation of cutting off spring buds, we can observe the growth of autumn buds that broke out that year, and we can divide them into strong seedlings by the method of short leaves of black pine proposed by the Japanese. Medium; Weak; Especially weak, based on the bud area that grew vigorously in the first year, pruning according to the continuous amount; Weak; However, the number of buds in particularly vulnerable areas, suddenly increased nutrients after being cut off, will be used to replenish and strengthen other buds that were originally weak nearby, so that the relatively weak buds will be gradually strengthened, and the particularly weak buds will be upgraded to weak after the second year, and the weak buds will be upgraded to medium potential in 2005. After repeating this operation for three years in .............., all buds will become robust, thus achieving the requirement of uniform tree strength in all parts of the tree.
Short leaf control
Every year, in the process of cutting off spring buds and forcing out autumn buds, the total number of leaves of black pine will suddenly increase sharply, and the trees themselves will be in short supply. Taking this as an opportunity, slowly adjusting the relationship between supply and demand, increasing sunshine time and watering frequently can promote the early maturity of pine leaves and end their long-term growth in advance, thus strengthening the effect of short leaves.
Black pine short leaf method
This narrative is the short-leaf method of Pinus thunbergii introduced by us, which shortens the time required for the short-leaf process. In the experiment of short leaves of Pinus thunbergii, the short leaves are completed in less than two years, and its effect depends on the reference and comparison of all walks of life. The following is our own research on the improved short-leaf method of black pine, which will be explained in detail with the basin friends slowly.
Cut spring buds before Dragon Boat Festival
In the first year of making short leaves, we should finish thinning leaves and cutting off all spring buds before the Dragon Boat Festival. When thinning leaves, you must try to keep the old leaves (the leaves will grow into mature leaf buds in about a year). Cutting off spring buds will destroy the growth pattern of spring buds and force secondary buds to grow among branches and leaves, as shown in Figure 3 above.
Note: Black pine often encounters leaf thinning and various treatments from time to time. If there is no mature secondary bud growth point in the leaves after destroying the spring buds, it is likely that the secondary bud growth will not be forced out after the spring buds are cut off, or even all the branches and leaves will die in the end. Therefore, leave a proper amount of old leaves when thinning leaves.
Balance adjustment in growth period
Except in the dormant period of cold winter, the rest can be regarded as the growth period of black pine. After cutting off the spring buds, depending on the individual situation of the trees, after about two to three months, the secondary buds will grow to a stage that can be called secondary buds (the leaf length is about 1.5~2 cm, with branches but not obvious). At this time, we will classify each area of the tree as strong and weak, assuming that we separate them from the tree.
Based on the strong area, the secondary branches of the weak area are gradually cut off, forming as shown in Figure 5. Because the black pine is still in the growth stage, the nutrients originally supplied to the cut secondary branches will be transferred to the adjacent secondary branches, which will be strengthened and promoted.
Fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6 and fig. 7 are only used to identify whether the leaves have layers. In fact, the last bud branch is very short and the internode is not obvious. At first glance, there is only one cluster, so you must observe it carefully to determine the number of layers of its leaf cluster. Generally speaking, about four layers of buds are considered as strong buds, and only one layer has about four or five pine leaves. People who are stunted are the weakest. We can also use the number of leaves to distinguish its strength. Each layer of black pine is about 4 ~.
Balance regulation during dormancy period
After the above-mentioned growth period balance operation, before the severe cold solar term of that year, we assume that the strength of branches and leaves in each local area is divided into four different grades as shown in Figure 6 on the right, and then the leaves are thinned. Based on the weakest leaves, we keep all the leaves of the weakest branches and reduce the leaves of other branches and leaves to the same number (or less) as shown in Figure 7. Will be reduced because of the sudden decrease in the number of leaves. In the subsequent period of plant growth stagnation, these sudden excess nutrients will make it difficult for its leaves to grow new leaves to digest excessive supply, resulting in the gradual loss of supplied nutrients. After the cold winter, its branches and leaves will adapt to this new adjustment of supply and demand, so that the branches and leaves in the region will develop in a balanced way and reach the balance of this local area.