| With breeding standards I begin allready in Februari in a space with a
temperature of about 15°C and placed for a window on the south. When you want to have
them still full flowering in the same year, then you must forget the following breeding
advice. For succession of this advice namely means, that the 'sea of flowers' still is
hanging on such breeded standards the following year. But the flowering then is well many
times more rich than of standards, which allready are flowering in the first year. Let the cuttings grow up till the wished
standard-hight. Bear in mind well to that there grows above still a crown and - dependent
on the variety of cultivar - this can become 20 till 50 cm high. Take a cutting with a
length of 5 à 8 cm and breed them further in the following manner.
Cut off all side-branches but don't
hold away the leaves. They are namely the sap-drawers for the growth. When you hold them
away the cutting will not grow further and at the same time the stem will remain very
thin. Give the plant nitrogen fertilizer, for example Chile saltpetre, but take no
fertilizer with a high percentage of potassium. When the wished hight is reached, pinch
the top (see 1). Pinch the offshoots here for the first time between the second and third
pair of leaves (see 2). After that pinch each new offshoot between the first and second
pair of leaves (see 3). |
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Pict.
1 - First three phases of forming the crown (Drawing: Aat van Wijk) |
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With a little bit of luck you can pinch every 3 à 4 weeks. This means
that when you go on with pinching till the plant end September must in the glass-house,
there are then formed 32 branches. The
following problem in arithmetic shows that:
| 1e time pinching on
15 April, the wished high then is mostly reached |
| 2e time pinching on
15 May, so now 2 branches |
| 3e time pinching on
15 June, gives allready 4 branches |
| 4e time pinching on
15 July, there are now allready 8 branches |
| 5e time pinching on
15 August, now there are allready 16 branches |
| 6e and last time
pinching on 15 September, with 32 branches in glass-house |
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| When you pinch lateron the growth there isn't got in it longer. In winter
I let grow up the plant by a temperature of 10 à 12°C and give then the half of the
normal fertilizer. The plant must not stand too wet while otherwise the root ball can rot
off. This root ball namely isn't so strong like that of an old plant. Then also the
branches remain shorter. When the temperature in your glass-house is too low, dearer place
the plant then for a window of your sleeping-room, which is situated on the south-side. In winter you can go on with pinching but to
prevent botrytis I didn't so and at the same time I prevent the branches remain too thin.
When in the period Februari till half March all 32 branches are pruned back between the
first and second pair of leaves, the plant has after the shootoff 64 branches. Should you
pinch still one time these branches after 2 monthes, or if possible even sooner - but
outward half May - then you have allready a plant with 128 branches. The plant then will
flower for the first time after about 7 weeks (by fuchsias with single flowers) and that
is then in the first week of July.
When you wis that the plant flowers
allready in the first year, you must pinch for the last time yet 15 July. However you get
never more than 32 branches by the same treatment in spring. You may not prune in Oktober
too far back, while otherwise many branches die; to hold a compact plant in spring the
same branches must been pruned still one time between the first and second pair of leaves.
So the difference is 96 branches and do you realize how many flowers can hung to it?
Dependent on the variety cultivar, the pruned crown will not be larger then 15 till 25 cm.
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Let
sitting each year no more then 1 pair of leaves from the new offshoots. |
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| So you hold a compact and handy plant, which can last longer for years.
Each following year the plant will have the double number of branches. |
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| Growing young again of a standard |
| When standards are breed up bad or when they are very old, they become
often ugly. They have then a crown which is well large, but where you look through
across. I have meet this problem also by standards of 'Alison Ewart', 'WALZ Jubelteen'
and 'Beacon' , and this solved as follows. These plants are pruned in autumn
3 weeks sooner than my other plants, this for holding the growth in it a little bit in
winter. In spring (half
March) then there was allready full growth again. All branches of the old crown then
become pruned back till about 5 à 8 cm of the stem. You hold now over only some
'hat-racks'. When you do that pruning outdoors by nice weather in the sun the wounds dry
better. Are the wounds dried up you spray the remained crown wet each day that it is sunny
weather and you take care that the plant is getting sun as much as possible. The bark
where the buds are sitting under, becomes now more soft by spraying wet. By this the plant
will shoot off more easy.
Notice well that the plant isn't
getting botrytis. Spray the plant then immediately against this mould. The shoot
branches you pinch between the first and second pair of leaves and you go on with it till
there has formed a nice compact crown again.
This method of growing young again,
will be practicable by many cultivars, however there is no certainty that all plants react
well upon this. Therefore, try it out; finally is a specimen with a 'look through across
crown' not a nice sight. |
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| Repairing a torn branch or stem of a standard |
By most of you it happens once that a branch or a whole crown has
torned. For example after a heavy rain-shower or while during heavy wind the bamboo stick
near the rotten lower end has a breakdown. When the branch or crown near the stem isn't
torn off totaly, is rescue still possible.
So I was able to put
right a specimen of 4 years old. Of this the stem has torned for three of a quarter and
over a length of 6 cm. The tree has cracked in May and was flowering still yet the same
year. |
| How
is repairing done? Do not try to set back the crown in the original stand
for then the weight becomes too heavy on the torn, but try to lift him carefull something
and place a top or pail (turned upside down) under the crown. After that the crown becomes
pruned back as far that there remains only 1 pair of leaves of the young wood. By
this the sap stream of the plant becomes limited. When you don't so all the leaves of the
plant wil fall down. However there must just remain some leaves to the plant. Otherwise
the sap stream will stop totaly and that must just not. That sap stream
is badly needed for 'the proces of healing'. Place now a new bamboo stick by the plant and
do it so that the stick goes into the soil up 10 cm of the stem. Next lift the crown
carefully and fix him to the top of the stick. And in such a manner that there comes into
existence no pressure upon the torned part. |
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| Place if possible on the other site of the stem still an other stick near
the plant, also on 10 cm from the stem. Now the crown rests principally on the sticks.
When it is done well the torned parts are sitting together (the crown may not sag down).
Isn't it the case try to replace the sticks something so that the torned parts well are
sitting together. Notice well that the torn doesn't torn further near the stem. |
|
Now the whole wound becomes wraped round with teflon-tape, beginning about
5 cm under the wound. This had to occur as stiff as possible for the parts of the wound
had to connect all together. By heavy stems it is advisable to place still also a splint.
This one becomes also fixed with teflon-tape. By a torned branch you set about it in the same way, but then you hang up
the branch to the other branches. Don't forget to prune back this branche on 1 pair of
leaves of the young wood. When the branche is torned begin then with wraping round the
stem and work so to the wound untill all is wraped. |
| The wrapper had to be so that there can come no air by the wound. So you
prevent drying up of the wound. Spray all now with a fungicide against mould still 1 or 2
times. Left the tape sitting
about a year or during a growing season. When the time is there to remove the tape do it
as follows. First remove the possible splint by cutting through the tape with a razor or
other sharp knife. Then the tape round the wound becomes cut through to 2 sites from above
to beneath. Let the tape sitting, this falls off mostly of itself. When
after a month the tape has not fall off it must yet become removed. Don't forget this,
otherwise it will grow together with the wound and after that it isn't hardly to remove.
Then this place will remain more thin than the remainder of the stem or branch. Place now
well a new stick stiff against the stem and by the branch let sitting the hanging still
some years, for the first two years it remains still a weak place. |
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November
2008