It’s been a funny start to spring with some trees leafing out early and with gusto while others are only just budding out. I put it down to a warm start and a later cold snap which has set a number of trees behind their bench mates.

The below Crabapple is new to my benches and was re-potted a month or so ago and falls firmly into the early leafing category

Since re-potting, It had continued to grow strongly and had leafed out to a point where the inner growth was already being shaded out and the inner buds looked sluggish.

So i brought it into the workshop and cut back extending shoots and also leaf pruned or partially defoliated the canopy.

Above: Before and after.

I have left the tree with two leaves per shoot, having also removed the small inner leaves at the base of shoots that tend not to form buds at their base. I find this goes a long way to increasing the sunlight that reaches the interior without really effecting the budding / ramification. I will see what happens from here but if the leaves keep growing in size and shade the interior too much i may cut them in half to further encourage light to the interior.

There was a lot of growth in the upper regions of the tree so by carrying out this first leave prune i hope that the energy of each branch is much more evenly balanced and has a more even access to light. We will have to see what happens with the second flush to test that thought.