Jane trees can be topped. If you leave some lower branches they will bloom and depending on the variety it may or may not bloom on the new growth. Some Varities like Miami Rose are known for being leggy like some of the Moranges and University Hawaii Orange and Wild Fire. On the the leggy plumies they probably will not bloom on the new growth till the next season.

I know some people who actually use sand paper on the tips of their plumies to induce branching so the plumie will not end up leggy.

Good LUck

LOL OK James, you've piqued my curiosity and I gotta ask you for more detail:

Sandpaper?!? You mean they grind the growth center right off the tip so that it branches? What would be the advantage to that technique as compared to merely lopping off the top?

Greg

James

I too am intrigued by the sandpaper :). I had a cutting that arrived this year that floated around the box and the tip was rubbed not badly just slightly flat...LOL. But after quite a bit I now have 3 branches forming! Sandpaper, the new branching tool?! Please tell us more.

Nicole

A little bit different and just my experience, whether it worked or was coincidence, who knows..... on one of my trees, i had a little nub that just wouldn't do anything. I saw where someone had used their fingernail to rough up there own little nub, so I tried it as well. My little nub is now growing.

Interesting although, I don't understand the sand paper. Why not just 'tip' the branch by removing the growing tip? I wondered if anyone tried treating the tree like a shrub? If you keep topping it, then it should make side shoots. But Plumies only bloom on old wood so you would have to make sure you cut each Spring.

Thanks for the information,
Jane

From my experience, when you cut the top off a plant, as long as there are some old leaf nodes the plant usually will start producing new branches. The problem is the new branches are often not the neat little tri-split common naturally and can range from one new branch to many that often grow more parallel to the branch rather that the nice natural 45 degree split.

Usually these branches need to grow for an entire season and then will bloom in the next season. I also found that staggering the cutting so that you cut only half the branches one year and then the others the next keeps the plant flowering, but I have not done this drastically so I am not that sure. However, I know Bud Guillot lopped a number of his plants down low and they flowered lower. He also talked about cutting out the middle and grafting the top on the lower branches but since I suck at grafting I did not follow up on this. Bill

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Ok to clarify Suki from T Nature.net (She has been banned by GW but the "T" stands for Tropic) is the one who uses this method. Usually you do this procedure on leggy cultivars before they get past a foot. You actually just lightly sand the growth tip aka claws (roughen them up slightly),do not sand it hard enough to plane the tip so its like pruning it, again LIGHTLY scuffing the tip. This will cause branching on a shorter tip vs waiting for 2 or 3ft. Sometimes the tip will branch out plus the center where you sanded lightly sometimes comes back also...so go figure.
Ive had tips of branches rub up against a stucco wall or Cinder block fence and just like sandpaper the tip got scuffed up and branched .

Hope this clarifies the sanding..lol

Cheers

Wooweee I'm going to go out and sanpaper some of my seedling and see if I can't get them to branch before they get too tall.
Any body want a stubborn cat. He won't move.
Clara

I had a cat that would sit on top of the monitor and reach down where I was typing. Crazy cats.