I haveto agree with Jsvand here. I have done that same kind of pruning. Currently I have done this to one of my mango. It has been years since I have done this to a citrus tree. The end result was beutifull. I will say that it was kind of nerve racking for me because I have limited resources for any tropicals. The nice thing about most citrus is you see the result of the pruning faster then on some of the other tropicals(at least that is how it is for me.).My keylime that I tip pruned grew a ton of new branches. It seems like I am finding new growth daily and the bulk of it is on the main leader of the tree. I would say it didn't even take a full week and my tree is indoors under lights. I would just chopp it down maybe to 4 feet. Sounds drastic but I bet you wont have to worry about the grafting and once the new wood matures, you may end up with a more productive tree in the end. Maybe I can take a pic and show you. Right now I am not feeling so hot and I have a lot of Christmas stuff to finnish. I am tring to find a good website to purchase a nice Kumquat tree for my dad. Not easy to do when you can't have citrus shipped from FL,CA, or Texas! Andrew

How much of the two feet would be buried? It's not totally nuts but I think there comes a point of diminishing returns when the root ball is too deep or the trunk is exposed to significant ground water. I couldn't say for sure where that point might be. I suspect there will be some level of root growth coming from weak spots or damage areas on the buried trunk. Albeit unlikely, there is also a rot potential. Without having a good visual que I suggest you start training the plant to stand more upright by using gentle graduated traction/tension over months and months in conjunction with burying it a bit deeper than normal.

Thank you Embothrium P. and everyone. This has really been upsetting and yes, my blood pressure has gone up and my stress binge eating kicked into high gear. I'm trying to work through this, but it is a process. First of all, let me assure you that I take responsibility for my failure to get more estimates, but I guess I felt reassured by the very personable arborist with a "reputable" family of "tree professionals". I know I was wrong and should have been able to handle assertively the ongoing train wreck. I made my displeasure known to the guy in charge of the work, and I could tell that I was now the "bitch" customer, but I was not reassured by his saying they would take care of it. So, due to the long holiday weekend, I have put off calling the company. Just as well, as I need time to compose myself. Knowing that I am partly to blame because I did not ask the right questions, such as how the work would be performed, and not insisting on a signed contract with everything spelled out, has just added to my pain, shame and stress. However, I feel that I was taken advantage of (not sure if that's the right word). The salesman, I will call Kevin, did not warn or caution me on the possibility of lawn damage, especially, severe damage. I'm a reasonable person and I know we're making omelets and there might be some broken eggs. He did mention a Bobcat, but again, not the consequences. He did not explain (an I ASSumed that the climber would lower the limbs by rope--that that is how it's done) that the climber would drop limbs from way up and that this might cause damage. I had decided to replace the tree that was removed closest to the street with a new tree. They would use a stump grinder and they would remove all the grindings (would leave if no transplant). Here again, I expected that the new tree would be back filled with new topsoil (if they didn't bring any, I had a whole pile they could have used!). I trusted that this would be done. I had to leave for about an hour and when I returned the tree was planted and they were finishing up putting down mulch. Like an idiot, I noticed that what was still visible looked like grindings (but my mind rationalized that what I was seeing was just on the top) and I didn't ask about it, like "you DID remove the grindings, right? or What did you do with the grindings?" It wasn't until I was unsuccessfully trying to go to sleep that night, that it occurred to me that these yayhoos had used the grindings to back fill. When I call I will insist that they return and replant the tree properly. The crew chief actually asked me if he wanted them to rake up all the smaller twigs where the big oak was removed. What? I said, yes. If you don't, I'll have to do it. Again, I just assumed clean up, of course, was just part of the service. He then shouted back to do it and I kind of got the feeling that this was a real hassle and expected answer was no. They proceeded to rake with what I'd call "not serious" or professional rakes. In fact, this crew was totally reliant of using machines rather than muscle power. I saw a huge auger in one of the trucks when I returned which they must have used to plant the new tree. This was not a big tree. I hope I'm not being too judgemental, but my over all impression that this was a pretty lazy crew. Also, speaking of clean up, they made no effort to remove the large amount of (expected) saw dust. It would have really impressed me if they had brought some blowers and made a stab of removing all the sawdust from the front of my house--patio and sidewalks. No attempt to remove the sawdust in the grassy area around the tree closer to the street. I'm pretty sure this will kill the grass it if it's not removed. I'm really worried that real damage has been done to the surface roots of the remaining oaks. I watched as a huge limb about 8 feet long, crashed down and speared the ground about a foot from trunk of one of them. Just the thought of the psi crashing down on the oak I am trying to save, after spending a lot to have it root fed by injection and the other way, is just outrageous. The Bobcat also exposed and shredded shallow roots that I think belong to the other oak. This was on a slope that the Bobcat had to go up and down many many times to remove all the limbs, most very heavy. Again, worried about how this will affect the tree and how this slope area can be repaired right now to prevent the erosion that is inevitable. I want them to "make it right", but I'm not sure what I should ask for. How can they make it right at this time of year? Grass seed put down now is not going to sprout and will wash away before spring. Straw put down now will blow or wash away or compact before spring. Any topsoil put down now to try to correct the compaction will wash away before spring. Same goes for the swale, that I so carefully construction behind the retaining wall that I carefully reconstructed after years of erosion--all by hand, shovel and wheelbarrow, so necessary to handle drainage. It looks to me like it needs to be repaired by aproper build up of topsoil and reseeded in the spring. I agree, Embothrium P. that a neighbor's property is a neighbor's property, whatever they have on it. This neighbor has been cooperative on some of my other projects with prior discussion and approval, but very unpleasant when not. I still haven't talked to him, but again, this is another aspect of the whole disaster that is causing me a lot of anxiety. I'll be calling Kevin on Monday. One of the questions I'm going to ask is, "would you have this kind of work done on your property with the use of a Bobcat on ground so soft, the damage caused by tree cutters not carefully lowering limbs and sloppy cleanup?" The answer would have to be "no". Who would? This has been one of the biggest and costliest mistake I hope never to make again. I also feel a responsibility to write an honest review on Angie's List. Hopefully, it will prevent any potential customers from making the same mistakes.

Mine is limbed up, and has NO fluting, just a smooth bulk of trunk,so, maybe you're onto something about the lower limbs being on to have fluting, or a buttressed trunk. Mine has a nice wide trunk, but, it's NOT with grooves in it.