Crape Myrtle's are really tuff and hardy right? Crossing fingers

8 years ago

I have been sick this month and super busy last month, I never got around to transplanting the Crape Myrtle until today... She just start putting out leaves in this past week. Then as I was digging her up (never dug up a tree before) I found that the heavy duty concrete drainage pipe that runs the length of the back of the yard is not under ground very deep and I planted her right above it. I did not snap a pic of how much root ball I got but I would have liked to get the big fat root better, but I could not dig down much, I hope I got enough!

Here the shovel tip is touching the concrete.

She is not a big tree, more wide than tall, so hopefully I got enough.

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Comments (4)

User
8 years ago
They are tough, but you probably still need to prune it back by about a third, since you couldn't get all the roots.
wisconsitom
8 years ago
I disagree with that^ statement. An old idea-sounds good but no basis in fact. Every leaf on a plant is a food-making factory. Very young plants need all the food-making factories they can get. Further, chemicals called auxins-a type of plant hormone-are produced in the growing tips of branches. These auxins "tell" the roots to grow. Cut off a lot of branch tips and all you're doing is slowing down the regeneration of a root system. A newly-tranplanted plant needs all the roots it can get, so don't hamper this by following an old and long-discredited notion.

Further down the road-say in two years-you may well have reason to want to prune this tree. By then, it should be well rooted and will be able to take this. But not now. The best-really the only thing-a new transplant "needs" is careful attention to moisture. I know you guys had a ton of rain in many areas this winter-I was witness to some of these storms back in January in the Fort Myers area-but if it gets dry, you will want to soak the bejeesus out of the area, about once per week...and then leave it alone. More plants are killed by overattention than by neglect.
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User
8 years ago
They are tough, I've never killed one. But it looks like you've planted that a little too deep. The very top of the first roots should be right level with the surface of the soil.
SweetMonkeyCheese Z9 Tampa
Original Author
8 years ago
Lol at the too deep, that is part of why I was transplanting it, when it was only a 8 inch dormant twig I planted it in a sunken grave ... The poor thing, this time its spot is level with the ground and more trunk is exposed. Hopefully she won't struggle and I don't have to lift her up.

I had heard about not pruning the top if there had been a bunch of root torture, so there was only one branch I cut and only because it was about to take my eye out when I was digging her up (she was putting up a fight about moving).

It has been pretty hot the past week or two so I was thinking of putting a beach umbrella up over the next so many days to try and reduce the mid to late afternoon blaze.

Crape Myrtle's are really tuff and hardy right? Crossing fingers

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wisconsitom

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Crape Myrtle's are really tuff and hardy right? Crossing fingers

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wisconsitom

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SweetMonkeyCheese Z9 TampaOriginal Author

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