Need help identifying tree and pruning advice
Andrei Tulai
6 years ago
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Embothrium
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoLogan L Johnson
6 years agoRelated Discussions
How to prune old neglected apple tree - need advice
Comments (16)I am well aware of what modern day experts recommend. I disagree. I have experimented for 40 years on every kind of tree in my yard. An open wound, like all unsealed drying wood, cracks. Water enters the cracks along with debris and causes rot. Bugs find the moist rotting environment enjoyable and take up residence. Next thing you know you have one of those trees that are all hollow in the heart. The experts say the tree shuts the wound off and everything's Ok. Well if you don't care how long the tree's life span is and it just has to live as long as you do, Ok, otherwise, it's crap! Just like collar cuts. Under the right conditions, with a branch at a good horizontal angle, they're great, but not every situation is ideal and when you have three or four branches intersecting a crotch to remove it's going to take close cuts and sculpting with chisels to get cuts that will drain and heal and not rot. Keep in mind, these new methods are designed for todays professionals who must temper perfection with time is money. Sterilization takes time. Reworking the cut with hand tools takes time. Periodically inspecting and renovating the wound takes time. Properly treating the wound takes time and an improperly dressed wound is worse than no dressing at all. If you can come up with a reasonable compromise then you have saved a lot of time, therefore, money. None of this applies to the home orchardist. He can do a little at a time and do it right. Remember, these same experts are the ones who prune maples in March along our highways and byways, instead of waiting until just after bud break which would promote an almost immediate callus to form, and no bleeding. Lastly, fruit trees seem to be about the slowest to heal and the most prone to fungal diseases, so any precaution, no matter how time consuming is warranted. Methods like clean, close cut and wound dressing were developed over thousands of years by the people who developed most of our fruit and nut cultivars from wild, inedible plants, the Chinese and the Italians. Even if my own experiments hadn't convinced me, I'd still ere in favor of the ancients!...See MoreAdvice needed on Oak tree pruning
Comments (1)The reason your post hasn't had any responses is because it's posted in this relatively obscure subforum. You might want to repost in the main Trees Forum. Considering the serious damage done to the trunk of your tree, I'd probably consider replacement....See MoreNeed help identifying citrus and pruning
Comments (4)Unfortunately I am not able to upload pictures from my camera at this point in time -- I thought maybe I could scan a couple of leaves from the trees and upload them though. Will try to do that soon. One thing I forgot to mention about the leaves is that they are very shiny, glossy. They don't look the same as my neighbor's citrus tree leaves. On closer inspection of the trees, the suckers all appear to be coming from the roots. Someone must have attempted to completely remove one of the trees a while ago, as the original trunk is completely cut off nearly at ground level. A friend suggested to me yesterday that if I remove all the suckers except for one strong-looking one and focus on nurturing it, it could start to produce. Is that true? The other tree has the original trunk, but I couldn't identify a graft line anywhere. The leaves from the branches at the top of the tree don't look different than those off the sucker branches. I also have two lemon trees, with lots of thorns. (Are all lemon trees thorny?) One has a few small fruits in the interior of the tree. The leaves are all edged with brown and spotty-looking. Is this just from lack of water? I've watered it the last couple of mornings. The other lemon tree looks half-dead, all the branches on the west half of the tree have scabby, scaly bark and no leaves. From articles I've read, it sounds like it could possibly be scorched? It is in the front yard with no protection from the hot afternoon sun. The leaves on this tree look similar to what I described on the tree, only not really green at all, yellow in the middle with brown edges and spotty all over. What is the best way to start taking care of the lemon trees, regarding fertilizing, water, pruning, etc.? Thanks for all your help!...See MoreNeed help to identify & prune potted palm
Comments (3)Though I couldn't get the photo , when I tried to copy and paste that address, I suspected since most folks loosely define "palms" as any plant with a long bare "trunk" and a cluster of leaves at the top, that it might not be a palm that was being described. Lucky in that case however, since unlike plams, the other "palm-like" plants may have their tops completely removed and can recover to start regrowth, whereas palms may not have the tops removed and survive in most cases. Pruning in that case consists at most of trimming off dead or brown frond and leaf tips and removing old dead fronds, but never the crowns!...See Morekitasei
6 years agoLogan L Johnson
6 years agotheforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
6 years agoedlincoln
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoEmbothrium
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agosam_md
6 years agotheforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
6 years agoLogan L Johnson
6 years agokitasei
6 years agoLogan L Johnson
6 years agoDingo2001 - Z5 Chicagoland
6 years agoMike McGarvey
6 years agoedlincoln
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
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