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How to trim a young Magnolia tree? tree

last year

I planted a small magnolia tree in fall of 2019. It appears healthy but has several small trunks, each with leaves going all the way to the ground. Should I prune down to a certain number of trunks? Should I trim low leaves on those remaining trunks?

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ViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6

last year

Here is what 'Ann' will do, left to her own designs...from first photo in 2005:

To next image, in 2007 - ahead of the Easter freeze:

After recovery, 2011:

Then, 2015 was a banner year:

2018 kept it going:

And that brings us to spring 2021 - reliable as ever:

It really is excellent as a multi-stemmed plant.

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Comments (7)

Mike Washburn
Original Author
last year
It is a Magnolia Ann and the care card that came with it says it will grow to a max of 12 feet tall and 10 feet across.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
'Ann' is often sold as a multistemmed shrub, so its current appearance is quite natural. It really does not require any pruning, which is best left to a minimum with any form of deciduous magnolia anyway.
Mike Washburn thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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Ken, one of the benefits of books is the portability. Another is the ability to flip back and forth between two pages to compare two images with what you have in front of you and decide more easily which one you have. If you don't KNOW what you are looking at, a computer can take forever for you to make enough lucky guesses, and look at enough images, to narrow it down to "that one". And if you have to enlarge each of the thumbnail sized images, compare it to your mental - or digital camera - image, wonder, go to another, change the species listing, compare again, and then another, you can kill a LOT of time. Meanwhile I can look in a book, compare the leaf, branch structure and bark with the one on a page, say yes or no, and go to the next if need be, inside of 5 minutes. Another, for me anyway, is the amount of extraneous stuff you pick up as you page through the book - computers only give you the image you ask for, if you are lucky. I think you may have forgotten what it's like to be a beginner - no one starts out knowing all that you now know.
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The Vitex is a lovely tree! I would absolutely wait until winter to do any pruning. Believe it or not, that is the best time to prune trees! As the person stated above- you will eventually choose at least 3 main trunks. Take a look at Vitex trees in Google images to get a picture in your head of what you would like it to eventually look like. In the winter, remove all suckers, weak lower branches, crossing branches to help shape the tree. If you work hard now at pruning correctly you will have to do less when the tree matures. Making tree cuts correctly is extremely important. If you look at the crotch between branches you will notice a rough area right at the connection of the branches. This is called the branch bark ridge and it is so important NOT to ever cut into this. It is the part of the branch that helps the tree heal properly from cuts. You want to make a diagonal cut directly outside of the branch bark ridge. If the branch is thick you want to do a 3 cut method cut. 1-cut diagonally from top to middle, 2 cut diagonally from bottom to middle, 3-cut right through. This avoid tearing any of the bark which can lead to the tree getting sick because of the open wound. Hope this helps-it is a bit difficult to explain in writing. I train all my clients in trimming properly in order to sustain and enable the tree to grow and live for many years! :)
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
pruning involves having a plan .. in how you want to shape the future of your plant ... think topiary in the ultimate ....

if you have no plan.. then you dont need to prune ... except for removing broken or dead parts ...

no plant just needs to be pruned ...

and boy does it look like you have enough room to let it do its own thing ....

check out the link below.. and see if you can figure out which were pruned.. and why .. i can see two reasons ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=magnolia+anne&iax=images&ia=images
Mike Washburn thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
last year
Yes, just leave it alone. If, by the summer, those leafless tips prove to be properly dead you could cut them off. Otherwise let it be itself.
Mike Washburn thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
Embothrium
last year
Pull the mulch back away from the stems. Otherwise you bought a specimen already developed by the grower as a shrub so if you had wanted a single stem tree the thing to do was buy one formed at the production facility to have that shape at time of purchase.
Mike Washburn thanked Embothrium
Mike Washburn
Original Author
last year
Thank you for the various comments. I received it as a gift when a family member passed away so I did not have a grand plan for It. That said, I do think it could look good where it is as a large shrub so I think I’ll just let it continue to grow as is.

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