Casanova's Case Studies

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Santiago Casanova

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Because everybody has been so helpful with the other case studies, I want to make a series. I have been removing trees from my property that are rotten or leaning over my house. I am keeping my lot covered in trees by planting trees that have characteristics that I like. I recently purchased some trees from a closing nursery and they did not all have a good structure. Some of them are neglected.

I am pretty good at pruning citruses and I understand pruning larger trees but training misshapen young trees is something I am not very familiar with. I am going to post pictures of a tree and see what you guys think. After we come to some consensus I will post another tree. I will prune accordingly and then post updates. This is my property so I can prune yearly and post updates in between.
 
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The best place to start pruning cheap trees you bought in a fire sale from a tree nursery that was going under, is probably the roots. If they weren't structurally pruning the canopies, you can place a very safe bet that they weren't moving the trees up in pots on a timely basis, let alone shaving the root balls as they upsized them.

When you wash out the root balls, you'll likely find wheels within wheels within wheels, and be able to see the outlines of all the pots the trees were in, during their time in nursery jail.
 
Too much potential, too few constraints. What do you want it to look like, and how do you want it to function with respect to the sweetgum and existing maple?

Plus, X2 on what @cerviarborist wrote.
 
X3

Well...if it's growing right next to the sweetgum it's not a great candidate for saving.

Red is removal cut, yellow is a reduction cut. Got as close as I could with the marks, let me live.

Capture+_2018-04-06-19-30-56.webp See how it sprouts and prune again later. Don't remove sprouts right away, they provide nourisment to help compartmentalize.
 
colb said:
Too much potential, too few constraints. What do you want it to look like, and how do you want it to function with respect to the sweetgum and existing maple?

Plus, X2 on what @cerviarborist wrote.
Click to expand...

It is not planted yet. I did re-pot it and trim all the circling roots off. It was very bad.

I want it to grow straight up in the middle and have branches coming off of the trunk at almost 90 degree angles to the trunk and about 120 degrees from each other. I am not asking for much am I. It was only 5 dollars.
 
cerviarborist said:
The best place to start pruning cheap trees you bought in a fire sale from a tree nursery that was going under, is probably the roots. If they weren't structurally pruning the canopies, you can place a very safe bet that they weren't moving the trees up in pots on a timely basis, let alone shaving the root balls as they upsized them.

When you wash out the root balls, you'll likely find wheels within wheels within wheels, and be able to see the outlines of all the pots the trees were in, during their time in nursery jail.
Click to expand...

Very good advice. It was the first thing I did.
 
And there is some subjectivity to you tree pruning and where/how to make the cuts. You can also make some heading cuts and manage and train sprouts emerging from them
 
JD3000 said:
X3

Well...if it's growing right next to the sweetgum it's not a great candidate for saving.

Red is removal cut, yellow is a reduction cut. Got as close as I could with the marks, let me live.

View attachment 50737 See how it sprouts and prune again later. Don't remove sprouts right away, they provide nourisment to help compartmentalize.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of keeping the same one as the central leader, it has leaf buds on the end of it. The one on the right has some damage and bark peeling off below the yellow line. I was thinking of taking it back to the trunk, what do you think?
 
I would leave it or reduce it for a bit after planting. Foliage nourishes the roots with photosynthate and growth hormone. Getting roots to establish is key so more foliage = better root development if watered well and preferably mulched.
 
JD3000 said:
Most if the branches your seeing are temporary dont lose sight of that.
Click to expand...

Below the top the tree has very good structure and a very stout trunk. I did not think it was beyond saving. I am have been known to get the damaged or misshapen citruses at steep discounts. I have had decent results so far.
 
I would remove jds left side reduce right and cut back to smaller branch on reduction. Keeping in mind the temporaries. But im no bcma. Feeding the codit is always on my mind...
 
The key here is follow up over the years, train a leader, establish the permanent lowest branches.

More than one way to skin the cat.
 
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