Structural question on a crape myrtle

[SeanRuel]

Don't know about crepe myrtle but my $.02

I've used stainless steel deck screws to connect weakly attached unions on small ornamentals, coupled with reduction pruning

 

[Mossy Dell]

Don't know about crepe myrtle but my $.02

I've used stainless steel deck screws to connect weakly attached unions on small ornamentals, coupled with reduction pruning

SEAN, do you first drill a pilot hole? No. 10 screw? So it must be long enough to go through one trunk, but how far into the other?

 

[ATH]

ATH, do you first drill a pilot hole? No. 10 screw? So it must be long enough to go through one trunk, but how far into the other?

On the OP's picture, I'd use a small diameter rod through both trunks (probably 3/8" - maybe only 1/4" - standard says 1/4" for less than 5", so that would be plenty)...

But on a really small tree, I don't dislike @SeanRuel 's idea of using deck screws (I've done that once or twice myself on smaller branches). I'd go at least half way into the other trunk. If there was space, maybe bring one in from the other trunk back half way through the first.

Yeah...I'd do a pilot hole. If it is small enough to expect a screw to hold, it is pretty thin wood, meaning it will split pretty easy. If you split it, that just defeated the purpose of bracing it in the first place!

 

[evo]

A few brace rods would probably do the trick, likely better than just a cable on its own. Can’t recall ever seeing a crap Myrtle fail due to included bark, they seem to graft together fairly easily.

I don't have much experience with this kind of myrtle. but I'be had a little better than a 50/50 on thin barked trees of a few screws and a knife or thin handsaw scribing inside the inclusion. I lost interest and moved from my experimental Japanese maple and haven't tried it again.

 

[Dan Cobb]

I'm no expert, but the idea of bracing or cabling a crape myrtle seems laughable. Crape myrtles can give cockroaches lessons on how to survive anything and keep coming back. I've climbed many large ones for pruning and have no reservations about using branches no bigger than my wrist for a TIP. Like @Stumpsprouts said, tough as nails.

 

[colb]

Do you have some examples of a good looking single stem crape? I can’t imagine that looking right.

Do Google Street view of the main drag in Wintergarden, FL. Big single trunk crepe myrtles with wide branch angles in the street median. I'm not a big fan of most crepe myrtles - leaf arrangement on the stem is usually too symmetrical for me. There are certain cultivars with small limbs that are more akimbo and thus difuse the regularity of the leaf arrangement - I like those. The bark is very cool on most all of them regardless of whether it is white or red.

 

[Steve Connally]

I have to say @colb is one of the smartest guys I know and explains so eloquently. I will be much less eloquent. I'm in SE Virginia. 25 years doing this and I have never seen a Crepe Myrtle fail due to any reason including getting hit by an ambulance head on. The tree survived, the ambulance did not. They don't decay, They compartmentalize cuts like a champ aside from suckering out at the cut. Codominants don't fail even in ice storms. If you called me to consult I'd suggest you not let it bother you. If it bothered you to look at I'd suggest not looking. Like many have said, there's no risk, just a natural imperfection similar to the millions of other Crepe's looking exactly like yours. My 2 cents says leave it well enough alone and appreciate the imperfections and the individuality of each specimen in your landscape.