Well.. In a few hours I am off to collect a tree I just bought.. A 6 foot (1.8m) tall Taxus Baccata. Nursery stock which is getting poor quality so they are dumping the trees. I will be getting one of the trees on the image. Will keep you posted of the trimming

Right, I got the one on the right. The thing was about 80kg's and way too big for the car. So I first trimmed most of the branched to stumps. Then I cut the top off (The silly ball on top). THat resulted in a tree I managed to pull into the car, and bring home.

THere I removed it from the pot, and removed loads of soil and roots. Possibly 1/2 of all root material was cut of, requiring serious work with an axe and shovel. I furthermore clipped branches away, which were not needed, and ringed some fo the bark of the tops that I would like to remove later.


The next step was re-potting. I used the massive container it came in. First a layer of 2 buckets of sand. Then potting soil with added cow-dung. One bucket. Topped with a bucket of the origial soil the tree was in. The tree is nog about 25cm deeper in the pot. I filled the sides with a micture of original and potting soil. The top of the soil I covered with 2 buckets of coarse sand to reduce sun effects & evaporation.

The sections that were debarked in rings to allow natural die-back were covered in vaseline (Petroleum oil?) to reduce drying out of the stumps.

Hey! A *Charlie Brown* tree!

Oh my gosh, J. What you just put this poor tree thru all at once !!! ...it's a wonder it doesn't turn itself upside down and plant it's head in the soil! You don't hold back, do you? LOL! Yet, somehow I get the feeling that this tree will survive! I am eagerly anticipating it's progression! Thanks for sharing!

Leslie

If I may ask, what is the purpose of all the short branches down the sides of the trunk? Thanks!

Leslie

Yes you may

Shall I answer the question so you do nto need to ask the question?

Very simple: The tree was massive and I needed to trim it down. However, as I am not sure yeat what the final tree will look like, I left this on; Whereever new growth appears, the branch may stay for a while. When I decide which braches need to stay, the rest will be removed. Some of them might however stay (Depends a little on the desired thickness of the branches that are allowed to stay

Make sense?

J

To your first question: "Yes, please... "
To your second question: "Weeelll...no...not really... "

Would you not get the same result in new growth if you had cut all the old branch stumps off flush with the trunk?

L

I'm curious too, but then maybe I am underestimating the size of the tree. *double checks post* 6 feet tall!!! You are very brave to attempt such an undertaking. No wonder you had to cut it to get it in the car!
I don't know a whole lot about how trees branch, so I'm not much help in this discussion. It just means I'll need to check back to learn something new!

Hm.. OK.. No, you do not get the same result by letting it back-branch.

BasAndBonsai: Yes, I meant as tall as a full grown man. By now I have removed a good part if (Tried to get the plant itself to be roughly around 1 meter. The final tree will be around 70-80 cm, from soil surface.

The base of the trunk of this tree is as thick as a grown mans arm. So getting any realistic branches back will take many years. Furthermore: I reduce root-mass by I think at least 50%. And I trimmed most of the foliage of. In order to get nice healed scars on the trunk, you need an active happy and healthy tree. Otherwise there is in my view a lot of risk of infection, moisture loss tree mortality. So I just left the branches where they were. The tree now gets to regroup, regrow. And in Spring I will continue. Then the tree should be well on its way to recovery, with a number of branches growing out. At that point I can decide wether the 1-4cm thick side branches are to thick to be used, and to use new sprouts, or let it keep some of them. In any case.. There are loads of your green tips on the trunk, so resprouting will not be a problem (Taxus is know for very easy back budding).

To be honest: I have already put a few pulling wires in place to bring the thinner branches down a little. That way in Spring they are at least in the right position, if I want to keep them. An indication of what I have in mind for the final tree you say? I thought you'd never ask. Red lines connect the picture with the location in the final tree. White = deadwood; grey is hollow; brownish - live bark; Green = foliage pads.


[edity=ps]: note that I bought this tree for only 20 euro's. the tree was in very poor condition. I removed a dozen snails, and many 'rubs' from the rootball. So that is why I had no trouble kicking this plant around; If I have not taken it from the container, it would probably have died before the end of winter.

An ambitious plan, to be sure, that will take many years to complete. I am glad you got to it and saved it! I think it will look beautiful once it's done!

Hi J,

Wow! Thank you sooo very much for that! I read it over 3 times at least and have learned so much! And you even read my mind in asking for an indication of what your plans are for this tree...I luv it! Your diagram next to the photo is really helpful too. I was able to click on the photo once to enlarge it and I see what you mean by all the back-budding happening. How cool is that?

Are you concerned about any snails and grubs that may still be hiding out in the existing root ball? Do they actually kill the tree by feeding on the root system?

I hope you don't mind my taking up so much space here by asking so many questions. I never seemed to grow out of my inquisitive mind. You have also made me realize how much more studying I need to do.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Leslie