Is It Okay To Chop A Myrtle's Trunk?

JoshMoRenaud

Hi everybody,

I'm a new member here but I've been lurking for a few months now, soaking in all of your great advice! But finally I have a question for you experts out there. A friend of mine has gone "native crazy" and wants to remove all non-native plants from his garden, including 3 myrtles. One of them is about 20 feet tall, so I'm not sure if it would be possible to remove it and train it as bonsai, but the other 2 are about 8-10 feet tall, so I'm wondering if I can transplant them in my yard and hack them down to a shorter trunk and let it grow from there. My question is, will a trunk chop kill it? I think he's nuts to give them up, but I'm more than happy to dig them up and take them if they can be trained as bonsai. Thanks in advance!

Josh

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FredL

Hi Josh,

I've collected lots of material, but mostly under 8' in height, so my suggestions will be given more from my reading than from actual experience with trees as big as you're looking at. But, I do know what I'd do.

First, I'd try to get permission to take a few months to do the whole job. What I'd like to do would be, first, cut the trees down to a reasonable height, in place. To me, that would be, say, 4-5'.

Next, depending on how the roots looked, I'd dig a trench partly or all the way around the tree to a depth of 18-24", severing part or all of the lateral roots at a distance of about 24" from the trees. If I only went part way, I'd do the rest of the lateral roots as soon as the trees looked ready for it. I'd then give the trees as much time as they needed to recover from these operations; a minimum, there in Florida, of 3 or 4 months. More if it took that long for the trees to begin healthy growth again. I would then complete the job, digging as far under the trees as I was able.

If it were me, once again, I would then pot the trees in large grow boxes or clay pots, giving them at least 2 or 3 years to adapt to pots. A good soil mix, which can be made in alot of different ways, depending on what you have available, is critical at this point. The key here is, it must be granular and fast draining. I like about 1/2 lava rock, 1/3 bark or other mulch and 1/6 loam (garden soil).

If you can get your trees through all this, you should have some great material to work with in about 3 vyears or so.

Good luck, Fred

JoshMoRenaud

Thanks a lot for the info, Fred! I'll post some pictures when I start the process. The trees just went dormant so I'm guessing I should wait a month or two before I sever the lateral roots... or would it be better to do while its dormant?

FredL

Josh, in your area (Florida?) I'm not sure how much it really matters. Seasonal effects I, would think, are pretty muted to non-existent. If I were doing it here (Hey! I just remembered - I am going to be doing it here!), I'd wait till Spring.

Fred

JoshMoRenaud

Actually, it does usually dip down to freezing once or twice each winter here, and a lot of the trees do have a short dormancy. In fact, myrtles are one of the few trees that provide us with nice "autumn" (well, its actually in winter) colors before their leaves drop. One zone south and we wouldn't have a frost at all so we'd be almost purely tropical. Zone 9 is kind of like limbo... too warm for most northern trees and too cold for most tropicals... I shouldn't complain though, there are plenty of species to choose from!

KZitzewitz

Are these the lagestromia or however its spelled myrlte? there are two type, crape myrtle myrtus communis, and then the is the lagestromia which I do not think is spelled right. if it is the Lagestromia, I have one about 2 feet tall, I cut off about 80 percent of the roots, and most of the leaves fell off last year, it has tollerated everything, and is growing just fine, so I would think trunk chopping would be fine. I would do as said though, chop them in their place so they can start to grow some more, and then several months later do some root trimming in the ground (dig around the tree), then maybe 6 months to a year later dig it up and box it... would seem the safest way, unless you do not care if they live, then do all three steps in a day or 5.

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JoshMoRenaud

I'm pretty sure its a Crape Myrtle. The leaves are larger, maybe 2" or 5 cm wide and they all turn red and drop off shortly before the first frost.

I have some immature dwarf myrtle (not sure is thats Ligustrum) in the ground and they behave the same way. I will probably end up doing the entire dig in one weekend because I would hate to leave my friend's neatly manacured yard torn up for more than that. Especially since he has so many other large shrubs that he'd like removed.

I'll leave some of the larger roots intact (longer than 24" or 50 cm) and take it home in a couple bags of moist soil. It might be more likely to survive the transplant, then I can trim the larger roots back next summer. Do you think this will help?

Thanks a lot for your great advice!

BonsaiMon

no problem with a trunk chop on the crape myrtle or the myrtus either.. I've collected crape myrtle mid winter because it was to be dozed if i didn't .. I planted them back in the ground.. it was slow to break the first year but the second year very vigorous growth...I have sandy soil and they did great. I chopped them to 3' for moveability and left them at that height. I was also digging other trees so my attention was drawn to the 25 yr 20' plum with a huge trunk and beautiful nebari... When I have the oportunity to collect more myrtles i will chop to the desired height right off..
It has been my experience with myrtles, to start with large trunk, to have patience and allow for years.. to have an effective bonsai.

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peace,
tom stoute

http://bonsaiinsights.spaces.live.com/