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How hard can you prune Nicholii?
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Posted by ronaldo60 Ireland (My Page) on Wed, Apr 4, 07 at 18:54
| Hello Down There! I have 2 Eucalyptus Nicholii for about 5-6 years and want to move or prune or both. They are about 7'and i planted them in the wrong place, so they either get dug up or cut in half.
Other than insults for my stupidity and suggestions on what kind of abuse these poor trees can take and survive.
Many thanks,
Ronaldo, |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: How hard can you prune Nicholii?
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You did check how big they can get? This particular species is a bit famous here for having been sold as a "small" eucalypt in the seventies, then proving to be nothing of the sort, to the chagrin of those who planted them in little gardens.
All Eucalypts can be pruned, but this often results in a weak plant which drops branches. Coppicing is a better bet, as the resulting multi-stemmed tree is stronger, and will never get so big. For this you'd cut about 8 inches above the ground. Gumtrees have a concentration of epicormic buds in the outer sapwood of their lower trunks (remnants of the lignotuber they had in infancy). They put up heaps of shoots from these buds if the tree is damaged by fire or chopped off. A few win out and the result can be a very pretty plant with 3 - 8 (or so) trunks. You can do this a number of times in a tree's life, and this tree probably has the potential to live for several hundred years (more if coppiced, as this prolongs tree life). However, the root will get big, so this is not a plant to put within, say, 3 metres of the foundations of a house, or structures like retaining walls or concrete paths.
Some kinds of Eucalypts (notably the mallees) never lose the lignotuber, so naturally have this multi-trunked habit.
I doubt if your tree would transplant well. They're fast-growing things, though. You could just rip it out, if it's poorly placed, and plant another in a better position.
Trish |
RE: How hard can you prune Nicholii?
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| Trish, many thanks for the reply. These were meant to be shrubs but turned out to be trees! They looked real cute when they were little. They are in a bed just on top of a stone retaining wall. I have a mini digger this weekend, i wonder if i cut them to the 8 inch mark and dug them out with the digger if they would survive. Do they have a really deep root? Thanks again, Ronaldo, |
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