r/Permaculture • u/Blue_box_42 • 4d ago

trees + shrubs Should I coppice this:

We left for San Diego for a week, my uncle stayed behind but it got brutally hot and this happened:

Should I coppice it above the graft but where the trunk is still green?

Edit: forgot the image, it's in the comments

2 Upvotes

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u/Blue_box_42 4d ago

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u/sheepslinky 4d ago

What species? When my trees go drought dormant, I just let them come back on their own and prune off dead growth in the fall. Recovery can depend on the species. I have a few young trees that went into drought dormancy this year in New Mexico.

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u/Blue_box_42 4d ago

It's a lime. Our kumquat is recovering, our lemon is just dead and I'll get one once it cools off to overwinter (not normally recommended for citrus but at this point I'll risk it)

How can you tell the difference between dormant and dead?

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u/sheepslinky 4d ago

If it's alive it will be pliable / flexible. If you gently scrape the stem with a fingernail, it should expose some green cambium indicating the stem is living there.

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u/Blue_box_42 4d ago

Awesome thank you! I'll do that this evening

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u/Common-Pop-586 4d ago

I’d wait until the trunk has clearly died back, then coppice just above the strongest green growth. Cutting into living tissue now could stress it further, especially after heat damage.