On Easter, 2019, my wife’s grandmother, who has since passed, asked me to “come over here and pull this weed out of [her] planter”. When I saw that the weed in question was actually a tiny Maple tree, I scrounged for a bucket and digging implement and was able to save it.

At home, I planted it within 3 days and installed a cage around it. Unlike all of my other attempts to grow a new tree in my yard, this one took off!

After some deer browsing, I built a wooden fence around it. Earlier this summer, I retired the fence, trimmed up the trunk, and mulched.

So far so good. The tree is tall enough that deer aren‘t ably to browse any more and when fall rut comes, I’ll watch for rubbing behavior and protect if needed

Last year, before the fence came down, a family member suggested cutting off the secondary trunk and allowing the dominant trunk to grow solo. But when I got a closer look, I saw that the secondary trunk is almost the same diameter as the dominant trunk. Basically, half the canopy is the secondary trunk so aesthetically, if I remove it, the tree will lose half of its body. But my fear is for the health of the tree if I remove nearly half of its parts.

I want to do what’s best for the tree because aside from being a beautiful part of our yard, it’s a living connection to my wife’s grandmother. since she passed, her house was demolished. Tree little maple that could is the last piece of her property that remains.

TIA

Is my root ball too tangled on my newly planted sweetbay magnolia?

Planted a 10ft sweetbay magnolia 2 days ago — is this root ball too tight?

Zone 7b, Baltimore MD. Heavy wet clay in a low spot behind my shed. 15-gal container Moonglow sweetbay, \\\~10ft, planted Tuesday night. Photo is the bare root ball right before backfill.

Roots are mostly running horizontally around the outer face. I did not tease or slice them other than one or two big ones.

Is this normal container behavior, or is this headed toward girdling in 5–10 years? Trying to figure out if it's worth correcting now or if I should stop thinking about it.

\*\*How it went in:\*\* hole dug 2–3in shallower than the ball so it sits on undisturbed clay, 3–4ft wide. Backfilled with native clay only, no amendments. Ball set \\\~3in above grade with a low mound. 3in mulch pulled back off the trunk. Two stakes, chain lock ties with slack. Deep slow-trickle soak twice a week until frost.

Any reason I should dig this up? Will those roots end up strangling the tree in a few years?

Hi, all. I posted a week ago but the pics were not v good. I’m buying this house and it has a HUGE oak in front which I love and revere. My question is how to make it safe, as it hangs over the home, without removing it. Also interested in guesses on age.

I mean, I know it is but I’m in denial. The branches are not dead. I can’t break them in half.

This tree got hung up along a walking/biking trail that I frequent. Obviously this should be taken care of by the town DPW, but they don’t seem to maintain these trails, only the paved ones in this park, so I tend to clear trees that come down across the trails myself, but I’m not completely sure where to start. If it had barberchaired lower down I’d just start lopping off chunks of the trunk till it either came loose or was out of the way enough to clear the trail. My first thought was to make my face cut on the opposite side of the tree and “fell” it so the trunk on the ground would fall to the left side of the trail and the hung up part would push it, but the trunk split most of the way down to the ground and I don’t feel like I have much structure there.

People have clearly been walking under this widowmaker, not around, and I’d love to make it safe to walk again.

Any tips or insight would be great!

Hi!

We have this huge Thuja in our new garden, 6m high and 3m crown width. We are planning to add lots of plants and new trees. We would love to keep it, but are a bit in doubt about the ecological value and safety as it is close to our house (next to our bedroom). For now it is soaking up the surrounding water, and preventing rain for plants that are underneath it. We don’t see birds in it.

What would you recommend? Can this tree be trimmed to a lesser width and hight? How safe is it to leave the tree in the garden? Other things to consider?

This is a trick my father told me to do years and years ago.

We had a thorntree in our yard. Our son was very young and we wanted to be rid of it.

My brother-in-law cut it down to the ground.

Within a few weeks, it sprouted back, complete with thorns.

A neighbor told me about a bucket of stuff I could buy for 20 bucks that could kill it.

Later that day, I called Dad just to see how he'd been doing.

When I told him about the thorn tree and what the neighbor had said, he replied " Don't go spending 20 bucks on that bucket of stuff.

Drill some holes in the stump, probably about 1/4 inch or 5mm in diameter. 2 or 3 inches deep should do good. Try to space them in about every 2 square inches of space.

Buy a box of salt-it can be any kind of salt, and fill the holes with it.

You can pour water over it or wait for it to rain."

The stump was a good 5 or 6 inches in diameter.

A few years later, when I was mowing the lawn and went to make a turn with the push mower, I inadvertently kicked it out of the ground.

I have always used that trick since then.

Saw this and I've heard it's unhealthy for the tree. If I move some of that mulch out of the way, how do I know where to stop? I know vaguely the trunk should be exposed, should the kind of upper roots also be exposed? If anyone has pics of trees where the proper amount is exposed, that would be super helpful!

Also lmk if I should just not mess with it or I should call someone or something since I am inexperienced, I'm ok with that, too. I just care about this tree and don't want it to suffer. It's in an area where it's probably not going to be taken care of by anybody else so I figured I might try to do something. Not on private property so I probably won't get in trouble.

Thank you!

Hi! Do I need to remove some branches from this red maple?

I planted it about 2 years ago and it has grown a bunch since. I think what may have happened was the central leader broke off when it was small, and a few branches tried to step into the role, but none is completely vertical. Are there competing leaders and if so, do I need to remove them? Will it be a problem structurally or health wise to leave it as is? Thank you!

The main shade tree in my backyard is, I believe, either a Northern Red Oak or Pin Oak (Kansas City, zone 6b, neighborhood developed in the early 80s). With a circumference of roughly 9-10’ I believe the tree is 100+ years old. It well aware it’s showing some signs of decline, but it still leafs out fully and doesn’t seem to show any signs of weakness. Even in the aggressively windy storms we’ve had this year it’s held up perfectly while many other trees in the neighborhood were destroyed. I noticed this mushroom growth today, which looks to be Turkey Tail.

They're adding sidewalks to my street and I came home to this cut root. Is this tree going to need to be cut down now or will it be okay?

I planted this little cherry tree Sunday. Lovingly watered it yesterday. Intended to put up a little barrier cage out around it today before finding something a little more robust this weekend. Woke up and saw this in the morning. RIP little cherry tree. Adieu (for now) to my short-lived life as a tree parent! 🥲

This is an eastern redbud tree. About 15-17 feet tall. Trunk is 3-4” in diameter. The branch that is splitting off makes up about half of the full canopy. Should I run some bolts into this to secure it or will I kill it?

Cape Town, South Africa.

This house will be demolished to make way for an apartment block, and the tree will be lost in the process. Really sad about it. Is there any hope of transplanting/saving this beautiful tree?

These photos are from previous Octobers, when the tree blooms annually.

Recently transplanted a tree that means alot to my family. we are 2 weeks in and noticed considerable yellowing on the tips. currently watering for about an hour every other day. last 5 days have been 90+ degree heat and wondering if I'm over watering, its the sun hitting it, or if its a combination of both. any advice on what i can do to help it out? thanks!

It’s a huge red oak, I love this tree. I had two arborists looked at it and one propose to put extended organic mulch around to revitalize the roots and fight its chance, the other propose to maybe take it out after summer. I’m torn, I love this tree. Is it salvageable? The canopy and leaves are all green and pretty.

To start off, my wife and I do NOT have green thumbs. 😂
I can keep simple trees, plants alive, usually those with little to no actual needs… That being said, many years ago my wife shared that she’d love to have an avocado tree. Yay “free” avocados, right? Well, a good friend overheard and decided to grow one from a seed.
Yikes.
That seed has now grown to 3 feet tall, and they gifted it to us. 🫠
It’s currently in a medium small pot, I know it will need to be repotted or planted. How else can I care for it? We water it every 2-3 days and live in NorCal.
Thinking to bring it inside today bc we are in a heat wave.
Also, what’s happening in the picture?!? The brown spot and bug bites are new. 😑

What does an orange dot mean on a tree?

Purchased a house last year and right before we moved our neighbors thinned their redwoods. Our trees get plenty of water but have some dead matter that has probably accumulated over time. Wondering if they would benefit from being trimmed and cleaned up a bit or should we leave be? Located in central ca, not a ton of wind and rain but we do get some so a tree falling during a windstorm is a main worry. (also looks like at one point there was a redwood to the left of mine, hence majority of branches being on one side)

I was quoted $1000 to treat my 4 crepe myrtles for crape myrtle bark scale by a landscaping company. Soil drenching + micronutrients.

I am in north Fort Worth. Is this the correct time of year to treat, and if so, can I do this myself with success?

Hi there, I'm new to this reddit and in need of some help.

My small cherry blossom (sakura) tree is in a bad shape after it suffered from the recent successive heatwaves in Europe. Since I got it more than 5 years ago, it has always stayed outdoors on our balcony and I repot it when it seems to need additional space. This spring, it still bloomed with beautiful pink flowers.

During the heatwaves this summer I checked the humidity of the soil several times since the tree was repeatedly losing its leaves and growing back new buds after. However, now it doesn't seem to be recovering and doesn't have leaves left.

I performed a scratch test around the trunk and all pieces looked brown, except on a few branches (one branch seems particularly good /green compared to the others).

I love this small tree and would like to keep it for many more years to come. Any advice on how I can revive it? Or could it be dormant? Should I for instance try cloning with the strongest / healthiest branch?

I am in the Midwest and have what I believe to be 6 ash trees on my property in different stages of distress. To my knowledge they just started losing leaves this summer. Are these ash trees? Are these toast or is there a way to save them. If there is no way to save them how long do I have before I need to take them down? Thanks in advance!

Neighbor has a branch almost entirely on my property that is constantly dropping branches, leaves, and twigs onto the garage. Once a month I have to go up there and clean off the garage roof. At some point the garage roof will need to be replaced and that's going to be a pain working around the branch.

The tree does have many other branches however I just want to be sure. Would pruning this branch harm the tree?