Sno wrote: ↑February 7th, 2023, 4:02 pm
Rory wrote: ↑February 7th, 2023, 12:17 pm
Many Eucs when I've tried to encourage back budding on the branches by cutting the ends off, they can just die back to the trunk altogether.
Make sure you tip the whole tree at the same time even if you don’t want to shorten the other branches . And keep the water up to them . I have had trees sulk for a couple of months after doing this before they pop everywhere . You still occasionally lose branches but that is the part I call character building . I live in a Euc forest and not one tree here that is over ten years old does not have some dead bits on it .
Yeah I know what you mean. Its a very common trait of Eucs. Its often after a long period of drought too, that you see the die-back on the outer tips of Eucs. But then its also random on entire branches.
A lot of natives will shoot back well from just having one branch cut-back, but I agree that it can be hit and miss with Eucs. I get reluctant to reduce the entire structure to promote back budding on a particular branch. It would be interesting to trial it and see the benefits if it is a better way to get back-budding on most Eucs.
I find that it is hard to get back budding down low on the trunks of old material with Port Jackson Figs / Moreton Bay Figs / Banksia integrifolia / Banksia ericifolia, and I usually have to trunk-chop to get any new buds down low. But with Eucs, they often usually produce a flush all down the trunk after a trunk-chop.
But I'll keep that in mind and trial an overall reduction if I have Euc branches that are too bare.
Cheers Sno