tamarind, help needed please

[coomy20]

hi all,

i brought this beautiful tamarind tree at he nursery today

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i ve never work with a tamarind tree before and have no idea how they ll respond to my amateurish hand, will do a lot of search on the internet b4 attempting anything but if any of you guys have info on this tree, anything ll help, kindly share it with me.

would be great also to know how you would have prooceed with this tree .

[Bougy Fan]

Be careful with it. I bought one from our club Christmas dutch auction and nearly killed it after root pruning too hard. It went naked for about 6 months and then shot one branch from about a third of the way up. Everything above it died and I ended up cutting it off. So be very conservative with root pruning and I would do it in spring. The flowers are great and the bark is awesome on these trees

[coomy20]

ya bouggy, this tree is awesome and i really dont want to do anything stupid. right now it is sitting in a 45lt bag, really dont know wht is waiting for me.

[Neli]

Bougie fun,
Can I see your tamarind please. I would like to know how cold temperature it can withstand?
I have the same experience with root reduction so I do it in stages. It is sensitive to large root reduction.

[Bougy Fan]

Not much to show - it is about 60mm dia short stump with one new branch that will become the new leader. I am not sure how cold it gets over there as they are a tropical tree. The coldest it gets here in Brisbane is about 5 degrees in winter and not for very long. I can't be sure but I wouldn't think they would grow much further south without special care in winter.

[Neli]

Thank you...6cm is a good trunk. I love tamarind, and have many...After reading this today I went and styled one of mine. They are not very fast to make trunks like that.
My friend in SA wants to grow some but he was not sure how much cold they can take...and I could not tell him.

[Graeme]

Very suprised to hear you have had trouble with root pruning Tony. I have a Tamarind that I have had in a pot for way past 10 years now and have never had any issues with root pruning. The tree was "root pruned" by curl grubs once a few years ago (around 2006) as well. I did nearly loose the tree on that occassion, but managed to bring it back. I collected the tree from a garden when I was living in Darwin. When collected it had a very straight trunk for about 600mm up, so I did a layer of the trunk, which was obviously successful, although the original root ball and lower trunk portion died. The tree has lived in Darwin for around 20 years (about 4 in a pot), Queensland for about 12 years and even in Perth for 3 years. Strangly enough the best flowering I have ever had from the tree was during each of the 3 Perth years, although the only fruit it has set has been here in Queensland, it set 5 fruits last year (yummy ). It was not repotted last year as I went away on holidays and the person who was going to do my watering forgot and the tree was in a pretty sad state by the time I got home. It took a very long time for the tree to decide if it was going to stay with me or not, so I decided the stress of repotting it wouldn't have been a good thing. As the result the tree is not in it's best of health righ now, although it is coming good slowly (hooray for Seasol). It will get some new soil come spring and then I am expecting a return to it's former health.
As for time of repotting, I am very lucky with my tree as it appears to be quite deciduous toward the end of winter, so I treat it as if it was. As soon as the new shoots start emerging I do the repot. The tree also seems to have a short domancy in January/Feb, depending on the type of year, so I figure repotting then would also be fairly safe, with aftercare.

[Neli]

Thanks Graeme,
So You suggest the best repot time is spring...like September? I repotted and root reduced one and it died...need to check when I did that...but the one I repotted for this competition sulked for a long time before it budded. Another one sprouted two weeks later with 100 buds on the trunk edge. (on top) Go figure. The one I repotted and trunkchopped at the same time in October did very well.
What is the lowest temperature your tree was exposed to?
I would love to see it. Any other useful info?
This thread is somewhat old so I dont think I should fear hi jacking the thread. I might post my other tamarinds...but would love to show the bark on the one I have in the ground.I have many ...maybe 30+ in the ground and 2 in pots. I just love them.

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[Graeme]

Neli, I think late September into October is a fine time to repot/root prune Tamarind, but that is based on the fact it is the only time I have done it.

Lowest temps aren't something i have to worry about here where I live. I guess the lowest we would ever get to is around 9 or 10 *C and that would only be for a day or so per year. Max is probably in the average range of 31 or 32*C and humidity around 65% average with 75% highs. Yep, I live in Paradise.

Although I am totally ashamed of the condition of my Tamarind I will take some pic and post it up for you - if you promise not to laugh at the poor thing. By the way, I looooove the bark on yours mate.

[Neli]

Darling I live in paradise too then...same winter temperatures here, only at night on occasions....summer here might be even little bit cooler. We are 1400m above sea level.
The tamarind with the nice bark is in the ground...It was planted on a sort of a terrace next to my compost pit (old fish pond I found here) I started a year ago reducing the roots...I cut like a quarter every 2 month near the trunk...and do shallow daily watering. I removed all the soil around on the terrace and put a wall 40cm high around it...and again reduced the roots. It is also airlayered on top and removed one layer already. Now I want to fatten it and decide if I will trunk chop it and grow a new leader, but I want it real fat with nice taper.
Ones it is fat enough I might try to reduce the top growth and keep cutting it back and let the two lower branches grow unhindered to try and create some taper.
Tamarind is always growing without taper.

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This is the layer I removed still recovering.

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This is how big the layer was:

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It is now shooting nicely.

[Graeme]

Now, as I said Neli, no laughing - but here is my poor old Tamarind. You may cry a little, but definitely no laughing, OK.


The base. Where the roots exit the trunk is the point the original layer was taken. Over the years the tree has pushed itself out of the pot, leaving me with the root system you see here.


Close up of the base, please don't comment on the lovely weeds I have growing. I have tried everything to get rid of the damn Oxalis. Recently sprayed it with Aeroguard, which seems to have knocked it. Might have to give it another go I think.


This is the main problem with the tree, style wise as I see it. The "branch" folking to the left is the original apex of the tree and the straight trunk going skywards is the bit I grew. Unfortunately it thickened to much during my absence to put any movement into, but I think I can fix that with a saw , once the tree renews it's vigour. As for the thickness of the "branch", I'm not sure what to do, but maybe the Dremel might be bought into use


Well, that didn't go well for my first attempt at posting pics did it. Could the Mods (sorry) turn the first and last pic for me, please.

[Neli]

Ha! and Waw! Send it to me! I just love it...Tamarind is so easy to ramify and this is such a fantastic tree...Dont ignore it! I just love it.
If tamarind is chopped back, it gets buds everywhere...It is good you decided to grow the branches fat...I love fat branches...Tamarind is very apical...so if you dont keep the top branches in check they will be fatter than the lower ones. Ones the lower ones are thick to your satisfaction you might think of chopping them back for tapper and ramification.Another peculiarities about tamarind is that when the branches are too old, it shoots at the end mostly, with many shoots at one spot, even without a leaf joint at the spot.
If you chop the up going branch very short it will get buds at the end...then grow a nice branch and when it is thick carve the stump. Tamarind heals very well scars. To be on the safe side trim the whole tree at the same time...in spring...even the lower branches...You will get back budding everywhere if the tree is strong...
What a tree this is!

This is one of mine that I started developing mid last year, in bushveld style.

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[Graeme]

fixed.

[Graeme]

By the way, sorry for the"take over" here coomy. Back to my corner now and I'll give you back your thread.

[Neli]

By the way, sorry for the"take over" here coomy. Back to my corner now and I'll give you back your thread.

This thread is old...It was neglected...so I dont think it is hijacked.
I shall say this again very nice tree! Wish it was mine,