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Top heavy monkey puzzle tree!
mhopkins1511
Posts: 2
good morning! I had a monkey puzzle tree as gift for a milestone birthday 2 years ago....I reported into a bigger pot as I was reluctant to plant in the ground given slow rate of growth and potentially I could take it with me if I moved within the next 5/10 years.....
anyway! It's recently had a growth spurt but is growing top heavy.... an I prune it and if so how and given its sudden growth would I be better planting in the ground afterall? Ie attached a photo ...the is approx 2'6 x2'6 and the tree is 4'6 tall (trunk)
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Lovely tree but they grow gi-normous. After 5 to 10 years I think you would struggle to move it. It needs to be in the ground. This very ancient tree in its fossilized form is what Whitby jet is made from.
Last edited: 17 July 2016 13:12:41
To answer the other part of your question, no, you can't prune it - you'll just get an ugly, misshapen tree. It will still continue to grow straight up, and not "bush up" in any way.
So I can't remove the growth at ends of each branch....? It looks really funny now....not sure what it will look like in years to come ....
my my neighbour has one and it's lovely and symmetrical - mine on the other hand is....weird! ?
Alina is right - definitely do not prune it.
They're not elegant plants and always look odd to me. Yours doesn't look any odder than the rest
In the sticks near Peterborough
We bought our house with a MPT in the front lawn that was as high as the house. It was a PITA to mow around and when parking the car I quite often stabbed myself on the "leaves" as I got out the car (or got my hair caught in it) so I lifted the canopy cutting all the lower branches off. I was surprised to find that when I put these through the shredder, they were extremely brittle and seemed like old, dead wood but I kept them thinking they'd be great around the hostas as a slug deterring mulch (they're like razor-blades!).
The people we bought off told us it had been looked at by an expert and it was still alive but I started to suspect that it wasn't very well. When I looked closer, I realised that the green was actually moss (how embarrassed was I?). I think that there is a soakaway beneath where it was and this was either too dry or not dry enough for it.
It was apparently used as a signpost in the village with people giving directions like 3 houses up from the Monkey Puzzle Tree so it was a bit of a wrench but when a fungus developed at the base of the trunk we called in the grim reaper guy with a chainsaw.
It is apparently a hardwood tree and artists may be interested in the wood because it is unusual due to the symmetrical branch points but apparently because it had had a mushroom, no-one was interested in buying it so it cost us tippage!
The moral of the story is be careful where you put it at your new place.