Any hope for my completely broken Magnolia Stellata sapling?
LolaRuth
Posts: 10
My beloved Magnolia Stellata, bought for me as a present from my mum as a (roughly) 70cm tall sampling in May this year has been completely snapped/split. Help!
It was doing well and looking healthy throughout the summer/autumn until today when, to cut a long story short, while changing a tire on our truck, one of these hefty tires rolled over it at considerable speed (down a steep slope), crushing the stem and bending the tree flat to the ground.
The stem (about 2cm in diameter) is still attached, but snapped half-way through at the point of impact and split in two lengthways at least 10cm up and down from this point.
I have secured the injury with cable ties and propped up the tree as a first-aid measure and was thinking of replacing the cable ties with biodigradable garden twine or 'tree tape' and creating a splint with bamboo stakes..
My gut feeling is that this injury will be too much to overcome, but as the tree has such sentimental value for me I want to do all I can to try and save it. Any advice from those in the know about Magnolias/tree repairs would be very greatly appreciated.
PS I can upload some pics if this would help.
Last edited: 01 December 2016 10:50:33
Posts
Get the injury bound up with tape as you said, as soon as possible. It may well heal. We had a similar mishap with a Winter flowering Cherry. It survived and flowers well now.
I think you'd be better pruning to healthy stem below the wound and letting it regrow. It's unfortunate that the tree was so new as it won't have established a solid root system yet. Photos would be helpful.
Thank you Berghill, I will try this - do you perhaps have a brand name for tree tape? I've heard it referred to but am having thouble finding, or can it be any tape, like that stretchy black electrical tape?
Thanks for the suggestion, Onopordum, this may not be possible as it broke right down at soil level (it basically got 'run over', poor thing). Photos are coming..
Thank you all for the advice! It is dark here now (live in Sweden) so will get some snaps up tomorrow.
When I did it I used Sellotape, but any plastic tape would do. Say a clear food bag cut into strips and bound tightly round the stem. Make sure if you do this that the pieces touch otherwise they will not rejoin. Basically what you are doing is a graft. I am assuming here that there is enough stem below the damage to fasten the broken part to.
Last edited: 01 December 2016 17:45:33
Photos as promised..
I had forgotten how low down on the stem the break occured, really below soil level, which makes it hard to see clearly whats going on (it also meant it was nigh impossible to get all soil out of the way for pulling the split back together cleanly)
Am waiting for my other half to come back with more bamboo sticks for support before I try and replace the cable ties with tape.
Last edited: 02 December 2016 09:24:28
I would replace the cable ties with something with a little 'give' in it. tights work great, sellotape even better.
I would also reduce the top growth as it'll ask like a sail in wind and damage the break further, personally I would cut it about halfway down the trunk (above an obvious bud - there are a couple visible on the picture) and let it regrow from there, it'll look drastic but in the long run be better for the tree..
I snapped an amelanchier almost in two trying to move the poor thing. Taped it up with electrical tape (green and yellow lurid stripes - all I had to hand
). It's grown together pretty well 2 years on. Looks a bit wonky, but healthy enough. Agree with treehugger - it would be a good idea to reduce the top growth to limit the sideways wind pressure. But there's every chance it'll heal
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I broke a japanese maple in almost the same way - the break that is, not the tyre! Anyway, I did as you have done, then tied it with plastic duct tape, buried the 'graft' well and hoped. it has done very well and is now a lovely tree. If you give it as much help as possible it will try its best, plants really want to live. In the end, what have you to lose by trying? All the luck in the world with it - keep telling us how it goes.
Although the tree is a great pity, let us be thankful that no-one was hurt in the incident.