Top a Cecropia?

[chinandega81]

I have a 1 year old Cecropia tree. It's about 15 feet tall and has one single leader with zero horitonzal branching. Should I top it now to encourage branching, or is it too young?

[Silas_Sancona]

Just now, chinandega81 said:

I have a 1 year old Cecropia tree. It's about 15 feet tall and has one single leader with zero horitonzal branching. Should I top it now to encourage branching, or is it too young?

In the let it continue growing camp.. Will branch on it's own once reaching a certain height. Even 15ft might still be too low.  Nice specimen regardless.

[chinandega81]

5 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

In the let it continue growing camp.. Will branch on it's own once reaching a certain height. Even 15ft might still be too low.  Nice specimen regardless.

Thanks. I thought if I topped it now, it would be forced to branch at a lower height, but I don't want to risk killing it outright either. I have seen a few in the neighborhood that are very tall and the branching ocurrs about 20 feet up like you were saying. I see one though (it's large and old) that seemingly blew apart in a hurricane and it has regrown it's crown and is much more spreading than tall which is what gave me the idea to top it in the first place. 

 

Part of my motivation is to have a shade canopy above my soursop which you can barely see in the second picture in the bottom left corner. I'm sure the light canopy from the cecropia would let enough light in but also keep it a few degrees warmer on cool winter nights. Regardless, the cecropia seems to be starting to fruit already so I suppose I should follow your advice and excercise patience unless a hurricane comes along later this season.

[Silas_Sancona]

7 minutes ago, chinandega81 said:

Thanks. I thought if I topped it now, it would be forced to branch at a lower height, but I don't want to risk killing it outright either. I have seen a few in the neighborhood that are very tall and the branching ocurrs about 20 feet up like you were saying. I see one though (it's large and old) that seemingly blew apart in a hurricane and it has regrown it's crown and is much more spreading than tall which is what gave me the idea to top it in the first place. 

 

Part of my motivation is to have a shade canopy above my soursop which you can barely see in the second picture in the bottom left corner. I'm sure the light canopy from the cecropia would let enough light in but also keep it a few degrees warmer on cool winter nights. Regardless, the cecropia seems to be starting to fruit already so I suppose I should follow your advice and excercise patience unless a hurricane comes along later this season.

Yea, would say if it hasn't started to branch at at least 20-25ft, then i might consider tipping it back.. No doubt it would push new growth.. Question might be if ..say it produced more than 2 branches, would both grow at the same rate, or would one regain dominance and regrow w/out branching again ..until preferred height.. 

Being a pioneer- type tree in forests, imagine these race up through clearings before branching.. Kind of like Schizolobium parahyba.  One i remember seeing up at Selby had to have been at least 25' before the viewing the first set of branches on it..  ( was much taller/wider than that when i'd seen it )

Another one of those trees not everyone likes ( messy fruit / can pop up all over, in the right environment ), but others really enjoy kind of plants.. Silvery underside of the leaves adds a nice splash of other- than- green color..