Lemon Gum

[Wai`anae Steve]

Help!  I'm growing a lemon gum, I guess that what it is.  Leaves smell like lemons.

It's growing so fast it can't hold it's weight up.  The vertical growth keeps leaning to the side..

I was told not to stake it as that would make it weak.

so how do I get it to grow straight up???

[fastfeat]

Steve--

Do you have it in full sun, with good exposure on all sides? If it's crowded between other trees or has to stretch to reach sun, you'll have a perennial problem. You can probably stake the lower trunk and thin some of the top branches to help it stand, at least to start.

Any pics you can post?

[Wai`anae Steve]

(fastfeat @ Oct. 25 2007,23:23)

QUOTE

Steve--

Do you have it in full sun, with good exposure on all sides? If it's crowded between other trees or has to stretch to reach sun, you'll have a perennial problem. You can probably stake the lower trunk and thin some of the top branches to help it stand, at least to start.

Any pics you can post?

It is NOT in full sun.  There are a lot of small scrub trees that do create some shade.  Good thought as why it's reaching for the sky so fast.

I'll see about pictures and perhaps cut down some of the scrubs.

Thanks.

[Eric in Orlando]

Even in an open, full sun location they are super fast. I have had 1 ft. seedlings grow 20- 30ft within 2 years. Once they get to the 30-40ft. range they slow down considerably. They just want to get their heads above everything then start to develop a canopy. When young (the first 2-3 years) they shed many of their lower limbs and become a high canopy tree with many feet of bare, lower trunk.

These don't like to grow in pots. Plant a small, un-pot bound tree for a better developed root system. We used to get them from an herb nursery that grew seedlings in 6" pots. We stepped them up to big 1 gals. and as soon as they developed an upright leader they went in the ground, about 1 ft tall. We have planted about a dozen that way and they all survived the 3 2004 hurricanes (some did lose some branches). The few that we planted that were from bigger containers, 3 and 5 g's all blew over.

[DoomsDave]

Steve:

As everyone has noted, Lemon Gums are super fast.

They do best in full sun, but they'll tower quickly above everything.

They tend to lean a bit -- they're not a perfectly straight tree.  Their beauty is in their water-color-painting curves.

That said, if it's leaning badly and starting to look ugly, I'd stake it LOOSELY into a position you want.   If you stake it (or any other tree) too tightly it won't toughen against the wind like it should, and it will also girdle on the tie wires (unless you use that green stretch tape).

It'll toughen up a lot when it hits the full sun, almost like magic.  

If you get tired of it, it makes GREAT fire wood . . . .

dave

[philinsydney]

Eric,

You pinpointed the current wisdom. Plant eucs less than 3 feet tall nd you avoid all these staking problems.