I have an evergreen magnolia tree in Northern Virginia, USA. It's about 25 feet tall, but it sheds leaves all year long. There are lots and lots of leaves. I think it loses leaves because the body is overgrown. I'd like to prune the tree to keep the tree healthy and lessen the number of leaves that fall. I've included pictures of the tree as a whole, pictures from underneath, and a picture of the number of leaves that have fallen in one week in late April. I appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you.
It drops lots of leaves much of the time because it's an evergreen magnolia. They do that. Leave it alone, or cut it down if you can't stand the mess.
The leaves that fall are dead - brown and dry. I guess I've always thought that because the body of the tree is so thick that many of the leaves aren't getting the light they need, so they die. Is it possible that the tree is too full and it exacerbates a normal circumstance of leaves falling?
No, opening it up with pruning will just make it thinner-looking, cause it some stress by removing branch and foliage tissue (leaves make food, branches store it for later use). You could do that - without killing the tree - to make the tree look different for your own enjoyment, but you will not make the tree stop being messy by doing so. "...at ground level, a wide tarn of black shade, and a summer long litter of big leaves in ones and twos over a long period. To my mind this handsome tree has little place in home gardening." - G. Schenk, The Complete Shade Gardener (Houghton Mifflin)
Similar to Hollies, Magnolias will lose their leaves every year or at most every other year. It could be a light issue on the insdie of the tree or it could be last years leaves falling.
I agree with Ron B, evergreen Magnolias shed leaves in the growing season and its quite normal. they are usually browned or yellowed.
Unfortunatly for you, the tree was limbed up. It's best to not remove the lower branches of this tree because of the way it sheds it's thick leaves. You could help the tree by removing the grass growing around the surface roots and adding mulch. I can't see the rootflare clearly, but do check to see if it's buried or if there are any circling roots around the base of the tree. Links enclosed. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG089 http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WO017 http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garden/02926.html http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/planting/nosoil.htm http://www1.br.cc.va.us/murray/Arboriculture/TreeCare101/below/root_collar_exam/default.htm http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/mulching.asp Newt
What do you really want from this tree? Yes, you can prune it and can prune it severely and take out the crossing interior limbs if you want to provide more light into the interior of the tree. I'd leave it a round head for shape if you want to prune it. What I want to know is how much water are you applying to this tree and how often are you watering. Also, I suspect that either your soil is sour by the looks of the grass or you have too much shade emanating from another tree or both conditions exist. Jim Below is what my first response would have been had I not changed my approach to this issue a little. To limit the loss of leaves deep water the Evergreen Magnolias that are planted in the ground. Generally, abnormal leaf loss is directly attributed to lack of water, much more so than lack of light. Older leaves in the interior of the tree will be sloughed off at intervals during the year, mostly during the Summer. That is to be expected with age, heat and evaporative transpiration. When we start losing the newer leaves or the exterior leaves then we've either not given the tree enough water or we are seeing the effects of fertilizing the trees and not giving them enough water to water in the fertilizer well. Over watering will cause the leaves to droop, wilt and later turn brown but those leaves will stay on the trees longer than the leaves will that died out due to lack of water. Light does play an important role in the interior of the tree but these are dense, round headed trees by nature, aside from a few selected dense angular forms. Lack of light in shaded areas can show dramatic leaf loss in the interior of the tree, not the exterior as seen here on the shaded side of this tree. When many of the exterior leaves show some browning in the shaded areas then this condition could be due to mite damage. A good shower of water on the leaves and the underside of the leaves will help for this. What this tree appears to need is to be deep watered on a regular basis during the warm weather months and then the loss of leaves will not be nearly as much of a problem for you.
Hi sorry to but in my opinion a Magnolia is a beutifull tree if you can put up with the flowerbuds (slimmy things) the year round leaf drop (messy) If they are in the back 40 or better yet in the neighbours yard even better
Being a loud mouthed Australian, I'm forced to add my bit. leave the tree alone. If you have a rotary lawnmower (horizontal slashing type), simply drive over the fallen leaves a few times with the catcher removed, then pop the catcher on to collect the shredded leaf fines and use it for mulch. Your tree looks like most magnolias suffering neglect, If you must have grass beneath, apply composted manures deeper in the soil so that the grass wont gobble the nutrients. Carefully make 100's of 40mm holes approx 200mm deep into the soil with a crow or pinch bar ensuring you don't damage any roots. best time to act is during a week of heavy rains as the steel bar will penetrate soil easily. Add 1/4 handfull of composted chicken manure and desertr spoon of slowrelease complete fertiliser. Top dress the entire area with clean sand and water well. If this is carried out annually you will have a happy tree and a happier turf also.
I agree that a fertilizer program should be initiated for the lawn and the Magnolia but without ample watering and adding in more light, the correction of the current status will be minimal. Guys, there are lot of trees that are or can be messy. I am not going to side with work brittle book authors that are too naive about this plant. It is their bias that some of you have read and many of you have already prejudged this tree due to them and let's be honest many of them have never grown or tried to grow this tree. Who are they kidding? Only a handful of people it seems can be objective about the Southern Magnolias. Of which the same kind of reasoning or lack thereof can be written about the seed pods dropped off the by the Deciduous Magnolias also and little is written about them. Lack of ample water even on the Deciduous Magnolias will cause the leaves to shed like crazy so the condition is prevalent in all Magnolias. Not so bad or seen as often with the Michelias but even the Doltsopa and Wilsonii can lose a lot of leaves during the growing season in temperate climates if we do not water them properly. Notice there is little mention of their seed pods either? I'll trade any mess for the flowers and stature of the tree any day and so would a lot of people. If I were to write that ground up, fallen leaves from the Evergreen Magnolias made a good mulch for Japanese Maples many people would change their opinion of this tree in a heartbeat. Jim
Hi Mpgibson, You don't say how old or large your magnolia is, but magnolias don't transplant well. You also don't say which type you have. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=270408 http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=6162 Newt
