Flowering Quince ‘Texas Scarlet’ pruning

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Portland, Oregon, United States of America
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I picked this one up a week ago. I decided to dig in to locate the bottom of the trunk only to discover that it splits into two separate trunks below the soil line.
My question is will the rest of the plant be ok if I sever the connection?
 

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Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
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The split below the soil line is not into 2 trunks, those are 2 major thick roots.

I am not familiar with growing in a mild climate like Portland OR, in my area this time of year (late autumn, early winter is the exact wrong time of year to be disturbing the roots of a tree.

If your winters are frost free you can repot. If this tree is going to be exposed to freezing weather, do not disturb the roots at this time of year. This is a hardy outdoor tree, do not try to grow it indoors.

When you repot (now or in spring) I would remove one of those heavy roots. Pot the root you remove up separately with the cut end slightly above soil level. THis will be a root cutting, and will likely sprout new beds at the the cut point if the root cutting gets good light.

I would step wise, in successive years, try to reduce the depth of the root system on the 'Texas Scarlet'. It is a nice variety of flowering quince. It works reasonably well as bonsai. Eventually you want it to fit into a shallow bonsai pot.
 
Messages
306
Reaction score
464
Location
Portland, Oregon, United States of America
USDA Zone
9b
Thanks for your reply.
The winters here are usually pretty mild, but sometimes we get freezing temps in January and February. I wasn't planning on doing much with this plant until probably March. I'm not trying to grow any trees indoors, bad form on my part posting photos taken in my dungeon.
As far as a plan for this guy goes, seems I would be best off propagating from it. Most quince I have encountered at nurseries seem to all have long growth with little taper. I'm not sure how to develop this thing to get a trunk. It seems if I just let it grow it will just keep putting out long straight branches and take decades to develop any taper. Maybe my best bet is to take some air layers or ground layer, so I can train some movement into the plant closer to the soil line?
I've read that using the tourniquet method for layering can cause the stem to bulge, possibly that would be a good start?
It would seem this little guy has a long way to go, but I don't know if it would be usable unless I'm proactive in shaping it while the new shoots are pliable.
 
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