Please help fix my beautyberry!
I posted this in the arborist subreddit but since it’s not technically a tree I figured posting here couldn’t hurt. Sorry if it’s the wrong place!
I bought a little beautyberry tree three years ago. It’s of a lot of sentimental value to me so I’ve been too scared to trim it back in fear of hurting it. However last year only one of the two stems had leaf growth while the other one barely had any. I’m guessing it’s because it never got trimmed so I tried to look up how to do it but Google only talks about how to trim it was a bush, which is cutting it all the way back. But I’m not finding anything about how to care for my little tree variety. Can someone please give me advice? I’m so scared of killing it!
I read somewhere about scratching it to see if it’s still green and alive. The little stem without many leaves has a lot of dead branches but the stem itself is still very much green and a few of the branches are too.
Added pictures to hopefully help, excuse my hand in most of them but it wouldn’t focus on the branches otherwise. I can post more pictures if needed.
Thank you so much!
P.S. I’m aware this isn’t the traditional form of the beautyberry as it’s normally a bush, all I can say is I bought it like this so unfortunately I don’t know anything besides that the scientific name was something something protrusion? Hope that helps, my apologies for lack of knowledge!
by MarlyMonster
2 Comments
It might be struggling because it’s been in a pot for 3 years, the roots are probably circling and it’s strangling itself. If you can’t plant it in the ground for whatever reason, you should move it into a larger pot to start.
Cut off any of the stems that are dead, and when the growing season starts give it some fertilizer to try and encourage new growth. I like Espoma Plant Tone personally.
Bigger pot + fertilizer when spring hits.