This is a black walnut tree I believe- but it looks like someone did some aggressive cutting in the past which has caused multiple shoots off the main trunk.
What can I do to correct / salvage this? my concerns are that it will just split at is gets bigger. Due to its location, ill have to try my best to limit its size in the future as the carport is only 15 ft away on the blue side.
How would you approach this?
by wonnlov
19 Comments
You can’t prune to limit size unless you’re trying to keep it ladder-height. And even then it’s not great for the tree so most people just do that with fruit, and it’s a lot of work.
If you want a smaller tree there, plant a smaller tree. Black Walnut can get enormous.
Id take it out. Black walnuts are huge trees and unless you like them the walnuts are really annoying to clean up.
It’s been coppiced, you could maintain it as such. I don’t believe that’s walnut bark, looks maple.
It’s not a maple as someone said. Maples have opposite leaf arrangement and this has alternate. Those chunky twigs actually look like tree-of-heaven to me (invasive in the US). Walnut has thick twigs too, but would have dark, rough bark. Although bark roughens with age, black walnut should have dark-looking twigs.
The structure is a mess. You could prune a few, gradually over a few years, to try to correct the structure, but it will always be a mess.
Also, because you’ll have to “limit its size” (impossible to do without causing more of this kind of growth in the future), I think your best option is to remove the tree and plant a species in its place that doesn’t get too big.
You sure that ain’t a fig tree? If so you can cut it hard to maintain for easypicking for fruit production
This looks like it was once cut to the ground and suckers, epicormic growth, from the stump got established. Or this is a volunteer. Either way, Id remove and plant a proper nursery raised tree
Remove it completely
Ailanthus altissima – Tree of heaven.
The leaves can look similar to a walnut, it’s not.
Those are highly invasive. It will throw seeds every year and they will pop up everywhere.
Just chop it down and plant a better tree in a better spot.
The bark looks like tree of heaven to me. Here’s a [guide](https://bplant.org/compare/82-318) to identify the different between black walnut and tree of heaven.
Tree of heaven are considered incredibly invasive on most continents. It’s highly recommended that you remove the plant. Which unfortunately, isn’t as simple as cutting to the ground. They sucker prolifically if you do so. You’ll need to explicitly kill the plant first before cutting it to the ground. Generally, you hack into the tree and paint poison into the wound, it’s unfortunately a plant that requires chemical treatment. You’ll want to do that in mid to late summer because the tree is resistant to herbicides otherwise. Due to how the plant moves its sap around. Here’s a [guide](https://extension.psu.edu/tree-of-heaven). If you don’t live in state, check with your country’s agricultural department for recommended herbicide.
As everyone else is saying that is almost certainly a tree of heaven, they stink, they spread everywhere, and are hard af to get rid of
Weed. Tree of heaven
Remove this abomination
Your only real option with that is to manage as a coppice if you want to retain it.
I’d honestly think about what you want from that area of your garden as this looks close to a building? Plant something more suitable, to your tastes or elsewhere.
I don’t know how likely it is but for me it looks a lot like Juglans regia and not Juglas nigra. We have a lot of them in Germany. But hard to tell from a picture like this. Could be also Ailanthus as already mentioned. Just wanted to throw Juglans regia in here too since nobody mentioned it so far.
Basal pruning cut. (Cut it down)
Snap a twig if it smells horrible it’s a tree of heaven, get rid of it. If not it’s either a walnut (not black walnut) or a fig tree, i can’t tell from the pics, either way just cut the lower twigs and let it be imo.
Does it have walnut like leaves?? Or big single leaves? It kinda looks like a fig to me…can’t tell ya without a better picture of the leaf scar though. Not saying it’s not a tree of heaven, but it has an odd amount of structure to it for a tree of heaven that small and i feel like i see fig leaves on the ground. Please post a better pic before ya chop it down.
Not even close to walnut bark. Not walnut my guy