Yard Yew Yamadori

I've just collected my first "wild" tree, an old ~4 inch yew from my yard (we moved in a year ago so no idea when the tree was planted). As you can see, the foliage needs to be moved in much closer to the trunk. Anyone have advice for doing this?

Thanks in advance.

I love your grow box! You should be able to chop it way back initially, considering your root ball looks somewhat small. Less top growth means less transpiration and less loss. When I have collected yews, I have cut back to the lowest bud showing at the time (all have been collected in the spring). It's still difficult to see a trunk line in your images, and you will need to trim back further to allow light into the center of the tree to encourage growth inside. Let it rest for a year and take care of it... it looks like a nice healthy one to me!

Thanks for the ideas - I know yews tolerate more foliage removal than most evergreens but I'm not sure how much is too muchs. So all the way back to the first few buds? Scary.

jalbright wrote:Thanks for the ideas - I know yews tolerate more foliage removal than most evergreens but I'm not sure how much is too muchs. So all the way back to the first few buds? Scary.

There is nothing to say that you have to cut back so far. You could choose some branches to leave with more foliage if you want... and then when it is growing really well, next spring, you can cut back harder. It seems there is alot of green left on your yew, but you don't have to be more drastic than you are comfortable with.

This tree is at (or just above) the physical limit for what I can handle so the box is designed to minimize weight. I also used NAPA Oil Dri instead of Turface since it weighs about half as much (seems to be a diatomaceous earth product rather than calcined clay). I don't plan to move it much for another year or two.

I did cut back more today, to let in a little more light.

Well, you shouldn't have much problem with getting foliage closer to the trunk. Yews don't seem to know when to stop it, so you can spend a good deal of time scrubbing them off later on in life.

Generally speaking, how flexible/brittle are yew branches?

If you are going to leave it in its oil-dri for any more than a year then your going to run into a problem. I have used oil-dri in my compost mixes back in my earlier days and though it makes a good soil mix It decomposes to a clay mush in about a year, add in some freeze and thaw and it will mush-out even faster. I then switched to Turface or Pro-field conditioner (which is what Agway calls It) and I LOVE it and so do my trees. Since that Yew was just collected from the ground I would give her a good hair cut but leave some good foliage to help re-grow the roots that may have been damaged in the collection process. Then next year maybe slip it into some turface mixed with a bit of sifted potting soil and some lava rock. Look up a good mix ratio for yews and see what some folks use but as I say be careful of the oil-dri, its fullers earth not diatomeceous earth. Once the Yew has regained vigor and is budding out profusely I would then begin to style the tree. Oil-Dri is however AWSOME for transplanting garden annuals. I us it mostly for that purpose, no damping off and my tomatoes grow nut job bonsai style root systems in no time.

GeneMartin wrote:Generally speaking, how flexible/brittle are yew branches?

I think flexibility is a relative thing, but I would describe them as highly flexible, with the ability to bed 3/4 inch thick branches with ease with little brittleness.