Hi, a few years ago we planted a eucalypt (we think it’s a yellow box). It has grown magnificently from a half a foot high seedling to a magnificently sized tree.

We have noticed this year, however, that all the lower branches are now brown. We live in the inner west of Melbourne and are wondering if it’s just the lack of rain or whether something else is the problem.

We’d also like to know whether it’s wise to cut off these branches at this time of the year.

Help! We aren’t gardeners unfortunately and were quite proud of the success we’ve had with the tree until now.

Thanks in advance.

(Let me know if you’d like a photo too – the brown branches are about a 1/4 of the tree)

NBates said:

Hi, a few years ago we planted a eucalypt (we think it’s a yellow box). It has grown magnificently from a half a foot high seedling to a magnificently sized tree.

We have noticed this year, however, that all the lower branches are now brown. We live in the inner west of Melbourne and are wondering if it’s just the lack of rain or whether something else is the problem.

We’d also like to know whether it’s wise to cut off these branches at this time of the year.

Help! We aren’t gardeners unfortunately and were quite proud of the success we’ve had with the tree until now.

Thanks in advance.

(Let me know if you’d like a photo too – the brown branches are about a 1/4 of the tree)

It is likely to be water related. This often happens if the tree has wet feet(high water table rising salt or bad drainage). Though this would hardly be the year to see high water tables, it could still be related to salt left behind by a retreating water table. Yellow Box planted on calcerous soil types can go completely yellow.
A Yellow Box can well do without its lower branches. It won’t hurt the tree to remove them but I’d like to see photos if you can manage it.

In the street I live, the street trees were originally Yellow Box but the soil is calcrete. They initially grew to large sizes but slowly turned yellow. Not to be daunted, I planted one out the front and another out the back of my property. It is true that I took drastic measuress to counter the alkalinity of the soil. The tree in the front yard is now 36 years old and is now more than 20 metres tall.

This is the one out the back that was planted a decade later than the first and received nil follow up water from my hand.

.

Compared with the Fuzzy Box also planted at the same time. They are both about 12m.

roughbarked said:

NBates said:

Hi, a few years ago we planted a eucalypt (we think it’s a yellow box). It has grown magnificently from a half a foot high seedling to a magnificently sized tree.

We have noticed this year, however, that all the lower branches are now brown. We live in the inner west of Melbourne and are wondering if it’s just the lack of rain or whether something else is the problem.

We’d also like to know whether it’s wise to cut off these branches at this time of the year.

Help! We aren’t gardeners unfortunately and were quite proud of the success we’ve had with the tree until now.

Thanks in advance.

(Let me know if you’d like a photo too – the brown branches are about a 1/4 of the tree)

It is likely to be water related. This often happens if the tree has wet feet(high water table rising salt or bad drainage). Though this would hardly be the year to see high water tables, it could still be related to salt left behind by a retreating water table. Yellow Box planted on calcerous soil types can go completely yellow.
A Yellow Box can well do without its lower branches. It won’t hurt the tree to remove them but I’d like to see photos if you can manage it.

In the street I live, the street trees were originally Yellow Box but the soil is calcrete. They initially grew to large sizes but slowly turned yellow. Not to be daunted, I planted one out the front and another out the back of my property. It is true that I took drastic measuress to counter the alkalinity of the soil. The tree in the front yard is now 36 years old and is now more than 20 metres tall.

This is the one out the back that was planted a decade later than the first and received nil follow up water from my hand.

.

Compared with the Fuzzy Box also planted at the same time. They are both about 12m.

Fixed.
You may note that images can be dragged and dropped but they need to be saved to your harddrive rather than straight off the camera as the software of the site cannot relign the vertical shots.

Hi Roughbark,

Thanks so much for getting back to us.

I’ve attached photos here so you can have a look.

Hopefully it’s just the dry, but we’d be very grateful for your opinion.

NBates said:

Hi Roughbark,

Thanks so much for getting back to us.

I’ve attached photos here so you can have a look.

Hopefully it’s just the dry, but we’d be very grateful for your opinion.

The tree won’t miss the lower branches. In fact it will grow better without them. It doesn’t need them any more. Which is also as much of the reason why they are dying off.

You may like an anecdote or two about “why did you plant that there?”. A question I asked my mother when she had a lemon scented gum lopped in the back yard. I asked why get it lopped? She said it is too big for the spot. Which brought the question well why plant it there? she said, “it was only little at the time”. This in turn led to a lifetime of learning about trees, for me.

In the case of my yellow box in the front yard. At the time I told Mrs rb that no way should we plant a yellow box in that spot and she was adamant that she wanted it there. 40 years later she still defends the decision but when a big bit lands on the house I’m sure she may revise that position. I’ll need to take it down to put solar panels on the house anyway.

Now I’ll warn you of the same problem. A yellow box is too big of a tree for small spaces. It may not be apparent for 30 or 40 years but by then it is an expensive operation to remove large trees from small spaces. Which in itself is sad because the same tree could have survived hundreds of years in bliss otherwise by simply having been planted in a more safe and secure site.

Thanks again.

I think we only went off what the people from the place we bought it from said. There was a large almond tree there prior to it, but it collapsed in a big storm a few years ago now.

It’s miles away from our house (the building you can see close to it is our shed). There is a laneway behind the fence that it close to it, and the neighbour’s large backyard after that. But I can see your point. As I stated, we certainly aren’t gardeners at all – more feathered & furry people – that’s why I wanted the tree, because I investigated online and it recommended it being good for wildlife.

We had good intentions :-(

NBates said:

Thanks again.

I think we only went off what the people from the place we bought it from said. There was a large almond tree there prior to it, but it collapsed in a big storm a few years ago now.

It’s miles away from our house (the building you can see close to it is our shed). There is a laneway behind the fence that it close to it, and the neighbour’s large backyard after that. But I can see your point. As I stated, we certainly aren’t gardeners at all – more feathered & furry people – that’s why I wanted the tree, because I investigated online and it recommended it being good for wildlife.

We had good intentions :-(

They are great for wildlife but all trees are that. Sounds like you do have room for it though so no problems there.

I was out harvesting paper daisy seeds yesterday arvo and took a photo of my yellow box.

roughbarked said:

NBates said:

Thanks again.

I think we only went off what the people from the place we bought it from said. There was a large almond tree there prior to it, but it collapsed in a big storm a few years ago now.

It’s miles away from our house (the building you can see close to it is our shed). There is a laneway behind the fence that it close to it, and the neighbour’s large backyard after that. But I can see your point. As I stated, we certainly aren’t gardeners at all – more feathered & furry people – that’s why I wanted the tree, because I investigated online and it recommended it being good for wildlife.

We had good intentions :-(

They are great for wildlife but all trees are that. Sounds like you do have room for it though so no problems there.

I was out harvesting paper daisy seeds yesterday arvo and took a photo of my yellow box.

Forgot that I need to save vertical images to the computer before uploading to this site.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

NBates said:

Thanks again.

I think we only went off what the people from the place we bought it from said. There was a large almond tree there prior to it, but it collapsed in a big storm a few years ago now.

It’s miles away from our house (the building you can see close to it is our shed). There is a laneway behind the fence that it close to it, and the neighbour’s large backyard after that. But I can see your point. As I stated, we certainly aren’t gardeners at all – more feathered & furry people – that’s why I wanted the tree, because I investigated online and it recommended it being good for wildlife.

We had good intentions :-(

They are great for wildlife but all trees are that. Sounds like you do have room for it though so no problems there.

I was out harvesting paper daisy seeds yesterday arvo and took a photo of my yellow box.

Forgot that I need to save vertical images to the computer before uploading to this site.

My Yellow Box has competition for being the tallest tree from the Grevillea robusta. The Grevillea has been the nesting site of sparrowhawks.

A daytime shot. This morning.

I concur that the lower branches are probably not needed. It is my experience that eucalyptus trees drop off a lot of their lower branches as they get taller. Sometimes they get a bit of help with the secateurs in my garden to make mowing easier underneath them…
in fact I have one young E. camaldulensis (red gum) in need of a little help now. It is a seedling tree from a very large old tree in our backyard that is possibly a couple of hundred years old. Some seasons the grand old tree has a lot of babies. Some of them have gone to the local reveg people.