"Martin Brown" wrote in message
news
On 23/05/2011 19:51, David WE Roberts wrote:
Having been touring the world for the last 7 months I have returned to
the after effects of the severe winter.

Both lemon trees were left on a sheltered south facing patio area in the
hope that they would be O.K.
[Taking them into a building would have guaranteed no watering]

I thought they were both dead - all branches withered.

However I now see that the base of the trees are still alive and putting
out new shoots.

The dilemma is should I cut all the dead wood off now, or should I wait
a bit untill new growth is more established?
Growth at the moment is tiny buds showing two leaves but still very
small.

TIA

I'd be inclined to leave well alone until the end of the summer. It is
amazing how some things will come back despite having taken a major
setback from a hard frost. Not worth pruning to tidy it up until you are
sure that it won't sprout new growth from the other stems.

snip

Unfortunately the dead bits are really dead and showing signs of decay.
The live bits are pretty obvious once you realise there is life because of
the good state of the bark.
So surgery will be required; I just can't decide if it is better to risk
more die back of live wood whilst the tree puts out new shoots or if I
should chop it back to clean wood immediately.

This is still a vast improvement - the skip was looming large in their
future until today.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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