Another tetrapanax query .

[nick69]

Hi,this is our first post on this forum and we have a couple of questions about our Tetrapanax (T-Rex).
It has surprisingly survived our worst winter for years, with prolonged minus temps well into double figures, with virtually no protection at all.. It has dropped all its leaves and the main growing point has died and dropped off and we were left with a 3ft trunk.There is now loads of new growth at each previous leaf site .





First question is do we leave it to develop on its own or remove some of the new shoots and leave one on each site?

Second question is it has produced its first sucker about 18" from main trunk .



We don't want it growing there but would like to pot it up along with any others it may produce . What is the best way to do it? Leave it to grow a bit bigger?,do it now?Is there a special technique to improve success or just dig it out and put it in a pot as they seem quite tough?

Thanks
Nick and Tara

[Melissa]

Welcome to the forum, nice to have you on board

How you treat the main plant will depend on how you want the plant to look. If you want to end up with huge leaves then remove some of the buds, maybe leave just 2. But if you want a bushy plant with smaller leaves then leave them most of them on.

I would let the sucker grow a bit bigger before you dig it up. If you can dig down until you get to the main root where the sucker has come from and get a chunk of that to even better, but that can sometimes be a long way down, if so just get as much as you can. Keep it very well watered once potted, you could cover it with a bag, but have never bothered and they allways take ok.

Hope that helps.

Melissa

[carolpz]

Unless you have a few white roots, the chances of a sucker rooting itself are nil. It can be difficult to get a good piece but you won't be short of chances as they sucker like mad, up to, and probably more than, 15ft away from the main stem. They are not fussy where they grow either, mine come up in the lawn, through the gravel path etc etc.

[simon]

First question is do we leave it to develop on its own or remove some of the new shoots and leave one on each site?

Just to clarfy, there is no need to remove leaves from a growing point that you wish to keep. Just remove the complete growing point where you dont want a branch to grow.

[nick69]

Hi , thanks for all the advice .
Had a little dig around and there are roots going in all directions. The sucker was attached to a running root that was no more than 2" or 3" deep so it easily came out with plenty of root so it should be ok . Looks like we will have plenty more chances though if it fails.
It was only planted last summer as a 6" plant and it grew to about 5ft and had leaves nearly 1m across.
We are sort of looking for that shape again , so if we just leave one growing point I assume this will grow as the new trunk with large single leaves growing from it , and if we leave it at it is it will be more of a shorter multi branched shrub with smaller leaves?
Thanks

Nick and Tara