I've been asked to cut back a 6 foot potter blank mission tree. It has been allowed to lean on its side over the years and by now the root ball has shifted such that it cannot be righted. It has four shoots which i will leave. Two from this year that are a foot tall, two from last that are around two feet tall. I will propogate all the cuttings I think, I would likely try from fresh! Should I put wax on the cut ends? Should I put wax where I cut the tree? Any suggestions?

After a good long rain. Get a long screw in ground dog anchor. Screw it in ground on side of tree that deeds pulled straight make sure you put anchor about 5 feet away from trunk. Get adjustable pull strap & connect it about 3 foot up on tree . Connect other side to anchor. Get someone to push tree at bottom of trunk ( 2 foot from bottom) as the push it straight you tighten strap. I just did this to a 8 year old fig tree by myself. Not hard at all. Dont do it all the same day unless your not patient like me. Give it a try. Will work. My trees trunk is bigger then a coke can.

Here is the tree. The last pic shows the trunk straight. It was leaning to tge right. Wait for a couple days of rain. You will see the root ball move. Richie from louisiana

Davisgro
You wrote " 6 foot potter blank mission tree".
Did you mean " 6 foot potted Black Mission tree"? If that is the case, then un-potting the tree, root pruning as required and then re-potting straight up (vertical) is the answer.

Oh. I thought it was in ground. Confusing lol

It's potted! Sorry for the mistype.

I was asking about sealing the tree and cuttings because while I have propagated figs from cuttings before I have never done it from fresh off the tree cuttings. So I was looking for advise for this. As for the tree the young shoots are large enough to survive and the tree is less than 5 years old so will most likely recover in a season. It's become too large for the space and unmanageable which is part of the reason the owner is wanting it cut back not just restraightened. As for righting the tree I have done it before but it shifted again. I will definitely trim the root ball before reporting so I can cover the top roots.

As for potter blank mission. My autocorrect us a B****. It is a potted black mission

For cuttings, I like to put wax on the distal end of the cut (i.e. the top of the cut). The idea is to reduce water loss while the cuttings are rooting. Don't worry about doing that with the tree - it can pull the water it needs from it's roots.

PS: If you don't have a wax melter, Toilet seal wax works pretty good on cutting ends.

If you don't have a wax melter, the bottom half of a soda can and a gas grill lighting flame stick (whatever they are really called) also works to melt a small amount of wax.

Andrew

Okay thanks guys! We made beeswax candles a few years back so I can melt a piece of one in a pot on the stove with gentle heat :) thanks for letting me know which end to put wax on and about not needing for the tree!

You can also use a cheese wax, that one is even better since it doesn't crack.