Ich habe eine Reihe von Apfelbäumen, die ich scheinbar mitgenommen habe. Ein Teil von ihnen läuft an diesen Kreppmyrten vorbei, und ich fürchte, die Kreppmyrten werden ein gutes Stück Sonne blockieren und langfristig im Weg stehen. Gibt es eine gute Möglichkeit, die Kreppmyrten zu kürzen? Bitte seien Sie freundlich
Von: Leather-Kitchen-2211
23 Comments
You can trim the crepe all the way down and it’ll grow back. But also, you can just remove it, I’m not a fan of them.
Cut flush with the ground and apply herbicide to the stump. I’m sure there’s at least 17 more crepe myrtles on your street alone, so nothing of value is lost, and your apple trees will be happier. At least if the crepes are to the south of the apples. If they’re north you can probably wait a little.
Where the vertical branches fork, about 6’ up (where they go from one 2.5” stem to several .5” stems), lop off all of the .5” stems like an inch from that junction. It’s essentially pollarding. Crepe Myrtles bloom on new wood so you’ll still get blooms and it’ll be a major shade reduction on the apple.
This is a controversial topic as I assume you know from your knowledge of the phrase crepe murder, but the tree will be 100% fine pruning this way.
But also, your apple tree could probably benefit from a little shade while it establishes and grows, so maybe don’t mow it down quite yet. Just food for thought.
If you want to kill them off later, the other advice is a good method.
Oh and another recommendation, put a guard around that tree. One buck rub and it’s doomed. Which really sucks, and happens this time of year (though we may actually be past it by now)
You could try to transplant them, I’ve cut back crepes and even the cuttings try to take root, they are very resilient from my observations
Crappy myrtles have no food value to native insects. Chop them down without a second thought.
F the myrtles. Non native. No wildlife value. Short leaf time. Very nice for 2 weeks when blooming but outside that…
Do it, fuck the haters.
They are invasive and messy- hate them. Cut and put pesticide on stump in early winter
We cut down an old and well established crepe myrtle 2 years ago. We cut it down to the ground and I was prepared to have to play whack a mole with shoots, but it didn’t even try. So go for it, it may work out more easily than you think.
Shoot, you can’t kill these things. You can make them uglier but you evidently can’t kill them. I chopped mine off at the base, drilled holes i to the remaining base and poured straight chemical in there. Even burned it. It’s baaaacccckkkk. I know you’re talking about trimming but just to let you know they are pretty darn eternal.
I despise those, chop em and put in something nicer
[relevant](https://youtu.be/8b6_ugrl_Vs)
I love crepe Myrtle’s. Y’all are crazy. They’re beautiful
Kill them. Their roots are totally invasive!
Looking at them, they were already murdered years ago. You could trim them down but they’ll just explode with new growth and get even bushier. Surprisingly, the crepes I have that weren’t murdered in the past are actually less full and sparser (+ taller so the apple trees would get more light) than the one I have to pollard every year.
Just stopped in to say I enjoyed the pun 😀
Down south they bloom all summer long !!
A much nicer tree than an apple !!
The HORRORS😱😳🙆♀️
LOVE Crape Myrtles, which are plentiful ornamental trees in the South.
With proper pruning, lovely peeling bark (multi-trunk specimens available) rising up to a crown of lush leaves, & long blooming pretty blossoms season (pink, white, purple, red).
They are tough, drought-resistant, attract needed pollinators, provide shade as well.
I’m used to seeing them line a driveway, or act as a visual property border.
https://westtn.tennessee.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/CrapeMyrtleCare.pdf
https://ipm.missouri.edu/meg/2025/8/crape_myrtle-dt/
https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_lain.pdf
Sorry, my sympathy goes to the crepe myrtles which I love. They have a beautiful bark and when allowed to grow naturally have a really nice form as these do. Apple trees to me are rather ugly and come with any number of problems. Where are you at? You can cut them down to shrub height but that to me destroys their beauty. Can you not rush to do this and wait until shading is actually a problem? It does not appear that it will be so for at least a few years. Once you destroy the form they have, it is gone. Have you considered moving them?