Leaning kousa tree - help!

[Smousie]

I recently purchased a cornus kousa tree by mail order. The tree they sent leans significantly to one side. The nursery has refused to exchange or refund so I will have to make the best of it.

 

It's a multi stem tree. The short trunk leans to one side. If planted upright the whole tree will lean strongly. Can anyone please suggest how to prune and stake this tree to form a vase shape with the branches on the correct side! Thanks.

[Stubby]

I don't understand this question. Maybe suffice to say that this is a miniscule shrub-like individual of a species which the OP wants to develop into an open-grown form.

 

Its just that you were saying that you thought light had nothing to do with it . You are most likely right .

[Gary Prentice]

So a parkland tree , say a holm oak , spreads in all directions but a plantation tree goes strait up because its competing for the light is...... not the case ?

 

I think it's because a number of factors are involved. In a parkland with absence of competition would the trees late/mature form come chronologically earlier?

 

So in a plantation, the factors that initiate the growth form changes are repressed by competition and don't normally occur before felling.

 

Lots of checks and balances between Tropisms and auxins that'll result in the final outcome.

 

For example, an open grown tree on a coastal site would likely grow upright (geo) until the external factors cause buds on the windward side to die or grow less well (desiccated buds) when more exposed - then the tree takes on the windswept form. The environmental factor overcomes or becomes more dominant

Edited March 5, 2017 by Gary Prentice

[daltontrees]

Its just that you were saying that you thought light had nothing to do with it . You are most likely right .

 

As Gary indicated, light is only the dominant factor in determining growth direction when the only way is up.