How to Prune Baby Crape Myrtles
- 1). Water the baby crape myrtle tree as you normally do the day before pruning.
- 2). Form the basic structure of the tree by deciding how many trunks you want on the mature crape myrtle. An odd number of trunks is ideal, according to Janet Carson of "Fine Gardening" magazine. Choose no more than seven of the straightest, strongest trunks and remove the others back to the soil.
- 3). Determine how much of the lower trunk to expose. This is an important aspect of pruning the baby crape myrtle, as it sets the tree's structure in maturity. Remove undesirable low branches by cutting them back to a main branch.
- 4). Prune branches that grow toward the interior of the tree and those that cross over others. Cut out twigs smaller in diameter than a pencil. Cut them back, flush to a main branch.