Young Black Willow - Main Trunk Regrowth?

[OneTwoTree]

Hello All, I’ve been collecting young tree seedlings that pop up where they will get weeded by landscapers. One such tree is this black willow pictured below.

The main trunk was damaged over Winter, but new shoots have thrived in its place.

1. Is there any way to encourage regrowth on the main trunk?

2. If not, any idea if the offshoots, with continued growth/thickening, will be weakened by the essentially dead main trunk? If so, recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

The original stem is dead, one or more of the new stems will continue on to become the trunks or main branches.
There is nothing abnormal about this. Trunk and main branch replacement often occurs with young tree seedlings, especially, coppice-forming species such as Black Willow (Salix nigra), which will often appear quite shrubby in youth, before becoming a tree at maturity.

 

[cpp gardener]

You can cut off as many as you want and make more by sticking them into the ground or a pot of potting soil. Easy-peasy.

 

[OneTwoTree]

Thank you both!

cpp: Even without the roots, or would I have to divide them somehow?

I don’t plan on doing this now, but I do have some rabbits that show up intermittently and eat the new growth on my mulberry trees. Maybe they’ll get a taste for willow…

 

[cpp gardener]

Even without roots. Willows root almost as easily as Coleus.