Question
QUESTION: Hi Jim,
I am also a UD Grad Bus79  We had about 4 inches of very heavy snow on Saturday and it devastated our Magnolia tree.  The tree was about 17' tall and 4 main branches that split into y's at 6 feet.  We lost 5 branches above the y's.  
My question to you is first, how did your mangolia make out.  Second, can I trip my whole tree at 6' and will it come back Or should I leave the tree the way it is.  If you need a pic, let me know.  
Dave

ANSWER: Please send a picture--most trees will recover but it will depend on the amount of breaks. Topping is not usually a good thing. A picture will help. We in the South did not get the snow--Alabama did get a small amount of rain.

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Magnolia   QUESTION: HI Jim,
The center of the tree growth is gone so it looks pretty bad.  I thought that topping the tree might allow the bottom to grow more branches.  Attached is the photo.

Answer
Since this tree is young it will respond to heavy prune. BUT it will need to be done in the early spring. Cutting it now will cause the bare branches to die back at the point of the cut. There is very little sap flowing and the branch will tend to dry at the cut and cause dead tissue. Wait until spring after the last frost. Then it would be safe to heavily prune the branches back and the flow of the sap will encourage new leave buds to sprout. The tree will look like more of a bush for a few years but new sprout will form the new branches. In several years down the road you can prune some of these off to make the tree shape again. It will look pretty bad at first but again it is not too great looking now. The key will be wait until spring to get the new sprouts.