Large LillyPilly

melrich

We have a Lilli Pilli growing in our backyard (30 metres tall), in fact is in the middle of our paved area and about 10 feet from the back of the house.

We have only been in the house 2 years and the first year the tree dropped 1000s of fluff balls followed by 1000s of stamens that the fluff had been attached to followed by 1000s of berries. It was unbearable, seriously like being rained on. The second year not nearly so much and in fact very few berries at all.

So my questions is...do Lilli Pilli flower and fruit every year? Secondly, is there any way to stop them flowering and fruiting?

Thank you in advance.

Eric Frei

I know exactly what you have and have lived in similar circumstances.

The fruiting is annual.

The volume depends on conditions, wet = lots of fruit and dry means less fruit.

The red berries if squashed do stain.

No, there's no magic potion to stop fruiting, if there was we'd be using it on cocos palms so we didn't have to climb up there and cut the berries off every 6 months.

What was my solution and the same solution for many neighbours .... cut it down.

All trees do something, people even think evergreens drop nothing but they drop a lot of leaves, conifers drop lots of needs and cones, trees drop flowers, seeds, bark and sometimes excrement from the things that visit them like bat poo and possum dung! Having to walk through a doorway to your house loaded with debris like that is unliveable IMHO especially when there is no solution.

Some solutions are to have a covered walkway, even shade sails etc so the debris diverts. Some tree huggers say just sweep up but in fruit these lillypilly's can be a bit over the top. You come home in the dark and squash all these red berries and walk them inside etc. Ahh, I got rid of the problem, you decide what to do but stopping fruiting is a near impossible act.

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melrich

Thanks for your reply Eric.

It is very unlikely we would be allowed to cut it down. The council we live in requires that we have a permit to cut down a tree with a trunk circumference greater than 155cm and this tree certainly is greater than that. From the little I know, it is very unlikely that any application to remove the tree would succeed under QTRA.

The mess is a major issue (and yes we get the possums droppings as well) but even if we could get a removal permit I am not 100% sure we would want to remove because the tree does provide valuable protection top the house from the northerly sun. There are pros and cons to removal.

melrich

BTW, the berries on our tree are the white ones, not the purply/red ones.

Eric Frei

How sad an unproven and subjective piece of crap UK model has become, sad your council chooses it. Likely they are inundated with like minded zombies of some system.

A trunk circumference of 155cm is only around 0.5m DBH so big deal really for a lillypilly.

Sad your council let you rate payers get over run by tree huggers, bat on.

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kaazih

So you have a 30m tall Lilly Pilly growing about 3m from the back of the house? That's quite an impressive tree and no doubt makes a hell of a mess.

Eric Frei

I doubt it is 30m tall, especially for 0.5m DBH .... maybe 30 feet, but 30m is 100 feet roughly.

Still, I can imagine the mess. Could be worse, could have been a cheese tree.

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ArbTrain

Gday,, what Eric said is right,, no way to stop it- you cant hold back the tide,, but some years will be worse than others. I see your point re; mess, however i kinda gotta say to things,, 1/ they are a living high rise of critters- they seriously are a small ecosystem in them selves, i know possum crap might be a pain, but hey, they cant help that and they were here first,, 2/ if your specimen is REALLY 30mt tall, (and no offence but i doubt it- especially re; comments above about size). that would be a very significant tree- big lil- pils are rare. All the best

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