I have a friend who planted this Magnolia in her yard. She asked me if she should remove one of the leaders coming out at the base. I thought she should, but told her I would ask for some opinions here before she should do anything. After I took this pic we pruned some of the lower branches and I should have taken the picture after we'd done that, but I had already put away my camera. The next picture shows the double leader up close.
The double leader at the very base.
Do you know specifically which Magnolia this is? Many are by nature large multi-stemmed shrubs. If this is one of those, cutting off one shoot might only prompt the tree/shrub to produce others. Magnolias really don't respond well to pruning. They're famous for producing water shoots, and slow to callous over a cut. See if you can do a little homework on the cultivar. Judging from the photo, what you have there is not a tree in standard form but a large shrub.
Another option is to tie the second leader down into a more horizontal position to encourage it to be a branch. Just don't pull down too hard in case it breaks anything.
Resin
That's a really neat strategy. Thanks Resin. I hadn't ever considered that idea.
