I have a 7' tall (4" caliper) Mamey in ground 10 years bought as a 7 gallon. It's one of the few trees I've had that languishes on but I still have had patience with it waiting for it to get on with it. The upper branches have always experienced a growth flush, and stem die back soon afterward, so it remains small.
Currently the upper branches are not sending out new growth and existing leaves are yellowing and withering.
OTOH, today I saw that it's pushing all sorts of new growth on the trunk at four to five feet from the soil while upper branches are all losing leaves and the upper stems are dying. Is it time to pull it, or pug it? Is "pugging" even possible to do without killing it? If I chop it off, should I first wait for the new growth to push out fully before decapitating it?