5yr Native Tree Challenge: canoeguide's Acer rubrum

[canoeguide]

March 28, 2021: I collected this in central Pennsylvania. Many more small red maple trees on the property are similar to this one, but it was chosen for its low movement and flared roots. The tree was approximately 12-15' tall originally.


March 29: 2021: This was kept damp in a garbage bag until being repotted into an old plastic file box. The substrate used is equal parts pumice, DE, and fir bark. 4 large and relatively radial roots were found. Very few fine roots were left. The chop was re-cut lower and sealed with cut paste. In hindsight, both the roots and the trunk could have been chopped harder.


May 01, 2021: Buds emerging. Some sprouting from undesirable locations near the base have been rubbed off.


May 20, 2021:


June 5, 2021:


June 20, 2021:

 

[Ashadost]

Really interested to see where this goes. I’m new to bonsai (and really horticulture in general), so when I’ve looked for wild specimens to collect I migrate toward younger trees. We have lots of Acer rubrum here in east texas, I may need to try this.

 

[canoeguide]

Really interested to see where this goes. I’m new to bonsai (and really horticulture in general), so when I’ve looked for wild specimens to collect I migrate toward younger trees. We have lots of Acer rubrum here in east texas, I may need to try this.

Mine in this thread is still growing like a weed and as tall as me, awaiting more seasons of growing and chopping. The horticulture part seems pretty easy. Styling, etc. may be more challenging. Here's a couple of resources that you may be interested in!

Redmaple as Bonsai

This tree from @ABCarve was featured in International Bonsai recently: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/32-year-old-acer-rubrum.42520/

 

[Ashadost]

Mine in this thread is still growing like a weed and as tall as me, awaiting more seasons of growing and chopping. The horticulture part seems pretty easy. Styling, etc. may be more challenging. Here's a couple of resources that you may be interested in!

Redmaple as Bonsai

This tree from @ABCarve was featured in International Bonsai recently: https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/32-year-old-acer-rubrum.42520/

These are both great, thanks a lot!

 

[canoeguide]

Here's an update on how this grew this year, and its fall colors. The box seems to be full of roots, almost to the surface.

 

[canoeguide]

Pruned and carved. Disregarding the lower right-hand branch (which needs to be removed), 4 branches at staggered heights around the carved chop will be developed. The tallest one in the last image will probably become the apex or main trunk line, since it flows well and is frontward in this view.

 

[canoeguide]

Good growth and a midsummer pruning:


Fall foliage - yes, this is unedited color!

 

[canoeguide]

Repotted and pruned. The initial root chop was not short enough, so I chopped the large roots far shorter. Some new small roots have emerged between the original four large roots, and these were encouraged to continue growing. The tree was raised slightly.

 

[Gabler]

Good growth and a midsummer pruning:
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Fall foliage - yes, this is unedited color!
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Somehow I missed this in fall. That’s an incredible color.

Repotted and pruned. The initial root chop was not short enough, so I chopped the large roots far shorter. Some new small roots have emerged between the original four large roots, and these were encouraged to continue growing. The tree was raised slightly.
View attachment 479756View attachment 479757

I ran into the same problem with my own red maple and took the same approach to cleaning up the roots. It seems to be working to get the nebari growing in the right direction.

 

[canoeguide]

I ran into the same problem with my own red maple and took the same approach to cleaning up the roots. It seems to be working to get the nebari growing in the right direction.

If I had gotten this right the first time, I'd be farther along in creating a root system suitable for a bonsai pot. But, it's definitely made some progress in 2 years!

 

[Ininaatigoons]

Looking good!

 

[canoeguide]

This thing might always be a bit too coarse but I'm going to try to make the best of it that I can.

June growth:

Prolific roots:

Unaltered fall color:

Ready for more pruning back in the late winter:

 

[canoeguide]

So coarse... I'll prune in late winter again and offer this full sun in spring to try to get some shorter internodes.

 

[NaoTK]

I like this tree. Its not the internodes that are making it feel coarse, you should have wired out the new growth to give them curvature that harmonizes with your trunk. It is a good start and cutting back will let you restart some of the straightest sections.

 

[Gabler]

Those internodes are pretty long, though. I'm finding that red maples are such fast growers, I need to slow them down a bit even during development in order to avoid three to four inch internodes. They definitely lend themselves to large bonsai like ABCarve's.

One way to slow a branch down is to slow the whole plant down. Put it in a smaller pot than you normally would for a tree in early development. The better way is to use a sacrifice branch near the branch you want to slow down. The smaller branch will be thinner with a higher ratio of nodes per inch. These trees heal over wounds quickly, so sacrifice branches seem to be effective. In other words, you'll be developing the tree a little like a conifer.

 

[canoeguide]

I like this tree. Its not the internodes that are making it feel coarse, you should have wired out the new growth to give them curvature that harmonizes with your trunk. It is a good start and cutting back will let you restart some of the straightest sections.

This is a good point, thank you. When I started this, I was too new to know better. I would have chopped it lower, in hindsight. I also tended to water and fertilize fairly heavily (to @Gabler 's point); then, when I stopped fertilizing in an effort to slow things down, the leaves looked chlorotic. I'll see what I can do with it in late winter when I get to pruning and repotting... definitely a "learning" tree. ABCarve's partial and continuous defoliation technique seems to have certainly worked well for him, too.

 

[canoeguide]

I'm not confident that this tree will ever be anything good, but a few things happened this year that give me some minor hope. First, I cut back significantly and repositioned some branches with some subtle movement. It probably wasn't enough, but it was a step in the right direction.


Secondly, I withheld fertilizer (something I hadn't done in the past) and let everything flush out. I still got some long internodes and petioles, but perhaps better than before. No pictures of this part.

Lastly, I fully defoliated the tree, removing all the long new internodes in the process. What I got a few weeks later are leaves that are reasonable in size, with short(er) internodes, and better ramification. Post-flush pruning and/or defoliation isn't new, I know, but it finally "clicked" for me here. (The branch that is meant to form the main trunk line snapped off in a storm, but it's budding back out also.)

 

[Ininaatigoons]

Thank you for update