Call for red maples (acer rubrum)

M. Frary

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You're missing out! I think it's all about which variety. The ones here in central VA (trilobum I think) don't have very long petioles and the leaves seem to reduce pretty well. @Zach Smith reports an issue with rotting from the chop site in year 2 or 3, but I haven't got that far yet with the bigger one I collected, so we'll see. I think he is working with drummondii, so maybe the trilobum won't have that problem. All in all, I think they can make pretty nice trees. Paul Katich definitely thought so and so does Arthur Joura, who handles the bonsai collection at the NC Arboretum.
I don't even like the length of the petioles on amur maples. The ones on reds are way longer.
I get the things popping up in my pots every year from seeds flying in the pots. I pull them quicker than the weeds.
Like elms they don't need cold stratification. Seed falls in the dirt and grows.
 

wireme

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Here’s the seedling I threw into the thread when it started, still a seedling but it’s got low movement, basal flare, good start to nebari and even developing bark already so I’m happy to keep on growing the little thing. Took a pic at repot this year. I pruned hard and defoliated a few weeks back to try to initiate low buds for a future chop. I see them forming but looks like they won’t open this year. My maples grow nicely until mid June then just stop. Looking perfectly healthy but no grow, total stall . Owen helped me figure out that a hard prune restarts them. Now that I know that it looks like I will start getting development twice as fast as I used to. 2 grows per year instead of 1. Funnily this is probably not a red maple at all. Volunteer from common landscape trees here, many of which have reddish or purple leaves so I just assumed red maples. Maybe Norway maples of some kind instead. 755F96A3-6F9A-4FDD-A6D5-0C2B5C2E7F12.jpeg7F60FEE4-A713-4D4B-B96C-6F8D3C1FD790.jpeg
 

VAFisher

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Nice tree! Have you been defoliating it? How tall?

I usually defoliate it in July but did it earlier this year because the first crop of leaves were pretty beat up and I was tired of looking at them. It got some wind damage back in April when the leaves were still tender. Here's the time line this year.

March
2019-03-29 09.15.41.jpg

May
2019-05-01 07.23.23.jpg

June after defoliation.
2019-06-29 07.38.38.jpg

July with a slightly smaller crop of leaves
2019-07-21 17.42.47.jpg
 

Joe Dupre'

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Here's my first one at 6 months from collection. Nice movement, but I should have chopped it lower. I'll see how the leader thickens up. If it looks odd, I'll chop it come spring.

100_2247.JPG100_2248.JPG
 

ABCarve

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I usually defoliate it in July but did it earlier this year because the first crop of leaves were pretty beat up and I was tired of looking at them. It got some wind damage back in April when the leaves were still tender. Here's the time line this year.

March
View attachment 253634

May
View attachment 253635

June after defoliation.
View attachment 253636

July with a slightly smaller crop of leaves
View attachment 253637
Interesting. I don’t totally defoliate. I start cutting off the biggest leaves as soon as they start shading out the inner leaves, maybe 5 to 10 every couple of days. This is late May for my area. I keep cutting them as they get big until mid-July. Most of them are approximately 2”. Seems there’s always a couple of petioles dropping on the bench.
 

VAFisher

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Interesting. I don’t totally defoliate. I start cutting off the biggest leaves as soon as they start shading out the inner leaves, maybe 5 to 10 every couple of days. This is late May for my area. I keep cutting them as they get big until mid-July. Most of them are approximately 2”. Seems there’s always a couple of petioles dropping on the bench.

Might be a better approach. I'll try that next year and see what happens.
 
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