Gabler
Masterpiece
See those little whips next to the larger sycamore sapling? Those are Acer x freemanii, a naturally-occurring hybrid between red maple (Acer rubrum) and silver maple (Acer saccharinum), not to be confused with the similarly-spelled sugar maple (Acer saccharum). They grow absurdly fast, and many are sterile, producing no seeds. In five years, the one I leave in the ground could reach fifteen feet in height and spread, with a good six-inch diameter breast height. I should be able to chop and develop those whips into good trees in no time at all, so this spring, I'll extract one and put it in a grow pot on the ground, where the roots can grow quickly and unrestricted, but then I can scoop it back up with a bucket-front tractor when I'm finished thickening the trunk. It'll be neat to see what I can produce in essentially six years from seed (five for this contest plus last year). I'm also curious to see whether refinement will be too difficult in the long run.