How to stimulate back budding on Amur maple

[Kingpoutine]

I have read that Amur maples don’t do great with trunk chops… so last fall I cut it back really hard to one leaf node per branch hoping this would stimulate some back budding on the trunk that I could cut back to eventually.


Well spring is here and all the buds are back in the top inch of the trunk . Should I wipe a bunch of the buds off now to see if it pushes lower or Let it just grow and eventually cut it hard and see what happens? I want it to grow anyway so it not a huge loss it’s just not really the reaction I expected.

I thought I would see one or two buds lower on the trunk ….

 

[The Warm Canuck]

I have read that Amur maples don’t do great with trunk chops… so last fall I cut it back really hard to one leaf node per branch hoping this would stimulate some back budding on the trunk that I could cut back to eventually.


Well spring is here and all the buds are back in the top inch of the trunk . Should I wipe a bunch of the buds off now to see if it pushes lower or Let it just grow and eventually cut it hard and see what happens? I want it to grow anyway so it not a huge loss it’s just not really the reaction I expected.

I thought I would see one or two buds lower on the trunk ….

Where in Canada are you?

I'd let the tree gain some vigour to accure more energy. It should start back budding like crazy at the next flush.

I'm surprised that in zone 3 that your Amur is already pushing, mine are just starting to swell and I'm in zone 6ish. I'm two hours east of Toronto.

 

[Kingpoutine]

Where in Canada are you?

I'd let the tree gain some vigour to accure more energy. It should start back budding like crazy at the next flush.

I'm surprised that in zone 3 that your Amur is already pushing, mine are just starting to swell and I'm in zone 6ish. I'm two hours east of Toronto.

I’m from Alberta

I keep all my trees in the garage heated to 3 degrees all winter because zone 3 is death to all trees in pots… All my trees look like that already.

The only downside I have found to this is so many extra weeks of the bonsai shuffle….

 

[Backwardsvg]

I’ve found my amurs just back bud naturally a ton. Is this tree pretty healthy?

 

[Shibui]

It may just need some more time. Recent buds develop real easy - those are the ones you are seeing now. Dormant buds on older wood take some effort to get started so take longer to show up. Cross fingers and see what happens over the next couple of months.