Japanese maple leaves size

[Adamski77]

Have a question for maple growers... I have some maples in development... spent last 2-3 year working roots... and earlier this year I cut them back pretty hard to start working on canopy. Got very positive response with massive back-budding... trunks, branches... but size of new leaves is interesting. Every year so far these maples have very nice, small leaves but what came out this year after cuts is probably 3 or 4 times bigger than leaves that showed up this spring (picture attached).
Couple of questions:
- what is the reason for such an aggressive response? Is it according to the "hard cut hard response rule"?
- assuming I want to use some of these branches... though internodes are quite big... will these leaves ever revert to normal/prior size?

Appreciate your responses...

 

[Paradox]

I would argue that the larger sized leaves are probably what is normal for the variety as a big tree. You're seeing this probably because it is a response to the cut back and these are newer shoots coming out with little ramification at this point.

Trees have/need a certain area of foliage for optimum photosynthesis, whether it be lots of little leaves or fewer large leaves. Less leaves are theoretically easier to maintain than lots of little ones and the tree wants to grow big. We promote lots of smaller leaves by promoting/developing ramification.

Further developing the branch and increasing ramification should promote smaller leaves but the long internodes are a potential concern as the nodes are the only place buds can come from on maples.

Also timing of feeding schedules can help prevent shoots that grow too fast in spring and those long internodes. We also typically pinch new growth after the first set of leaves or two to prevent long internodes

 

[Maros]

Agree with Paradox. The tree will create smaller leaves when you develop denser and tighter ramification. It is a long process, but maples (and many other trees) will do this. If the internodes on a branch are too long, you have to cut back again and start over.

 

[Adamski77]

thanks for replies... my question was stemming from the fact that spring leaves were already small... not that I have great ramification yet, but they popped up in spring relatively small... and second flush has massive size. So it looks like two trees in one...
On fertilizing... I do fertilize heavy as they still in development... was thinking this could be one of the reasons... so thank you for pointing it out. And never tried pinching... maybe that's the way to slow them down little bit.

I'll see which of the branches I can potentially use in terms of the internodes... if not will cut back and try again as @Maros said.