Japanese Maple Surprise

[JudyB]

I don't think that curve is too much for the tree. It appears like you have wire pulling it down? Maybe if you just let it go up a bit more right there, it wouldn't annoy you.

But really, you could chop that whole top above the zigzag, and start that over with the same but lesser movement, there isn't a lot of taper up there, so you'd gain that too.
And in the process you may find that the tree is better a bit more compact. Not that I think it's too tall, but a little shorter won't hurt. But I do like a final curve up there.

 

[tmmason10]

I don't think that curve is too much for the tree. It appears like you have wire pulling it down? Maybe if you just let it go up a bit more right there, it wouldn't annoy you.

But really, you could chop that whole top above the zigzag, and start that over with the same but lesser movement, there isn't a lot of taper up there, so you'd gain that too.
And in the process you may find that the tree is better a bit more compact. Not that I think it's too tall, but a little shorter won't hurt. But I do like a final curve up there.

Yes I think a chop will be needed. Plus there's three branches leaving from the same spot I'll need to deal with sometime. The wire is pulling it forward but the bend is there all by itself. Picture below if of a different angle before wire.

 

[Giga]

When's the best time to do a chop on a blood good maple, I just pick up a large one myself. It has great shape but does need a chop. Would late early spring late winter be best?

 

[MACH5]

Giga this has been discussed here many times and is a hotly debated topic. I would recommend late winter/early spring specially where you are.

 

[Giga]

Yeah I have only one local species maple and FINALLY a fantastic JM. I plan on taking a picture and starting a thread it's just a to dark out right now. I kinda just bombed this thread but it was related

 

[tmmason10]

Big chops, I've usually read are best saved for early spring. I do cutback and branch removal in the fall and it seems to work well. I should probably try waiting until the spring one year to see if I notice a difference.

 

[BonsaiEngineer1493]

Giga, I do it two times during the year. The first time would be shortly after leaf drop or when the majority of the leafs are aggressively falling -basically that is your window of time. The second time would be around repotting. Specifically when the buds swelled up enough and the leafs are on the verge of coming out. I live in New York so I already began hard pruning some trees. I think these times also apply for visiting wounds again.

Very nice tmmason! I'm glad you kept it. Hopefully within time you will work out a great plan for it. I like it as it is, but I'm sure it will only get better. I recently hard pruned my jmaple. My concern is for large branches. On my tree I began my first section removal. From reading and talking to people, Japanese maples would require heavy caution when pruning hard. Tridents are approached with ease. Basically, I have a large branch that needed to come off. I basically took a bite at the angle the branch makes with the trunk. Removed about 50 percent%, made it into concave, exposed the cambium, and applied paste. The reason I done this was to avoid die back on the trunk. It was my first time doing it so I hope I will get rewarded with good results.