Red Japanese maples white bark

jkd2572

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I'm always struck in awe when I see a red leafed Japanese maple with stark white bark. Like the image here. I have two red leafed maples and the bark is light, but not stark white. I'm toying with the idea of applying lime sulfur to one of them to see if I can achieve this. Just wondering if anyone has seen this done before.
 

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MACH5

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Yep lime sulphur. Sometimes I do the same. BTW that is a WP tree which does not exist anymore
:( A real shame.
 

discusmike

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That sucks, beautiful tree, I think I'd have a nervous breakdown if I lost one that nice.
 

MACH5

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It succumbed to verticillium wilt. Deshojo is prone to this disease.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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I'll try to get a good shot of it this year. Last year we really cut the roots back hard, and it had a tough time keeping up for a couple weeks once the leaves opened. Here are shots of the repot, leaves wilted, leaves recovered, and then back on course. This year I went easy on it, but it's about 10 days behind.
 

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jkd2572

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I will give it a go tomorrow if it stops raining. Report back with pics once it stops being yellow and turns to white. Hopefully the leaves will stay super red by then. It's a sheila maple so the leaves turn slightly green at one point. By the way that cultivar is a witches broom of the blood good variety. I bought two of them from a regular nursery last year. They are about three foot tall, no graph marks and the look like super ramified bonsai already. The must be some sort of very slow growing small variety like sharps pigmy. Strange if you google the variety all of the pics you find have red leaves. When I bought them they were green. Spring growth is bright red. Quiet interesting find. Not sure what i have ,but I like them a lot. I was beside myself when I found them. They both survived me reducing the root balls from 15 gallon pots to bonsai pots that are 4 inches deep this spring. If you look at the back of this photo on the right you can see one of them. See green leaves. Right now they are the brightest red you can imagine. Quite strange and interesting.
 

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Neli

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Brian, Your red maple made me turn green...Not fair..he he he!
 

jkd2572

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Today I did the first application and it turned out quite good. I will do it again in the fall after leaf drop so I can easily get to all the branches. The first two pics are before. The last two are after. The yellow cup is an air layer. Brian how many applications wood you guess you have done to yours to get it so white? I used a ratio of 1:1 lime sulfur and water. You can see in the close up the difference as a did not go all the way out on some of the branches with leafs.
 

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Brian Van Fleet

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I did one application last spring, a touch-up on the lower trunk later last summer where it flaked off, and another application this spring. It will continue to whiten over the next couple days in the sun.
 
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that looks amazing, love the colour and the contrast between the red and white. Beautiful
 

jkd2572

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Like Brian said it has got much whiter and does look really neat with the contrast. Thanks Brian. The trunk now looks like a ghost with awesome red leaves. By the way the air layered branch is a branch that is hidden by the branch you think I'm air layering. It's directly behind the branch you see. The picture is quite deceiving.
 
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davetree

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Looks like it is grafted. You can see the graft line about four inches above the base. Pretty smooth though.
 

jkd2572

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It's so white now you can't see anything.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Good day for pix...
 

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