Reviving a dead Acer Rubrum with a Deadwood Feature. Ideas?

[Jetson1950]

Last year I was out in the woods looking for possible tree candidates and came across a very damaged red maple. Appeared to be maybe 3-4 years old. The main trunk had been broken off and a new trunk had started growing. Didn’t have my shovel with me and too lazy to go get it, so I just yanked it out of the ground. Broke off the main root, but took it home and potted it. It lost its leaves and pretty much looked dead, so I just set it aside and forgot about it. Last month I happen to walk by it and saw it was coming alive again with two new shoots off the second trunk. This little tree does not want to die, so I figured I have to do something with it. It’s a survivor.

I’ve never done a tree with a deadwood feature, so I’m in virgin territory on whether this might work with an off shoot of the original deadwood trunk. There are two new shoots coming out now, but I may see more which might also lend itself to a raft style with a deadwood feature. If I remember, the main root was very curved and it would be easy to pot the tree in a horizontal position. Need some experienced guidance on any possibilities you see.

 

[rockm]

This tree isn’t really worth developing a deadwood feature on, IMO.

It’s really too small to do that with for several reasons.

First is leaf size and the lanky ramification that red maple (acer rubrum) has. I eaves reduce a bit but not very dramatically and growth is always lanky with this species. Red maple works best with large to extremely large initial stock

Secondly the growth rate of red maple is pretty fast. Even if you widen the wound site, the trunk is likely to overcallus the area pretty quickly. The trunk is so small that constantly rewounding to keep such a feature could wind up killing the tree

 

[Jetson1950]

This tree isn’t really worth developing a deadwood feature on, IMO.

It’s really too small to do that with for several reasons.

First is leaf size and the lanky ramification that red maple (acer rubrum) has. I eaves reduce a bit but not very dramatically and growth is always lanky with this species. Red maple works best with large to extremely large initial stock

Secondly the growth rate of red maple is pretty fast. Even if you widen the wound site, the trunk is likely to overcallus the area pretty quickly. The trunk is so small that constantly rewounding to keep such a feature could wind up killing the tree

I hear you. I sort of had those thoughts, but I just can’t bring myself to giving up on a tree that keeps coming back. lol! I’m just an old softy for saving wounded trees. .

 

[oranjeaap]

Just do it and see it as an oppertunity to practice.

 

[Jetson1950]

Just do it and see it as an oppertunity to practice.

Absolutely! Can’t make it any uglier than it already is, but it may turn into something very unique and beautiful. lol! Maybe just unique and not so beautiful. We’ll just say “work in progress” until then. After flying and training folks in high performance fighter aircraft all my life, when I retired my favorite expression became “I ain’t got nowhere to go and the rest of my life to get there”. Don’t need to go fast anymore. I’ve got time to wait and see what happens.

 

[Baron von Smoogle]

........... when I retired my favorite expression became “I ain’t got nowhere to go and the rest of my life to get there”. Don’t need to go fast anymore. I’ve got time to wait and see what happens.

Retirement doesn't suck, does it? 10/10 Would recommend!!

 

[The Warm Canuck]

Like Rockm said a Red Maple needs to have a substantial girthed trunk to look convincing as a Bonsai. I would focus on just letting the tree grow, and recover (preferably in the ground) However, it looks like you may already have some inverse taper. As those lower shoots under the inverse taper elongate, I would choose a few to wire for an eventual new leader. Once the tree is vigorous enough, could be a few years, Trunk chop to your new leader. Then just let it grow in the ground as unrestricted as possible, working the roots in at some point. Just my two cents.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

By the time that red maple grows to the point you would want to mess with it for bonsai, that little stub at the base will be gone - the tree will compartmentalize the wound and grow over it with layers of new bark. The best thing you could do with that tree right now is to let it grow, freely, without touching it, until at least next summer. It has very little foliage, which is budding out late in the season (particularly for central Florida), and it has to generate a lot of root mass.

 

[Jetson1950]

That’s for the inputs guys, but it never made it. Those new leaves were kind of it last dying breath to try and grow again. They withered and died after about a week. I suspect the roots were already dead and it used up its last bit of energy to put out those two little leaves. Just have to give it a RIP for is last valiant try to come back. I hate to lose anything, but I have 24 more Red maple seedlings between 1-4 years old. Plus, there are thousands of them around all the swamps here in Florida. An endless supply to work with.