Well finally August is over and what a month, holidays are now a memory , work cover for various members of staff is over etc etc the list is endless!! now i have time to get back into my normal routine in the garden and see just whats been happening with the JM, which i must confess have been some what neglected over the past month !! One thing that i have noticed is the amount of new summer growth on certain cultivars which to be honest has been quite amazing to say the least,also had established trees putting on huge new growths as well, needless to say all to be pruned back later in the year. The first three pics are of plants which i have had for a number of years, they have always been in pots because i never had the time or the room to pot them out until last year when i finally managed to make space and get them in the ground. The Coonara had to go in the ground because it looked like i was losing it , lots of die back etc didn't think it would make it but suprise back it came!! , the Katsura looked the same every year never put on any substantial new growth, now some of the leaders on this are well over 24"and same again with the Sazanami lots of big long leaders and new centre growth. The last two pics are of young grafts again planted out last year Sister ghost and Olsens frosted, both have put on substantial side growths of over 12", and a final picture of a Matsuyoi again plenty of new top growth One of the interesting facts regarding these plants is they are all well shaded and receive very little direct sun light during the day, all are protected by other larger "shade trees" the Sister ghost i nearly dug up because it gets very little light and i thought that i had placed it in the wrong spot? but it's thriving so there it will remain for the next few seasons. On a final note we seem to be closing down early again this year, have some trees which are in super Autumnal colours at present and quite a few more are starting to turn !! anyone else experiencing the same early shut downs (where has this year gone!! ) Noticed also that there has not been much traffic on the web site this last month, is there another problem again? it's just taken me 2 hours to up load these pictures!!! thats a long long time never had this problem before, again anyone else having the same issues as me?
Very interesting reading your post Mark, 24" is a lot, my Atropurpureums new growth from second flush is nearly 12" inches, I've watched the growth over last couple of months and its unbelievable seeing an Acer grow so fast, maybe something with the climate/weather conditions have be right this summer for such growth? Yes, this has been a quick season, sad to think and see the dark nights come in and winter be be here soon.
It's an on-going problem. See a suggestion in this thread: Alternate way to view photos, which asks you to keep further comments in the Photo display problems thread. The point is that you can click the Expand arrow to get the photos to open (eventually) in separate tabs, so you can do stuff while you're waiting. Please, keep the display issues discussion in the Feedback forum, not in Maples. I'm just trying to head off replies to this issue in this thread.
Have both Seiryu and Sango kaku with new growth leaders well over the 30"at present these two are always cut back heavy every year hence the new growth at this present time of the season. The pics that i posted a few days ago the branches are still shooting along at a fast rate , something i have not seen before from newly planted out trees. You know the sort of weather we have had this year it's not been the best by a long way, but my JM all seem to have put on good growth this season, but we just seem to be having an early shut down now ? see pic of one of my Hogyoku's this was taken on the 25th Aug and it's far more coloured out now at his time than last year, wasn't seeing this colour until early October last year have quite a few at this stage at present. Try clicking on the pictures name and not the full pic itself, this sometimes works better i find.
Interesting thread for me, when do you cut back the long growth Mark? I imagine too early will just promote even more fast shoots. I usually don't see much of this but quite a few maples in pots have done it this year. I guess a combination of the hot weather, sun and the extra watering they've been getting... cheers, -E
I am curious to know why summer growth is removed. I know certain new branches should be removed if they are a abrading others or are inherently weak, but is the removal of all long summer growth done for other than aesthetic reasons?
emery i will be cutting back all of the cultivars pictured in thread #1 and quite a few more as soon as the fall ends ,tend to do most of my pruning at this time but some will be left for the springtime also. Have noticed that now here in the UK we have relatively mild winters so it doesn't seem to bother them, also all the rain we had as well last year which went into early spring never phased them and they have just bounced back and nothing seems to have worried them from having a good fall pruning (won't suit everybody in different zones though) Even the trees which have no pruning have put on substantial rates of growth this year, quite a few of the container trees are looking especialy healthy and some will have to be moved on again into larger pots if they grow any faster next year. Will wait until the fall then have a good look at everyone then decide how much needs to come off, what i am mainly trying to acheive is a more symetrical style and form to my trees so they have a good flow with strong movement in them as well , plus i think the colours also stand out more as well once your trees are recieving the correct amount of light and shade which comes when you remove surplus branches which are basically doing nothing but hindering the tree from better potential re: better side and fuller body growth , can't say looking at a small tree with huge leaders going in all directions is astheticaly pleasing to the eye, but at least you have something to work with for the coming seasons i find, plus i know they will all be gone in the next two months. But as stated i have never seen my trees grow so much in one season, and mainly the ones which were in containers for most of their lives and have just been planted out, a very strange year to say we have had such a poor summer, it's only recently we have had some warm muggy weather, next week looks very interesting high 20's forecasted!! Mark
After leaf drop seems right for me, I don't think much of the tender long growth would make it through the winter, anyway, Like I said I'm tempted to get it off asap since I don't want the plants putting energy into it, but that feels risky. Even later, there's a risk in cutting back to far that the maple will then put out a V of fast growth from below the cut; that's actually a standard nursery technique to get them to put on height quickly. and why we see so many annoyingly pruned JMs. As you know I'm a very non-interventionist pruner generally, preferring to let the trees find their own shape and "self prune" when the inner branches die out, and just removing crossing branches as necessary. But I don't do much in the way of container growing, which is a whole different ball of wax as you know! I guess we've had very different weather down south, after an extremely cold and wet June, it's been nothing but hot and dry. A local farmer told be yesterday that the maize crop is non-existant, he's going to cut now for silage; and heard a radio report about the economic effects of it, too. The ground is like concrete, only the moles seem to be getting through it OK, and making beelines for the worms around watered maples. -E
Just thought i would show how two of my trees have progressed over the past five years with selected fall pruning. Both trees are Seiryu and both were bought from the same local nursery back in 2010 one was a 7.5 ltr pic (1) and the other was 10ltr pic (2) as you can see not a great deal of difference in size, both trees were planted out at around 40ft distance apart from each other. Tree (1) was placed in front of my Sango kaku and other well defined coloured trees which i wanted to acheive a good colour ratio balance of reds/yellows/golds/greens etc all working with each other over the coming years. Tree (2) was planted in the corner of the garden mainly to cover a bare area of ground , but also to blend in with my large Burgundy lace this it's done rather to well !!! The next two pics are of the same trees today and as you can see there is a vast difference in size now , tree (1) i have never pruned at all since the day it was planted out , but tree (2) has been pruned back very heavy every single fall year since planted out back in 2010 and it's acheived what i was wanting and that was to cover the corner area. Have also added three pics of tree (2) these are last years fall cuts, look at the rate of growth and girth of the new side branches some of these are well over 24" in length, this cultivar just keeps getting taller and taller but the same time is filling out nicely where as the other tree just meanders along at it's own pace and keeps a good size without intervention from me. Find that both trees still have the wonderful fall colours, the smaller one loses it's leaves first then the larger one will last for another two weeks before dropping. And as you can see from the last pic the smaller tree works well with the others with out having the heavy pruing which would then in turn encrouch on the other cultivars and not give the colour scheme in which i am trying to acheive, would block out every one else and then disturb the height balance. Starting to dig a few more planting holes next week seeing we have some lovely weather comimg our way , get them ready for the fall which sadly is just around the corner, but we are going to have some spectacular colours this year so there is a silver lining :) :) Mark
