Hi everybody, Rencently in clearance fall sale I bought a Sango Kaku (my 4th specimen of this cultivar), and it seems a good and healty specimen. However, it looks that it was piled and kept too close to another trees, so it developed a very tall shape with 4 long "main" stems of about 3/8" caliper each; but no prufusely in branches (I call it "the stick"). The picture attached shows it. I would like to prune it in a way that will develop a good shape (no so tall and with a profussely spread of the branches), So my idea is cut the top three/four branches. I planning to do it in winter, but I read a lot of info from different sources, and frankly most of time this is contradictory: some says to prune at the end of winter/beginning spring, another sources says in mid summer, some refers under any circunstance to prune in fall, due sap. Any suggestions?
I take it you are keeping it in a pot? I wouldn't do anything to this tree until I had had it for maybe two years to see how it develops on its own Rushing into pruning a new tree to me is always the wrong thing to do
Yes, I will keep it in a container (at least for a couple years). I just didn't know if let it go at its own, or to start to shape it know. Again, I found references to point at both ways. Some advices for a constant "light" pruning over a time; others says prune up to 20% of branches every year. Even J.D. Vertrees's book refers to this point, but I'm not sure, and when pruning matters, I don't want to make costly mistakes with this healty tree. Thanks
I would prune most of the top off on the left after leaves have droped. In theory then all their "energy" is stored to the roots. Next spring growth will be stronger on buds which are left so they grow stronger. I love japanese maples which have multitrunk shape. To me it makes sense that large pruning is done in the beginning of summer as wounds have more time to heal before fall rains.
Your Japanese maple tree is alive. Sometimes things are put on clearance because of poor health and poor form. It sounds to me like you want to change the form of your tree. You could also plant the tree where you want it to grow up and let it grow. I've seen tree branches weighted down to open up the branch structure. What are the winters like in Houston TX? Does it really cold and could your young tree be damaged by frost? If that's the case I would wait until spring or summer to prune. That way when pruning you remove the dead or broken branches first. Plant Amnesty has a great website and regional pruning guides that you will find helpful. If there are Master Gardeners in your city - maybe at the local extension college, they could help you too. http://www.plantamnesty.org/
The most recent I've read for arborist standards, is that new trees establish better without pruning for a couple of years. Only, I remove defects, or thin co-dominant leaders which can peel apart. Your tree has a bit of that, but removal of one part or another won't leave much. Based on what I see, I'd leave it alone and keep the pruners away for a year or two. Many are narrow branched like that. There are inconspicuous ways to brace the narrow union leaders without removing them.
Well, here in Houston, there are big retail plant Centers (called Houston Garden Centers - scattered around several areas of Houston). Ussually after spring and again in fall, they have a big clearance sale (70% off) in all plants, not only JMs. That's no mean that the trees have problems, I think it's just a commercial strategy. I saw this specimen last spring, but the cost was very high, so I wait until fall, and fortunately voilá! the three was there yet; so I bought it with others cultivars. Winters here are very mild in general, temperature between 35-55. Of course, there is no snow (one very rare exception was in Christmas eve of 2005 - 3 inches!), and ocassionaly some frost from January to march. However, summers are the really main concern with JMs. They're really hot and that's the big headache for Texans that's are trying to grow JMs here. I don't know any Master gardeners here yet, but I think they're not familiarized with JMs due the fact that it's not very frecuently planted. And yes, I already visited your website looking for advice, Certainly I saw around here some trees really damaged for "toping", with very bad shape. That's the reason I was lookng for advice. Thanks!
Yes, I already decided to leave "as is". Probably the 4 longest leaders branches on top of it will "cascade" and did a good effect. For growers and nurseries, I think this three is a good example of what happen when pile and let them grow together in a tight space in order to "make room for more trees" and save space. Frecuently I have saw many of this examples in Nurseries and garden centers: the only way that the trees are allowed to grow is up with no space around, affecting them visually and aestetically. So they will take some years to reverse the condition and begin to develop lateral branches. Thanks for the advice!!
