I rec'd this 'Garnet' last fall from Guy Maillot. At the time, I potted it on, and pretty much forgot about it. It's a very healthy plant and has put on lots of root, so I went to pot it on, and I see it was sort of left untrained in the nursery, so that it's grown two central leaders completely together. Normally I'd take one out, but that would be half the plant, and I wonder if it might sort of be cool to just let them grow together (pleach) and do their own thing. What do you think, cut or experiment?
Experiment!!! I vote for leaving them be as is. In general, that is my approach with all maples, let them do whatever they want to do…
meh. I'm sure you know how to rig things so that they stay separate and/or that it has a single leader. What I see doesn't seem all that interesting, but maybe it would be if more branches wore similarly 'interwoven'. On the other hand, it could be air layered next year = two trees, not the loss of half OR have you thought about grafting? Then again, you may not need any more 'tree projects'. ...
How has airlayering a dissectum worked for anyone on this forum? I am genuinely interested in the answer.
When I see very old dissectums, and similarly old low growing A. matsumurae that have interesting branch structures, I can't help but think that they would not have become as they are if the late owners had followed the modern Rulez of Pruning. I vote to leave it as is in the hope of making an interesting structure in years to come. It is never going to be big enough to fall on your house or kill someone if it grows into a form that is marginally weaker than optimal. And 'Garnet' is widely available and quick growing so an ideal candidate to experiment with.
"meh" mostly sums up how I feel about the form too. The issue over the long term is that the gaps are quite small. I would worry that even the largest on the bottom would quickly grow together, leaving an unhealthy main branch, and looking more fasciated that anything else. It's not an expensive tree, but I do have to keep the pot for a few years, water it, repot twice, and plant it where it will take up garden space. I wouldn't bother air layering or grafting it on, too much effort for what it is. I'm planning for "massed" dissectum plantings, with varying heights, so if this one wants to spread out, that's OK too. I could easily select leaders from each branch and send them out at 45°. Of course the foliage underneath the current crown will die back eventually, leaving only the structure, but it does need it's foliage for now. @Nik asks a really good question, dissectum seedlings are miserable on their own roots; I know that people do air layer them some, but I don't know what the success rate is. Thanks for the comments, I'm more tempted to leave it and see what happens than I was before. :) -E
That's like a 15$ tree there, if you had to buy it new? I'd say experiment... you can always cut later. If it had emotional value, I'd cut. If it was for selling, same. Basically, don't cut if you don't care about the tree ;)
I would plead "pleach". Somehow, the leaders will separate sometime anyway. I think that ss long as they are not V-shaped, the risk of splitting from the wind (or snow whenever you get enough in Normandie) is low. BTW, I didn't know the word "pleach", so I looked it up in an online American dictionary : Definition of PLEACH Intersting etymology. Even more interesting, when checking if the term is still used in modern French, I saw that "plesser" is still used, particularly in Normandie : plesser — Wiktionnaire Littré - plesser - définition, citations, étymologie I learned two words today, one in English, one in (regional) French. ;°)
