Hi, I have a three meter high Hagoromo cultivar in a pot and I must say it is probably the least attractiv of my maples. Can anyone suggest a pruning style for that maple. It looks like one big stick with lots of leafs. regards Webwolf from Downunder
What to do with 'Hagoromo' It looks like it has a co-dominant stem. I might consider gradually reducing the longer co-dominant by air layering, grafting and maybe even rooting the wood. That might induce it to form more branch structure and you will have more plants to boot.
Sorry I did not fully understand. Do you mean pruning the tree say half way to induce stronger side branches and use the cut off for grafting or rooting? You can not air layer a cutting can't you?
My advice and a dollar will get you a cup of java It appears to branch off to the left about halfway up the tree and it looks like a longer branch extending to the right. I don't say it will work but I would reduce the longer branch and utilize the wood that I take off gradually. Yes it can be air layered. Do a search on this page for "air layering" and look for info that people, including myself have posted. Post another picture, a little closer that shows the two main branches, the co-domanent leaders. Here you go : http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=4003
Hi Webwolf: If the plant were mine I would cut the longest limb back to the near the length of the smaller side limb just to even up the shape. Do an angular cut at about a 45 degree angle, not a flat (horizontal) cut. I would not do anything else unless you want to try to propagate your tree by air layering. Hagoromos grow this way naturally and with a little bit of fine tune pruning every now and then they are best left alone. I see a pretty healthy tree for Hagoromo so I would not mess with it too much. It took us a long time to get our Koshiminos (Fishtail) to show as much vigor. Hagoromos are a willowy grower much like a Butterfly but with less branching. They will in time fill in, in the middle of the tree but it may take a long time for that to happen. We can try to induce more branching but for this particular Maple and Koshimino also, our ideas of what we want to force it to do generally do not work. The tree will not respond the way we want it to. For this tree it is probably best to have the stronger limbs evened up in length when one limb gets too vigorous and from there leave it alone. Jim
What to do? Wolf, it looks to be larger than I had thought. I would stake it and reduce the longer limbs only slightly at first. Bring them down gradually. Try to get the shorter limb to take on apical dominance. The auxins that control that do not travel upwards, translocation is polar, it moves from the apex to the base of the plant so it may take repeated gradual reductions in the length of the longer branchs to suppress dominance until the shorter one can catch up somewhat in length. Be patient, stake and prune and it will eventually take form. This is all pretty much what Jim said.
