We've had some warm weather in Jan, perfect for maple cleanup, pruning, etc. We had a serious drought this summer (I hauled over 20,000 gallons to keep my maples healthy). My acer p. 'Beni Schichihenge', a.p. 'Shishigashira', a.p. 'Butterfly', a.p. 'Kashima' have not dropped their leaves even at this late date. I don't remember this happening with any but Butterfly in the past. I took the leaves off Shishigashira and Kashima yesterday to prune and apply Wiltpruf (I'm in zone 5). However, as I was taking off leaves I felt like it might be some response to the drought and anticipation of winter, and maybe I should have left them alone. It was like disrobing them in the coldest part of the year:). All that are mentioned have been in my garden for 3-10 years. My question is should I have left them alone? Is holding onto the leaves cultivar specific or is it a response to the environment? My Cornus kousa 'Wolf Eyes' also has not lost any of its leaves and I don't remember this happening before. My winter program in zone 5 includes wrapping the ***. maples in floating row cover after I have sprayed them with Wiltpruf and I can usually have this done by Thanksgiving. Usually I have to take off a few leaves, but not the entire tree. Just wondering... Kay Dye
The reason why we do not pull the leaves off the Japanese Maples is that the buds that are covered may not have hardened off yet. So, by forcing the leaves to come off the tree we expose those buds to temperatures that may not be to their liking. It is not uncommon for the buds to either be sloughed off entirely later, even when healthy, or they can become wounded with a severe cold snap and not ever do anything for us. It is best to leave the leaves on the trees and then when the tree starts to leaf out in the Spring the leaves should fall right off on their own. Jim
Jim, Thanks, I was kind of afraid someone might say that. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed, hope for the best and figure nature knows best from now on. Kay
Kaydye, The other option you have, if you have a small tree, is to snip off the leaf and leave the petiole behind. I occassionaly do this in the summer of I have some leaves that get completely scorched and do not drop off the tree. A year or two ago, I also did it on a couple trees in the winter. This way, you still leave the petiole to protect the new bud, but don't have to look at the dried dead leaf. Removal of the leaf and leaving the petiole is also done at the time of grafting by some to the scion. Thereby reducing the water loss due to respiration by removal of some or all of the leaves. When the graft takes and the new buds begin to swell, the dead petioles fall off.
I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed, hope for the best and figure nature knows best from now on. Sometimes we can get hurt and sometimes we get lucky. You may not have any problems with your trees this year but please, let the Maple slough off the leaves on its own accord. The snipping off the leaves and leaving the petiole intact can work fine also if the spent leaves become unsightly to you. Some Maples keep their leaves on them until the Spring anyway for us here. It is common for some japonicum, shirasawanum and sieboldianum to do this almost every year when grown here. We just leave them alone and let them do their "thing" naturally. This year we had live leaves rather late so a lot of our Maples still have much of their senescent leaves on them. In just a little over 3 weeks time we went from late Fall/Winter to Spring already. It will be interesting to note how our Maples here do when they want to leaf out in about two months for some of them but I've seen no real bud damage yet on most of our Maples. If you need any help let us know. Jim
