Acer rubrum (American Red Maple) Project

[plantmanky]

Just as a starter for the forum here are some pic's of an American Red Maple that I've been working on for the last couple of years. It is certainly not anywhere near completion but it has been a good exercise to see the capablilities of some of our native trees. So far, I have found that I like the female of the redmaple because of it's flowers and seeds in the early spring and the lovely colors that it gives off in the fall. I would love to hear anyone elses experience with this tree and hear about your expeirences.

A_rubrum1_0210_sm.jpg (85.87 KiB) Viewed 3780 times

[BillsBayou]

Is that dead wood going down to the soil line? Not the sort of thing I can get away with in New Orleans. How far down below the soil line would you apply lime sulfur?

[plantmanky]

Is that dead wood going down to the soil line? Not the sort of thing I can get away with in New Orleans. How far down below the soil line would you apply lime sulfur?

Yes it sure is Bill, I only apply lime sulphur at the soil line or maybe just a hairs width below it. I'm not one to worry about dead wood rot. I actually like it to rot as it makes the trees look far more natural to me. I just use the lime sulphur in this case to lighten up the wood and slow down the rotting process. Red maples produce healing tissue like it's going out of style and will eventually cover up most of the dead spaces anyway. I just watch that I don't overhead water the deadwood to often. I find it much more intresting to see how mother nature takes care of wounds.

[lewisjk]

I'll be interested to follow your progress. I've found it to be all but impossible to develop tight intrnodes.

[bryanskinnell]

I've personally never had good success with American red maple. Every drastic root pruning I've ever performed on the species inevitably sent the tree into a death spiral, at least on heavy trunked specimens with heavy roots. This year I'm trying a different approach with this species in which I start off with young seedlings and prune the tops and roots back every year or two. A slower approach than cutting a large tree back as one would typically do with maples. But in the long term hopefully I'll have better success as the tree never really experiences a major pruning either as in the past. We'll see anyway.

Red maples are such a lovely tree, in spite of their coarseness, that it seems such a shame not to have one or two gracing my bonsai collection. They're not commonly used but I know of others who have successfully grown them so it can be done.

Bryan Skinnell

[plantmanky]

I've personally never had good success with American red maple. Every drastic root pruning I've ever performed on the species inevitably sent the tree into a death spiral, at least on heavy trunked specimens with heavy roots.

Bryan,

Your experience with die back on larger specimens is often the case but can be minimized by being a bit slower in cutting back the larger roots over a few years rather than right away. By taking a larger root ball and containerizing the tree, it will force the larger roots to produce the smaller feeder roots closer to the trunk of the tree. Over time and a numer of root prunings to slowly remove the larger roots as the feeder roots gain strength and grow will eliminate or at least reduce the die back problem. On another note, if you can keep the tree alive even with some initial die back you can use it to your design advantage as a large shari which is what I did with the tree pictured above in this thread. I rather like the dead wood as it looks quite like an old tree in a forest setting.

Randy Davis

[dbrock]

Interesting discussion. I quess I have had blind luck. I collected a Red Maple last February with a 5 inche trunk. It was a 30 foot tall tree. I placed a recipricating saw blade into the ground about 8 inches out from the trunk a sawed a circle around the base. I then pushed the tree over, snapping the tap root. After trimming the tap root, I cut it at 15 inches tall and planted it in a 50/50 soil mix. It has shot out leaders everywhere about 2 inches below the cut. The top did die back that 2 inches but it is very healthy. I have picked the leader for the new top and plan to do some carving next winter after the new leader has developed better. I am down near Houston, Tx, so I am waiting to see how much of the die back will rot.

[plantmanky]

Interesting discussion. I quess I have had blind luck. I collected a Red Maple last February with a 5 inche trunk. It was a 30 foot tall tree. I placed a recipricating saw blade into the ground about 8 inches out from the trunk a sawed a circle around the base. I then pushed the tree over, snapping the tap root. After trimming the tap root, I cut it at 15 inches tall and planted it in a 50/50 soil mix. It has shot out leaders everywhere about 2 inches below the cut. The top did die back that 2 inches but it is very healthy. I have picked the leader for the new top and plan to do some carving next winter after the new leader has developed better. I am down near Houston, Tx, so I am waiting to see how much of the die back will rot.

dbrock,

Nice to know others are working on red maple. I found that it took a year or so for my tree to do the dieback of the trunk. Not that all trees will die back but it would be nice to hear some follow up on your tree as it progress's. It would also be great to have some progression pictures here so that others would get a clear idea on the process. I'll be posting some of my tree sometime in February if it flowers this year and then again once the seeds form. It's been a slow process to get branch ramification and tight internodes but that's only because it's a continual process of cutting back the new growth during the growing season to a single set of buds and then starting over again. This summer I plan on doing a complete leaf trimming n June to see how the leaves perform at reduction. A slow process but ever so educational.

Randy

[dbrock]

This was the initial picture I took right after I dug up my new found treasure. I will take a new picture of the tree in it's current state. Thanks

[dbrock]

This was about a month after collecting the Red Maple.