Call for red maples (acer rubrum)

[M. Frary]

You're missing out! I think it's all about which variety. The ones here in central VA (trilobum I think) don't have very long petioles and the leaves seem to reduce pretty well. @Zach Smith reports an issue with rotting from the chop site in year 2 or 3, but I haven't got that far yet with the bigger one I collected, so we'll see. I think he is working with drummondii, so maybe the trilobum won't have that problem. All in all, I think they can make pretty nice trees. Paul Katich definitely thought so and so does Arthur Joura, who handles the bonsai collection at the NC Arboretum.

I don't even like the length of the petioles on amur maples. The ones on reds are way longer.
I get the things popping up in my pots every year from seeds flying in the pots. I pull them quicker than the weeds.
Like elms they don't need cold stratification. Seed falls in the dirt and grows.

 

[coltranem]

This little guy is up in the White mountains so I guess I'll play it by ear View attachment 163342

Is this on private land? Much of the White Mountains are National Forest or State Park land. Please make sure it is legal and you have permission.

 

[ABCarve]

fall 2018, present. Second set of petioles are much shorter.

 

[Zach Smith]

The petioles get shorter when the leaves get smaller. Very nice tree.

 

[VAFisher]

Here are the 3 that I'm working on. Bought this one from a member that I don't think posts anymore.

 

[VAFisher]

I collected this one and have been developing it for 2 or 3 years now.

 

[VAFisher]

And the last one. 2 seedlings I planted as close together as I could.

 

[wireme]

Here’s the seedling I threw into the thread when it started, still a seedling but it’s got low movement, basal flare, good start to nebari and even developing bark already so I’m happy to keep on growing the little thing. Took a pic at repot this year. I pruned hard and defoliated a few weeks back to try to initiate low buds for a future chop. I see them forming but looks like they won’t open this year. My maples grow nicely until mid June then just stop. Looking perfectly healthy but no grow, total stall . Owen helped me figure out that a hard prune restarts them. Now that I know that it looks like I will start getting development twice as fast as I used to. 2 grows per year instead of 1. Funnily this is probably not a red maple at all. Volunteer from common landscape trees here, many of which have reddish or purple leaves so I just assumed red maples. Maybe Norway maples of some kind instead.

 

[ABCarve]

Here are the 3 that I'm working on. Bought this one from a member that I don't think posts anymore.

View attachment 253489View attachment 253490

Nice tree! Have you been defoliating it? How tall?

 

[VAFisher]

Nice tree! Have you been defoliating it? How tall?

I usually defoliate it in July but did it earlier this year because the first crop of leaves were pretty beat up and I was tired of looking at them. It got some wind damage back in April when the leaves were still tender. Here's the time line this year.

March


May


June after defoliation.


July with a slightly smaller crop of leaves

 

[Joe Dupre']

Here's my first one at 6 months from collection. Nice movement, but I should have chopped it lower. I'll see how the leader thickens up. If it looks odd, I'll chop it come spring.

 

[ABCarve]

I usually defoliate it in July but did it earlier this year because the first crop of leaves were pretty beat up and I was tired of looking at them. It got some wind damage back in April when the leaves were still tender. Here's the time line this year.

March
View attachment 253634

May
View attachment 253635

June after defoliation.
View attachment 253636

July with a slightly smaller crop of leaves
View attachment 253637

Interesting. I don’t totally defoliate. I start cutting off the biggest leaves as soon as they start shading out the inner leaves, maybe 5 to 10 every couple of days. This is late May for my area. I keep cutting them as they get big until mid-July. Most of them are approximately 2”. Seems there’s always a couple of petioles dropping on the bench.

 

[VAFisher]

Interesting. I don’t totally defoliate. I start cutting off the biggest leaves as soon as they start shading out the inner leaves, maybe 5 to 10 every couple of days. This is late May for my area. I keep cutting them as they get big until mid-July. Most of them are approximately 2”. Seems there’s always a couple of petioles dropping on the bench.

Might be a better approach. I'll try that next year and see what happens.

 

[MMJNICE]

Not sure what blight you're talking about. Does it have a name? Mine has had a fungus for the 24 years I've had it (also collected). It looks very similar to black spot which can get bad if not dealt with. Obviously it hasn't killed it. The worst I've seen it is the leaves will turn color in mid-August and fall off. This year I used Subdue (systemic fungicide) on it which stopped the progression in it's tracks. However, the leaves had already been damaged. Next spring I hope to get it before leaf damage occurs.

I'm having something that looks like black spot on all my maples oaks and ash trees. The only thing that helps is mancozeb,,, but I have to spray once,,, sometimes twice a week to control it. It always comes back. I Foolishly bought a trident maple and in less then three days it started showing similar foliage problems ,,so whatever it is it moves very fast. The ash tree over my benches is also effected. With each Reinfecting each other. I looked at the Subdue product you mentioned and the cheapest price was over 100 dollars.. does that seems right? Is it really that effective? Is there a smaller size that doesn't cost 200 bucks?

 

[Wood]

Every time I hear Subdue Maxx mentioned, there’s the caveat that it’s really expensive. The upside is that the quart because it’s heavily concentrated. Might be worth splitting a bottle between some club mates

 

[Dabbler]

Don't have any picture atm but I have a couple vid's on my youtube channel

 

[sdavis]

 

[sdavis]

Acer rubrum

 

[Tieball]

@Dabbler ….Nice videos. Thanks for sharing. The defoliation was particularly helpful. The root exposure was inspirational. Mighty fine!

 

[Dabbler]

@Dabbler ….Nice videos. Thanks for sharing. The defoliation was particularly helpful. The root exposure was inspirational. Mighty fine!

Thanks! I wish I had more time for more videos but I'm glad they were at least somewhat informative.