It's getting chilly and Fall colors are beginning to pop!

Dav4 said:
Let’s see… there are two cat food cans and the rest are beer cans. They hold my holly tone fertilizer😬
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That's what I figured. I put my solid fert on the soil, but I'm now seeing the light as to why that's a much better idea. Thanks.
 
Brad in GR said:
Rock on. We are happy to have you in the mitten and glad you are enjoying the fall, it's my favorite part of the year. I didn't realize that your colors were more muted down south, wonder what the science is behind that. @Leo in N E Illinois ? :)
I'm sure I mentioned this at the all-state show - but if you do have the chance, going to see Pictured Rocks and timing the fall color up close to peak is an amazing site. Bit of a drive, but the U.P. is another world!

Here's an Amur maple that I've gone back and forth on re: throwing it in the garbage. It's a gnarled stump that's been a mother tree to a forest of cuttings that are ready to pot up into forest format spring 2024.

Was certain I'd throw this away, and then it goes and reminds me why I took those cuttings - always a beautiful display. May just have to toss in the ground and come back to it in a few years.
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Hey Brad, I actually don't know the real reason why autumn colors are muted down south except, many more trees are evergreen down south. If you keep your leaves all winter, there is no autumn color for that particular tree. Up north, trees withdraw chlorophyll , most reveal hidden pigments from underneath the chlorophyll. If there is a long period of night temps below 45 F and above freezing, where the leaves don't actually get a frost, color development can be brilliant.

My speculation is that down south, they have many more broadleaf evergreen trees, and fewer long stretches of cold, below 45 or 40 F nights needed to develop the intense colors we get up north.

When autumn starts, trees will stop making pigments, not just chlorophyll, but stop anthocyanins and flavonoids too. These pigments break down in the course of days at 70 F temps, but will last weeks in cool above freezing weather. Chlorophyll breaks down first, revealing the hidden flavonoids and anthocyanins, so the yellows and reds appear. Perfect autumn colors come with a long spell of cool but above freezing weather. A hard freeze ruptures internal cell membranes releasing phenolic compounds that destroy chlorophyll, pigments, and proteins turning the leaves brown, bringing the autumn color season to an end.

I know there are details missing, but that's what I know of the why of autumn colors.
 
Leo in N E Illinois said:
Hey Brad, I actually don't know the real reason why autumn colors are muted down south except, many more trees are evergreen down south. If you keep your leaves all winter, there is no autumn color for that particular tree. Up north, trees withdraw chlorophyll , most reveal hidden pigments from underneath the chlorophyll. If there is a long period of night temps below 45 F and above freezing, where the leaves don't actually get a frost, color development can be brilliant.

My speculation is that down south, they have many more broadleaf evergreen trees, and fewer long stretches of cold, below 45 or 40 F nights needed to develop the intense colors we get up north.

When autumn starts, trees will stop making pigments, not just chlorophyll, but stop anthocyanins and flavonoids too. These pigments break down in the course of days at 70 F temps, but will last weeks in cool above freezing weather. Chlorophyll breaks down first, revealing the hidden flavonoids and anthocyanins, so the yellows and reds appear. Perfect autumn colors come with a long spell of cool but above freezing weather. A hard freeze ruptures internal cell membranes releasing phenolic compounds that destroy chlorophyll, pigments, and proteins turning the leaves brown, bringing the autumn color season to an end.

I know there are details missing, but that's what I know of the why of autumn colors.
Click to expand...
Water transport must have something to do with triggering fall color as well, although I don’t know the specific mechanism. I have observed that my maple air layers quickly turned to autumn color right after the layer was separated and potted up. Meanwhile, the parent tree’s color development lags behind. Same tree genetics, same growing conditions experienced by the plant right up until separation, but drastically different timing of autumn color between the parent tree and the layer. The one factor that’s significantly changed is the supply of water through the vascular structures. Likewise, I’ve noticed that branches that were growing with the most vigor on a tree are the last branches to change color relative to other branches on that tree.
 
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