Acer Palmatum - Looking for feedback/ideas

[music~maker]

Chopping below 3 is really risky imo. In the pics I can't spot any active buds in this section drawing sap up to it. You're relying on adventitious buds to form your apical section which is very risky. It could quite easily die back below 5 to the cluster of branches near the curve. If you are going to chop then 3 will give you an active branch that will pull sap up through that budless section & encourage backbudding.

Chopping trees is like chopping onions - make sure that you avoid tears at all costs ....

You've definitely nailed my biggest concern. Taking the risk and having it die back to the cluster probably wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would definitely add a bunch of years to the project, and it would be a very different tree at the end.

 

[Paulpash]

As an aside you have a cluster of three branches on that 5 curve. I'd make it a priority this season to remove 2 you don't need.... otherwise you might have to chop even lower if it starts to bulge. Keeper branches should now be developed using regular pruning to get some appropriate structure. If all goes well you're not far off completing the last trunk section.

 

[music~maker]

As an aside you have a cluster of three branches on that 5 curve. I'd make it a priority this season to remove 2 you don't need.... otherwise you might have to chop even lower if it starts to bulge. Keeper branches should now be developed using regular pruning to get some appropriate structure. If all goes well you're not far off completing the last trunk section.

Yes, managing taper has been one of my primary goals for a while now. Long term, that cluster of three branches definitely needs to be simplified. In the short term, though, I may shorten all three, see which responds the best, then choose what to do next from there. You can actually keep reverse taper at bay for quite some time as long as you don't let the wrong branch run for too long. I think I may prefer to have two branches at that spot instead of one, but the one thing I know for sure is that three is almost certainly too many long-term.

During at least the past 2-3 growing seasons, I've been watching the trunk like a hawk, and if something looks like it might be about to cause a problem, I shorten it enough to slow it down and that keeps it in check. That way, I figure I can always cut back more later for taper, but I get to keep my options open (vs. removing it altogether).

I'm at a point now where I think cutting back all/most of the branches back fairly hard and letting the chips fall where they may could be a decent option, and should give me a whole new set of branches to play with. There are a number of dominant branches that are poised to really stretch out quickly if I let them, so I definitely need to manage that somehow.

 

[SilverioSan]

@music~maker Is any update on this? I would be interested to know what was your final decision and how the three looks now after almost a year - thanks

 

[music~maker]

It's coming along. The leaves should be changing color soon and I'll post some more pics then. I took a pretty conservative approach for this season, bit of a holding pattern. Made some small moves and then let it recover for the season. Mostly because I was busy in the spring, but also just because I didn't see any harm in letting things just fill in a bit first.

 

[music~maker]

Here's a quick update on this one. This is what the tree looks like as of April 2019.

Acer Palmatum Update Album

• music~maker
• Apr 9, 2019
• 1

Updates to my trunk chopped acer palmatum over time

You'll notice I haven't made any big moves yet, partly because I've been busy, and partly because I wanted to see how things evolved a bit first. I've done a little refinement, and I chopped back to an apex. But other than that, not too much has changed over than growing it out and keeping it lightly pruned.

It's very well poised for wiring, but I'm pretty busy this month, so may have to get to it once it's spring flush has grown in.

The way the top is evolving, I have a few different long term options:

1. Chop back to one of the chop points I drew in an earlier diagram
2. Leave it alone and develop the canopy at the height it's currently at.
3. Eventually air layer off the top and get two nice trees out of the deal.

Jury's out. For now, I'm keeping my options open.