Carapace
Yamadori
Hi, I have a 2m tall silver maple and it has a fairly thick base, I want to chop it low but I'm not sure when I should do it. Winter?
Hi guys, when can I trunk chop a 2m silver maple?
- Thread starter Carapace
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- chop help maple maple bonsai trunck chop when
Kanorin
Omono
There are two good times.
Late Winter / Early spring just before buds push.
Late Spring to Early Summer - Timing depends on your climate. You'll want to do it 2-4 or so weeks after the first flush of leaves have hardened off.
Late Winter / Early spring just before buds push.
Late Spring to Early Summer - Timing depends on your climate. You'll want to do it 2-4 or so weeks after the first flush of leaves have hardened off.
Carapace
Yamadori
Thanks, I will probably do it in winter, I will cut it a few cm higher than the bud I want it to grow from and seal it for good safety.
TrevorLarsen
Chumono
Yeah I would do it when the tree shows first sings of waking up like has been said. If you do it before the tree is starting to wake up then the wound won’t seal and heal until it wakes up. Please post a picture if you can, since I am growing silver maples from seed, so I’m curious about your progress.
bonsaichile
Omono
the problem with silver maples is that the petioles are too long and do not reduce. plan for a large tree (3 feet or so) in order to mitigate that problem. otherwise, the canopy will never look proportionate
TrevorLarsen
Chumono
That is why I personally am growing a forest of 30 or so. That are 3 years old now. I have noticed like other maples there is a big difference between the different trees. Some are far smaller and with smaller leaves so I plan on taking those out to grow as solo trees. I’m no expert but that is what I have observed in my short time growing them.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
I dont know how true this is. My silver maple petioles are not particularly long, the leaves have reduced quite a lot simply by being restrained in growth. I believe it may be an underappreciated species.
I’m starting to hope this is true too. I have one that’ll be going into its third year next spring and has grown quite a bit and the leaves have reduced to pretty small in some cases with a beautiful red veining. Another I have the leaves have stayed a little larger but it is younger and hasn’t had any defoliation. I didn’t mean to do so with the first but it wound up happening inadvertently due to drying out a bit and losing around 70% of its leaves before they came back a lot smaller.
Waiting to see what kind of color comes around this fall, that is supposedly where they fall a bit short.
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Carapace
Yamadori
Well this one in particular seems to get pretty small leaves after I defoliated it ( I actually forgot to water it in the middle of July when it was blazing hot and it got it's leaves scorched) even in it's nursery container.
Carapace
Yamadori
These are it's leaves after the "defoliation", it is sitting in full sun, in nursery soil and it's getting fertilized while there is another silver maple next to this that will be going into a forest I made in my backyard which has leaves easily 4 times bigger while having the same conditions. So I can say I have some hope with this one have tiny leaves.
This is the base and I believe the bud at which I will chop the trunk at is where my finger is attached to my palm. It's nothing wow but hey, it's one of the biggest I got, plus I will grow it into a very large for ( 100 litres of volume of soil ) on my balcony. I would like to grow in the ground but I am not sure these will do so well in drought conditions even with mulch and a weekly watering (it's pretty far away from where I live plus it gets scorching hot there in the summer).Also if anyone knows if silver maples can grow in a drought prone zone?
TrevorLarsen
Chumono
I live in Utah so it’s about as drought heavy as any place, and mine do fine here. Like I said I have 30 3 year old trees in a 5 gal pot and I have never noticed them needing water more than and other deciduous trees. I also have 2 30+ year old silver maples in my yard that have never had any problems, and they are just watered by the lawn sprinklers, I have never needed to give them extra water. I’ll post some pictures of all of mine tomorrow. The 2 in my yard also have amazing nabari.
Carapace
Yamadori
Cool, thanks a lot
HorseloverFat
Squarepants with Conkers
Depends on the silver maple..
They are genetically "leaning" towards long petioles (not quite as intensely as platenoides), but you will still get 30(ish) percent (from my observation) of the specimens with petioles that reduce comparatively...
Sooo...
"It depends"
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
Silver, Trident, Red... picked average
leaves. Trees not heavily ramified... petioles are longer on the natives but i think ramification will also resolve that.
leaves. Trees not heavily ramified... petioles are longer on the natives but i think ramification will also resolve that.
HorseloverFat
Squarepants with Conkers
Indeed.
I HAVE encountered Rubrums, Sachs AND freemanis with petioles that always read fairly long... but as I said, this is not even near absolute, and MANY will reduce.
Platenoides, most of the time, reads fairly long petioles, but CAN and does "break' this "lean' on certain specimens.
...
Freemani has now taken it's place in my top 3 favorite maples to work with. (I argue that they are even "better" for bonsai than Rubrums, and I have some freemani that you'd think just WAS silver.... this leads me deduce that silver maple ALSO can produce desirable characteristics.)
bonsaichile
Omono
it is not the leaf size, but the petiole's, the stem that attaches the leaf to the branch. small leaves and relatively long petioles dont liook good
HorseloverFat
Squarepants with Conkers
Oh yeah!
If you can't 'get away from' long petioles on a specimen... it can be super frustrating.
Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
The petiole extends with the leaf, so depending on when youre showing the tree, a defoliation and reflush can be timed for optimal length and size. Silver maple new shoots are gorgeous when they are just flushing out. Rubrum too.
I am still getting some new growth on some younger shoots and as the temps have started to drop the new leaves have taken on an almost variegated look, unless maybe they are going to be some of the first to reverse course and drop?
Some of these shoots only started extending in about August and haven’t yet lignified, should my expectation be that they will probably not last the winter? It is pretty mild here in RVA.
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