Tell me why native silver maple sucks?

[Ininaatigoons]

One thing I wish people put in their pictures or in their post is size references. I could guess, but I could be way off.

 

[Eckhoffw]

My little silvers in autumn.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Awwwww!!! How adorable!

 

[Gaitano]

Volunteer silver maple dug up.

 

[MMJNICE]

My little silvers in autumn. View attachment 525997

Nice color on those little guys.. with a yellow color like that you pretty much know those are Pure silver maple..

 

[MMJNICE]

I have three silver maples. Pictures of two of the three. I’ll pay more attention to these this spring knowing there’s a bit of interest.

Wow the one in the Terracotta pot looks really cool.. definitely has a nice future ahead of itself

 

[MMJNICE]

I have three silver maples. Pictures of two of the three. I’ll pay more attention to these this spring knowing there’s a bit of interest.

So how thick is the one in the flower pot?

 

[MMJNICE]

View attachment 532962
Volunteer silver maple dug up.

Looks pretty good.. I think it makes a very reasonable bonsai myself. I would be proud to own and develop a tree like that one,, the root flare looks nice too, so how do the roots look on it?

 

[Gaitano]

Looks pretty good.. I think it makes a very reasonable bonsai myself. I would be proud to own and develop a tree like that one,, the root flare looks nice too, so how do the roots look on it?

The roots were crazy and plentiful.

 

[Ininaatigoons]

Like that base! Going to be good!

 

[MMJNICE]

This volunteer that I have in a concrete planter would get frequent trimmings throughout the growing season. It looks like the ends of the top have some short internodes. This is probably all end of summer, early fall growth.

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You sure that's not a red maple? That bark looks so much like my older red maple pre bonsai

 

[MMJNICE]

So I wanted to post some pictures of my little tiny silver maple root over rock planting I've been missing around with for my second growing season. The leaves are super small and I did already noticed on this tree it seems to have naturally smaller Internodes and leaf Leaf Petioles. Most the leaves are an inch to two inches from the second or third Internodes from the cut point. Btw another thing that sucks about silver maples is they tend to only grow leaves from the tips out. On red maples, japanese maples, and other maples Species they will leaf out from the tips as well but will form leaves behind the tips of the branches or trunks. So with silver maples you do to tend to get Excellent growth but no leaves behind all that growth until it decides make a new branch behind the tips smh..you have to Constantly cut back to get fullness on a Fairly advanced tree. I'm have to cut back a lot on my silver maple clump to. I will post updates on all my silver maples as soon as they grow back there leaves from being Defoliated because of a what I think was a black tar spot outbreak.

 

[MMJNICE]

Silvers hybridized freely with reds and there are several Cultivars commercially available. I have seen the juvenile silver maple leaves look almost like red, but a couple years later turn to the typical silver maple leaf. One thing is for sure. A tree is just a by any other name and without the tag I guess it's just Silver Maple.
That said, I am trying a couple myself. 1 clump of seedlings and my first air layer. The airlayer looked great last year and I thought it was going to be awesome. I repotted this spring and gave a good rough prune and the poor thing is in horrible shape. I don't know if I should toss it or put it in the ground. I only have a few years in on this species, but it doesn't seem as strong as one would think with the fast growth.
The biggest reason I don't think they are popular is that there are so many others to choose from.

There are soooo many different trees to use for bonsai why choose a silver maple???? Simply because they are plentiful cheap or free and they grow like weeds under any Mature silver maple tree. I can't understand why more people don't at least learn and Experiment with the species. If they did I'm sure we would have way more Fairly decent Examples for others to be like yeah that's doable.. nobody is saying they're going to be winning Awards or The bonsai nationals but maybe a Local show,,, and people love seeing trees that they can easily Recognize and be like" wow I have two of those trees in my backyard the same age and they are Gigantic in Comparison". So yea I'm Slightly disappointed in the brothers and sisters that came before me not to at least Experiment or play with them because those Ugly ducklings turn into beautiful swans if you keep working with them I've learned in a quick 4 years or so.

 

[MMJNICE]

I've one I've been playing with for four or five years but getting nowhere. I can't get a second flush after pruning. It just sets buds for next year. Bugs eat it like crazy. But... I keep trying.View attachment 503118View attachment 503119View attachment 503131

Yea sugar maples grow super slow compared to silver maples.. I just collected thee late growing season and this year they are Creeping along super slowly

 

[MMJNICE]

So I wanted to post some pictures of my little tiny silver maple root over rock planting I've been missing around with for my second growing season. The leaves are super small and I did already noticed on this tree it seems to have naturally smaller Internodes and leaf Leaf Petiole. Most the leaves are an inch to two inches from the second or third Internodes from the cut point. Btw another thing that sucks about silver maples is they tend to only grow leaves from the tips out. On red maples, japanese maples, and other maples Species they will leaf out from the tips as well but will form leaves behind the tips of the branches or trunks. So with silver maples you do to tend to get Excellent growth but no leaves behind all that growth until it decides make a new branch behind the tips mh..you have to Constantly cut back to get fullness on a Fairly advanced tree. I'm have to cut back a lot on my silver maple clump to. I will pot updates on all my silver maples as soon as they grow back there leaves from being Defoliated because of a what I think was a View attachment 551122View attachment 551121View attachment 551120black tar spot outbreak.

 

[Gaitano]

You sure that's not a red maple? That bark looks so much like my older red maple pre bonsai

Silver maple from the concrete planter

Red maple

 

[MMJNICE]

So some updates pictures of my root over rock silver maple it's Internodes are ridiculously short and the leaf size average is one inch with the largest leaf being a little over two inches and the smallest an half inch. These sizes are approaching my sharps pigmy maple. This tree I noticed two years ago had noticeably natural smaller Internodes then most silver maples and it's always been in very small containers since I started training it. It's looking very promising

 

[Gaitano]

Very nice! But now looking at the leaf structure it doesn’t resemble my silver maple leaves.

 

[Ininaatigoons]

It's got a little funk to the leaves, but I'm still convinced it's Saccharum. How come your not growing up then cutting down? What's the final size in your plan?

 

[MMJNICE]

Very nice! But now looking at the leaf structure it doesn’t resemble my silver maple leaves.

Trust me,, it's all silver maple.. before I cut off the top it had much bigger leaves this spring,, but not really big as far as silver maple Standards but bigger.