My red maple forest has filled in nicely this spring – so much so that some of the interior leaves are already turning yellow.
Acer rubrum, Red maple
Weak interior leaf
To let more light into the tree’s interior, I shortened elongating shoots and removed the largest leaves.
Elongating shoot with red, bronze, and pale green foliage
After cutback and removing large leaves – 26″
Although it’s possible to fully defoliate red maples, I took a conservative approach as the tree is rooting in after being repotted a couple of months ago (you can see the before pics here).
Depending on how the tree responds to the work, I’ll look to partially defoliate the tree once or twice more during the growing season.
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Jerry says
Wow, this tree looks to be responding well to your care! Great work. I’m looking forward to the development of this tree and future updates about it. Thank you for all you do!
Jonas Dupuich says
Thanks, Jerry – will be sure to share the updates!
James Scott Chadd says
a couple of additional benefits to this work of removing leaves and select small twigs:
1. Often the only time we get to evaluate the health and strength of our maples is during dormancy when we can see just how the tree is developing. The process of defoliation makes us look closely at the bonsai while it is growing and this often gives us a new picture of its development.
2. This time of year we often have scale insects on our maples, elms, crabapples, quince and other soft and juicy deciduous trees. There are 5 different kinds that show up here at Lotus; they are light brown and quite small to black with white stripes or dots and about the size of a pencil eraser. It is easy to spot them while moving the leaves around and doing general clean up of the bonsai. Smashing them early while there are only a few will prevent a big and messy job later.
Jonas Dupuich says
Great tips, Scott – thanks for sharing!
Boris says
if it’s a matter of light, why do the top leaves are yellow? should not be the ones in the interior?
Jonas Dupuich says
The top leaves are pale green – a sign the tree needs fertilizer (which it does!). The interior leaves are turning white with green veins, a slightly different pattern.
Boris says
my thought exactly ! more of a reason to attenuate the load
Philippe St-Jacques says
Hello Jonas,
I appreciate that you are sharing your trials with Acer rubrum. I am also playing with a collected red maple and I really like this species, its leaf and bark colors, and its flowers are awesome. I would develop a red maple bonsai just to show its flowers in spring.
I started a blog about my bonsai experiments with many native species (and others) here in Canada. I invite you to subscribe to my site if you like. Here is a post about my red maple repot:
https://bonsai.earth/en/2021/acer-rubrum-repot/
Sincerely,
Philippe
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Philippe – thanks for the note for for sharing your site! It’s great to hear there’s interest in red maples and I like that you’re showing the technical details of your trees’ development. Thanks!
Jiecheng Zhang says
Glad to see these guys has came out so nice and healthy! Looking forward to see further developments in the future! 😀
Jonas Dupuich says
Thanks, JC – thank you for helping put this together!