Last year I defoliated a shohin Japanese maple in an effort to stimulate back buds (see “Defoliating a Japanese maple“). The approach worked (see the “Follow-up“). This year I want the shoots that developed from these back buds to grow strong. To encourage this, I removed the leaves from the established branches and left the […]
Japanese maple
Reducing internodes on Japanese maple
The small Japanese maple below has proved to be quite vigorous. In an effort to slow the tree down and produce shorter internodes, this past year I pinched spring growth, applied very little fertilizer, and fully defoliated the leaves and cut back the branches in spring. Here’s the result. Japanese maple Overall there are lots […]
Follow-up – defoliating a shohin Japanese maple
I fully defoliated a shohin Japanese maple about six weeks ago. Here’s what the tree looked like after removing all of the leaves. Shohin Japanese maple – April 30 After a week, small buds started to appear along the branches. May 10 – new buds appear Tiny back buds The first new leaves waited almost […]
Defoliating a shohin Japanese maple
I started working on a shohin Japanese maple about a year and a half ago. Here’s what it looked like at the end of 2016. Shohin Japanese maple The first order of business was repotting. I found the tree didn’t have a lot of roots so I was expecting it to grow slowly. And as […]
Pinching spring buds on Japanese maple
Spring is a busy time for keeping after refined Japanese maples. In order to keep internodes short, I pinch new shoots as soon as they emerge. Shohin Japanese maple – 6.5″ tall, 13″ wide Because the buds open at different times, I check this tree daily to see if there are new shoots to pinch. […]