bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Japanese Maple Defoliation

Ralph,
One thing you will notice whenever you defoliate a maple and especially a Japanese Maple, is that the new leaves will not be as strong as the first set. they will be more pale in appearence and will not be able to hold up against the Tx. heat. Most people that do defoliate, do it to balance the strong areas with the weak areas of the tree. I almost lost my only J. Maple last year after it was prematuraly defoliated from the hail storm. The new leaves immediately burned up from the heat and I had a tree with no leaves on 2/3s of it. Finally around mid Sept. it started to come back but the tree will probably never look as good as it used to because of the strees it went through from the summer with hardly any leaves. I never defoliate any of my maples. I really don't see the reason to.

29-Apr-2004	#3
Thomas_J. bonsaiTALK Master Chief Join Date: Mar-2002 Location: North Central Texas Country: USA USDA Zone: 8 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 1,011	Ralph, One thing you will notice whenever you defoliate a maple and especially a Japanese Maple, is that the new leaves will not be as strong as the first set. they will be more pale in appearence and will not be able to hold up against the Tx. heat. Most people that do defoliate, do it to balance the strong areas with the weak areas of the tree. I almost lost my only J. Maple last year after it was prematuraly defoliated from the hail storm. The new leaves immediately burned up from the heat and I had a tree with no leaves on 2/3s of it. Finally around mid Sept. it started to come back but the tree will probably never look as good as it used to because of the strees it went through from the summer with hardly any leaves. I never defoliate any of my maples. I really don't see the reason to. __________________ Thomas J.