To prune or not to prune...that is the question.

bheritage

I bought a maple (acer palmatum tsushiigumo) this past spring at a nursery. I was panning to reduce its size by removing to large branches. Rather than just lopping them off, I decided to try air layering them. One layering worked well growing lots of roots (I've since removed this portion, and started a new tree). The other grew no roots...at least that I can see. I've decided I don't want to go through another season trying to get this other side to root, so I'm going to just remove it. My questions is...now that it is the beginning of winter, and the maple is dormant. Should I remove this large branch now and seal the wound? Or, should I do this in the spring? I've heard that maples bleed drastically when heaving prunning is done in the spring...and this isn't good.

Any help appriciated.

Anthony

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ALDEVAUX

From what I read, most horticultural specialists think that bleeding is not harmfull to maples.
http://torontobonsai.org/Archives/h...ples.reiner.htm
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hort...1993/prune.html

Alasdair

If you prune maples with a rather blunt tool it stimulates the release of distress hormones and they don't 'bleed' as much. Using a sharp impliment does less damage, but the tree doesn't notice so does nothing to speed up the healing process.

I have tried this experimentally on a maple of kine, removing two shoots. One with a surgical scalple and the other with my thumb-nail. The scalpled shoot ended up dripping white sap,where the pinched shoot just formed a blob of sap.

Anthony,
When you remove the branch, try and crush the tissue around the wound to reduce the sap loss by using a blunter tool than normal if you are worried.. But i would agree that bleeding is hardly harmful All that happens is the tree looses some of its sugars.

Look at sugar maples, they are drained of sap o make maple syrup, but keep on growing...

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bheritage

Thanks for the info.

From what I read in the provided links, looks like maple pruning can be done now or in the spring. Being somewhat impatient, I'll probably prune it soon. I'm itching to see this tree start to take shape, and spring is a long time away.

What are your opinions on sealing the wounds? Some say seal, others say not to.

Thanks again,
Anthony

Carl_Bergstrom

Are you pulling my leg or do you just have no clue about how trees heal wounds, Alasdair? Crush the tissue around the wound and you can forget about it healing cleanly.

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From just one week ago: this thread discusses sealing wounds on maples. Dig deeper in the archives, and you'll find it repeated over and over elsewhere.

-Carl

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