Prune Japanese Maple Trees
Japanese maple trees have an intricate branch structure made of many smaller branches forking off thicker center branches. The trees have a natural sense of flow and harmony, but proper maintenance is needed to keep growth from becoming too bushy or unbalanced. When pruning a Japanese maple tree, light pruning focused on symmetrical structure is the best course of action.
Contents
[hide]Steps
- Use pruning to shape mature trees. Some pruning is done for the health of the tree, but most pruning is done for the sake of appearance. You can remove dead, dying, or diseased wood from the tree regardless of its age. The removal of awkward or unappealing branches should be held back until the Japanese maple has a chance to grow into its natural shape, which usually does not happen until it reaches two to three years of age.
- Prune in the summer or winter. Technically, the only time of year when you cannot prune a Japanese maple is spring, since sap is developing during this time. Late summer and winter are the most favorable times, though.
- During winter, you can clearly see the branches and will be able to tell which ones interfere with the overall structure of the tree.
- In summer, you can get a better idea for how the tree will look with certain branches removed. Pruning in the summer also stimulates less new growth, which can help prevent the tree from growing out of control.
- Know how the branches of your Japanese maple should look. There are two main types of Japanese maple tree: upright and lace leaf.
- Upright Japanese maple trees have branches that point upward, as most trees do. The branches should resemble opened fans.
- Weeping or laceleaf Japanese maple trees have branches that grow upward, to the sides, and downward. The top layer of the tree should create a veil or canopy over the rest of the tree.
- Remove dead wood. The first, most important thing to prune away are the diseased, dying, or dead stems growing on the tree. Deadwood appears most often on the inside bottom of the tree, where excess shade has caused the wood to rot. Dying or diseased wood can rot further, spreading disease to the rest of your otherwise healthy tree.
- Cut away branches that cross or intertwine. Branches that overlap one another usually wreck the silhouette of the tree. Even if they do not, the two branches could eventually end up interfering with one another’s growth. Remove one or both of the overlapping branches, sawing them off at the base, nearest the trunk, rather than merely cutting them away where they start to overlap.
- Saw off weak branches that could interfere with strong branches. Branches that hand down into the area occupied by another branch or branches that are too close to each other can make the tree’s foliage look clumpy. The goal is to make the Japanese maple tree look evenly thinned out. You can either prune or saw off the weaker of the two branches, or you can determine which branch is less important to the tree’s outline and remove that one.
- Remove branches growing in the wrong direction. For an upright tree, a top branch that grows downward would be a good example. For a weeping or laceleaf Japanese maple, a common example would be a lower branch extending straight and upward. Saw the offending limb off at its base.
- Note that many lace leaf version have twisted, curved branches that should not look straight. As long as these branches are not interfering with other branches, they should be kept.
- Use a selective heading cut. These trees have "opposite buds" or "opposite branches," meaning that the smallest branches grow out of the larger branches two at a time. The resulting branch looks like a "Y" with an extra branch coming out from the center. Remove this center branch so that the branches look like a normal "Y." Cut as close to the point of intersection as possible, leaving as little of the center stem as possible.
- Remove lower branches, if desired. For upright varieties, the lower lateral branches can make it difficult to walk under the tree or may conflict with plants growing beneath it. For laceleaf varieties, you should expect branches to hang low. Branches that drag on the ground hang too low, though, and can be removed for the sake of appearance.
- Snip away buds to direct branch growth. When you see buds developing, you can manage them to direct the eventual growth of the tree. Buds point in the direction that the tree will grow in, and many buds grow into dominant branches. If a bud is placed in a location that you believe will be inconvenient, you can pluck it out by hand to redirect the tree's growth in a different direction.
- Keep things balanced. Light pruning is the best way to manage this because it limits regrowth, preventing excessive growth from forming on one side but not on another.
- Another important part of keeping a balanced form is by avoiding dramatic diameter differences. If you prune a thick branch back to a small side branch, the shape of that section will look unbalanced and out of proportion.
- Leave the largest limbs intact. Never remove a limb with a diameter that is more than half the size of the tree’s trunk. For older trees, you should consider keeping any limb with a diameter that is more than 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the tree trunk’s diameter.
- Never remove more than 1/5 of the tree’s crown. Removing too much of the tree's growth can stimulate excessive growth or cause unnecessary stress to the Japanese maple. You should also avoid removing more than 1/4 of the foliage on any given branch. Otherwise, the branch may not be able to absorb enough nutrients.
Tips
- Take time to look at the Japanese maple from different angles. Examine it from the base to the top, the top to the base, and from side to side. Look at the tree from as many angles as possible when deciding how to shape it.
- Do not attempt to "shrink" a tree by pruning it. If a tree is too big for the space it is growing in, you should remove the tree, give it a new home, and replace it with something that will fit.
Things You’ll Need
- Garden shears
- Handsaw
