Autumn Blaze Maple form

12 years ago

This is more a question out of pure curiosity...no problems with this one (I hope).

About 4 years ago (summer '07), I purchased an Autumn Blaze Maple. It was about 18' tall, but not wide at all...perhaps about 4' wide (approx 2' branches on each side)...first branches start about 8' up the trunk (about 1.5-2" diameter at chest height, I would estimate). It's leader had never been cut (all the other ABM's had their leaders cut and had a number of branches coming out below the cut)...so I thought it would have been the best specimen there.

This is it's 5th season in the ground and it is only now starting to put on any real measureable growth (I'll never buy big again...). It is now about 20-21' tall and the branches are about 3-4' long...about 2.5" diameter trunk, I think.

I know that the ABM is a cross between the Red and Silver Maples. However, my tree looks nothing like all the pictures I found on the internet of ABM's. Those trees are all rather oval shaped and mine is becoming rather irregular. It's branches are starting to dip down and turn up toward the ends. It's form very much reminds me of my Silver Maple at my prior house. But the leaves on my tree turn a brilliant red in the fall (on good years) and have red petioles, so I'm pretty sure it is not a Silver Maple that was mislabeled.

So, is it so that ABM's can take on more of a Silver Maple form than the oval form seen on the web? Would that make it more prone to breakage, like the Silver Maple?

Comments (7)

arktrees
12 years ago
Branches on our ABM turn up at the ends. New branches come out, and then turn up when they reach more. We also have Autumn Fantasy Maple, which is very similar, and it does grow much more like a Silver Maple with some smaller branches growing downward, and also gets a very nice dark red in the fall. Wonder perhaps they were mixed up?

Arktrees
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
you frankly state that you will never buy big again.. presumably because you know it is not yet growing to specs as to length..

then complain that it is not growing to specs as to shape ...

whats that all about.. give it 5 more years.. and it will probably assume a mature shape..

otherwise.. w/o a picture.. we are clueless

ken

PS: had you bought a 5 footer 5 years ago.. it would probably be just as big today .. fully established.. and probably the shape you want.. but you know that now..

if only i knew then .... what you know now ..

so i add it for others
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tophers
Original Author
12 years ago
Ken, as I stated in the original message, I am only asking out of curiosity...I am NOT complaining about the shape...only making an observation and asking a couple of questions about it. As a matter of fact, I rather like an irregularly shaped tree, so if it doesn't turn out to be an oval as I had believed it would, I'm perfectly OK with that...if it turns out to be oval, I'm OK with that, too.

In regards to my comment about growth rate and not planting big anymore...as you state, I know now that a 5' tree planted 5 yrs ago would probably net the same size plant as I have today. This is true, which is why I now only plant smaller plants. I have learned my lesson.

I am disappointed in the ABM's growth rate, as I was believing that I would get faster growth than I have (I would say my ABM has only grown about 6" per year the past 4 years). I did not expect fantastic growth the first season or even the second season, but the claims I read about 3+ feet of growth each year made me think that I could expect more than 6" each year, especially these past couple of years. This season, so far, I've seen a little over 6" of growth already and am hopeful that the faster growth is on it's way.
whaas_5a
12 years ago
Is is possible it was planted improperly? 6" is extremely suspect, even for the 1st year.

I had two varieties of a freeman maple. One on a southwest slope that was very rocky and the other northwest that was in clay soil. All three trees put on 1' plus the first year, close to 2' by the 2nd and 3rd seasons.
arktrees
12 years ago
I got to wonder if the summer drought and slow to warm spring of your climate does not also contribute to a slower growth rate. Our freeman maples, and red maples seem to grow to about summer solstice, and then stop for the year. Our ABM grew almost 4' last year, and our AFM grew over 4', but have grown less this year. Last year spring was early, this year spring was cold, and EXTREMELY wet, and almost everything we have is not growing as well this year. Got to think this has an effect.

As for shape, our ABM had lots of issues when we brought it home (got mistakenly sprayed with 2,4D at the nursery), followed by problems and pruning out buds that had set after it was spayed (the 2,4D concentrates in the apical meristem), that left it deformed, and weakened. Took some pruning and shaping, but it's the classic shape now. Give it some time, and plan ahead. Also the narrow shape is probable from being in a rows much much too close together.

Arktrees
tophers
Original Author
12 years ago
I agree...I was thinking that I would get more than 6" of new growth.

I believe it was planted properly, the root flare is visible and I keep the area mulched, keeping the mulch away from the trunk. Mulch is about 1-2" deep. I dug the hole as deep as the root ball and about 3x as wide (not smooth sided) and backfilled with the original soil.

The tree looks very healthy. This year though, the leaves are about 25% bigger than in previous years. In earlier years, the tree looked fine with medium sized leaves. Now there's a flush of new growth throughout, whereas before, the new growth was just on the ends of the longest branches and no real new growth on the smaller inner branches.

I just went out and looked at it again...there are a couple of sections of new growth that I would say are about 8" now. Here's hoping!!!
tophers
Original Author
12 years ago
Arktrees, that's interesting about them growing until about summer solstice and then stopping. I'll definitely watch to see when it seems to stop growing. That's too bad about your trees getting sprayed. Glad to hear they're in shape now.

What I have come to expect with our narrow shape is a tree that won't get very wide.

Autumn Blaze Maple form

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arktrees

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Autumn Blaze Maple form

Comments (7)

arktrees

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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whaas_5a

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