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Photo of mature Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' ?

18 years ago

Best of the season, maplephiles. I hope someone can help me decide whether to fiddle with my 'Sango Kaku.' Now's the season in Northern California. I've searched long and hard online for a picture of a nice, mature specimen, which would be a help in knowing what to do with this young tree.

It's been in the ground a single season after coming here in a 24 inch box. Most of the head is about 6 1/2 feet tall and wide. It had been pruned into a rounded shape, for some reason, maybe as preparation for lifelong confinement in a pot. Now in the ground in a nice protected spot, it is sending out a number of long, thin fountain-like branches, which I take as a good thing. It does, however, look a bit odd, as it outgrows it's earlier haircut.

Since it should naturally have a vase shape, should I just close my eyes and wait while it grows out of the lollipop-shape that the nursery imposed on it? I do want a vase-shaped tree, tho with multiple trunks. The multiple trunks are already established.

FWIW, my inclination is to let it go for another full season. The tree settled in nicely and put on good growth this year.

Oh, and there's a 6 inch wound or canker in a branch which is as big around as a large thumb. Is disease an issue with this tree? I don't know whether to cut it out, spray the wound with an anti-baterial anti-fungal or just watch and wait.

TIA.

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Comments (3)

Embothrium
18 years ago
Nibbling back could've been for scionwood. Will grow as vase, rather narrow. Old bark ugly. You could cut it back periodically, grow it as shrub if it has enough vigor to come back well each time. Wound on trunk could be serious, like other Japanese maples these are prone to fungal/bacterial problems. Painting wound with copper might help, but this would no doubt depend on what, exactly is going on.
jean001
18 years ago
an image search on
google.com
with the search phrase
coral bark maple
is at
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=coral+bark+maple&btnG=Search

Here is a link that might be useful: search for photos of coral bark maple
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I'm going to disagree on the coloring of Sango Kaku - even very mature trees will have very pronounced red coloring on the outer branches and stems and this feature is intensified in cold weather. It is only the oldest wood that loses color, beginning from the ground up, so that the trunk and then the largest scaffold branches fade and take on a green-brown color from the inside out. With a well-developed canopy, this loss of color on the oldest wood is hardly noticeable and the branching appears uniformly red. My 15+ y.o. SK fairly glows in winter and is highly visible from a good distance. I'd also agree that the fall color of the tree in the photo is quite a bit more intense than the color SK typically develops - especially that pinky-orange on the outside leaves. But the color reproduced in most amateur photographs is seldom totally accurate. A golden yellow with some peachy-apricot overtones is more usual, but fall color can be influenced by a number of factors and IS variable so it's possible. In my climate, which normally produces great fall color on JM's, the yellow gold for SK is typical. And yes, there are scores of JM cultivars that will produce orange-gold fall coloring.
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If winters not too cold there, resulting in roots freezing some time might be able to keep it going on your roof for quite a few years by cutting it back to a low framework periodically. This would serve both to control size and to keep lots of coral-colored growth down low where it makes a nice display. Otherwise as the tree develops you will end up with smaller red young shoots dispersed over unattractive grayish mature wood; ironically the non-red mature bark of this cultivar seems to be unusually drab. Note that despite the recurring use of this term in reference to their behavior trees do not adapt. Each specimen comes with certain environmental parameters it can tolerate, and which it will not live well outside of. You have to accommodate the tree, it will not change to suit your purposes.
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If site becomes newly infested with verticillium or other pathogen or severe enough weather episode occurs age of tree not counterindication. Things like that can happen after 20 years. Japanese maples prone to disorders that cause dieback or quick death, sensitive to impeded drainage, often listed as hardy to Zone 6.
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smalljaw
18 years ago
Several people around here have repoted losses of 'Sango kaku' and 'Beni kawa' . Oh , Acer conspicuum 'Phoenix' is beautiful . " You light up my life", can you dig it ?

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