How to train a weeping Maple
Comments (10)
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 years ago
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Training a weeping cherry?
Comments (12)One of them is a malus Mollie Ann. It is not top grafted, ergo the mention of pruning to develop a scaffold to work with its situation. It's an octapolid clone and assumes its pendulous habit as it matures. The other is Oekonomierat. It is also considered a natural weeper and not top grafted. I also did some scaffolding work with this one. What and how I trained mine would not be applicable to what you do with your tree. Basically, whatever height your top graft starts at will be how tall your trunk will remain and you cannot really train one of the pendulous branches to assume an upright form to add height. Any height it assumes will be from the pouf of branches on the top graft, and some are flatter than others. Staking and pruning in your situation is just a moot point, you won't be staking any higher than the understock trunk, and your pruning will be like the smaller 'named' crab you didn't buy. I will be glad to show you pictures of my trees, with close-ups however. You will see that the weeping effect is quites soft and I allow it to hit the ground if it wants and make no effort to control the flow. They will never look like the living umbrellas of the current craze, nor do I wish them to. First two pictures are the Mollie Ann, its habit and the branch angles at the trunk. The last picture is the Oeconomierat habit....See MoreWeeping Blue Atlas cedar need training & general advice
Comments (8)you can do whatever you want with your tree.. its yours ... who cares what we think ... i am of the conifer school that works on the premise that the weirder the better ... others belong to the school that all conifers must look like xmas trees ... make your choice of which school you belong to ... and be happy ... conifers.. left to there own devices.. will grow in a shape wherein they develop a structure to support themselves.... when we .. or the original grower started 'training' this weirdo into an unnatural shape ... he/we are potentially creating structural issues ... do what you want.. with an eye towards creating a stable tree... and you will be all set ... so stake it for training.. and for stability .... nothing worse.. than 5 or 10 or 20 years down the line.. the thing collapses in a storm or something.. because you made it so weird ... IN MY WORLD .... i would get a lot of joy out the process ... and if it made my toes curl every time i walked by it.. then i really dont care what happens in 5 or 10 or 20 years .... my happiness is worth whatever comes of it.. and if it fails.... i will gt to try again.. or try something else ... i look at it this way ... if i spend 200 bucks on tree ... and it lives 20 years.. will it be worth 10 bucks a year ... the price of one crumby meal.. for the excitement of walking out there everyday ... i say yes .... if it only lasts 10 ... costing me 20 bucks.. or one decent meal ... etc ... its your tree ... have fun with it ... go to google.. type in the name.. find the latin name.. paste it back.. and then go to google images.. and you will see probably hundreds of pix of this very common plant ... and see where it is going over the years.. and what you can do with it .. the sky is the limit... good luck a little zen ken today.. lol...See MoreTraining Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar
Comments (3)hey miss myl its hard to give pruning advice without a picture ... and without any thoughts on your part as to where you want to go with it ... you need a picture hosting site like photobucket .. to get pic in your posts .... regardless.. the happiest day of my life in my first new home.. was when i got rid of all the prior owners nightmares.. and started creating my own ... unfortunately it took me 5 years of trying to fix the old problems.. before wisdom set in ... for under 50 bucks you can be done with the monster .... and plant a babe duplicate.. and start afresh.. instead of perhaps torturing this one into a shape that it can not achieve ... all that said .... a pic might make me think it is extremely valuable.. and in need of just a little training .... who knows based on the facts you provided... so how about that pic???? [and no, i dont want it sent to my private email] ken...See MoreWeeping japanese maple training
Comments (4)I don't want an upright persay, I am wondering how to achieve the normal height that they should be. I dont see how weepings could get to the height that most places list if the graft union is so low. I was afraid that it would not grow much taller than the union before weeping, which would make it a 2.5 ft tall bush. Hopefully that makes sense. I just didn't know if above the graft if some branches grow up to give it more height before laying over, or if you train it. Since supposedly the root stock below the graft doesn't grow vertically anymore. It didn't make sense that they would get as tall as they are listed if I just let the two limbs lay over at 2 feet. Unless sometimes they graft them at 4 ft which I haven't seen, just trying to figure out how to raise them properly from this small. Your bottom branches are going vertical, which makes sense on gaining height. The two on mine were pointing down, so I figured they would not ever turn up to get height....See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
8 years agocarmelaharris
8 years ago
These are pictures of my Japanese Maple. As you can see it is not growing in a very pleasant shape. Is there anything I ccan do to train it to be more in a weeping form? It was purchased from Home Depot about 2 years ago. Would it be safe to cut those errant branches out. I hate to give up on it but perhaps I need to start over with one purchased from a nursery?
Sent from my iPadMike McGarvey
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoPlanted in decent soil with good drainage and adequate summer water, Japanese maples grow at a moderate rate, not very slow. I find it easy for them to grow at least a foot a year, not in height, but increased length of the branches.
They gain height by the branches flopping over the older branches, shading them out. When pruning you should anticipate which one are going to be superseded and cut them off where they originate. Start at the bottom and work up, leaving a thin undulating umbrella.
Where most people make a mistake in pruning Japanese maples is when they try to make it look like it's large when it's small. That's fine if you're into bonsai, but not so good if you are trying to prune it for a larger size. A branch originating down low on the trunk will never get any higher on that trunk and will eventually have to be removed because the branches above it shade it out, because the umbrella is always getting wider from above. Almost all large weeping Japanese maples I see have large cuts down low because they were left on too long before having to be removed.
Here's a couple of mine.
The branches in back and down low need to be thinned to reduce congestion. I left them for a demonstration for a friend. Looking south. I wouldn't expose this much trunk looking north with the south side exposed to the sun.
If you have great looking legs, show em'.
Mike
carmelaharris thanked Mike McGarveysam_md
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
carmelaharris, here is a dissectum type maple which was left to its own devices and turned out beautiful. You can't micromanage your tree, it will sort itself out. PS, I have a 'Garnet' which I planted in the late '90's. It is now 8' or more across, you must appreciate how big your maple will grow.carmelaharris thanked sam_md
Mike McGarvey