Maple Trees

Q. Why does my variegated Maple Tree not have more of a color contrast? It has lost the white color. It is still variegated but with 2 different colors of green. It's about 4 years old and appears to be very healthy with a good amount of growth every year. PLEASE don't tell me it is reverting to one of the grafted types of trees. Is there anything I can do to help get the white back?

A. OK. I won't tell you it may be reverting! You can try something else...fertilizer. The white in any foliage comes from a lack of chlorophyll. If it were totally white the plant would die since it needs to make food from photosynthesis. But many plants can survive with only parts of the leaves being green other parts white cream yellow pink or red.

Start giving the tree good shots of low nitrogen high phosphorus food. On the container read the label and look for the middle number of the three to be the highest and the first number to be quite low. If you cut back on nitrogen you have a good chance to bring out the missing pale color or white.

It could be your soil and/or water pH is not suited to this maple. You can test both using a simple kit from a nursery and read what to do to adjust so that the pH is lower and may assist production of white leaf portions. Let me know what happens.

Q. When can I prune the nonproductive branches from my maple tree?

A. Now [mid-May] is a good time to prune your maples of all weak or spindly poor growth to allow the other branches more light and nutrients from the roots. In fact any bush or tree which is not blooming or about to bloom can be pruned.

Q. I have an autumn blaze maple tree that is approximately 4 or 5 years old.  I bought it 2 years ago and have never pruned it. It is growing good but kind of spindly on the branches. When and how should I prune my tree for the maximum benefit?

A. You have chosen a remarkable fine maple hybrid Autumn Blaze? Maple Acer x freemanii (rubrum x saccharinum) which due to its fast growth requires pruning in the fall and the spring. Proper pruning including taking out dead wood weak branches and interior spindly growth to allow more sunlight penetration is critical to the long-term health of all trees and resident safety.

In addition to clearing out deadwood and weakened limbs that could fall in a high wind or under the weight of ice and snow twice-yearly pruning also helps to minimize damage from large trucks and reduces the possibility of injuries from low limbs or reduced visibility caused by streetlights obscured by poorly maintained trees. Winter pruning even helps prepare trees to better withstand next spring's inevitable onslaught of disease and insects. Shape your tree with strong branches outward and thin out extra smaller side shoots plus of course any suckers or growth coming from the base or the lower trunk.

They have been planted in all soil types including heavy wet muck fine loam and heavy clay performing well in all soils.  Autumn Blaze? has better heat and drought tolerance than rubrum maples.  The rapid growth rate (2-4 times faster than rubrum maples) allows Autumn Blaze? to tolerate insect and disease problems such as leafhoppers and verticillium wilt that adversely affect some slower growing rubrum maples.

Autumn Blaze? grows in a very uniform shape that makes pruning easy either in production fields or the home landscape.  The tree can be pruned into an upright shape or to form a broad spreading crown. Autumn Blaze? also has excellent winter color.  Rapid growth produces longer branching in one season than rubrum maples.  This new growth retains good red color after leaf drop and persists until the following season adding interest and color to the winter landscape. We feel that Autumn Blaze? is a superior alternative to rubrum Silver Sugar or Norway maples.