Collection of a Acer rubrum

When would be the best time to collect it?
How should I go about doing so?
I identified the tree as a red maple. It has a base maybe 7 inches long. And about 4 inches high. I couldn't remove the leaves from the base, though I probably should have.

Envisioned front


Back


A the budding twig that I used to id it.


Any info you can give me will be appreciated.

~Nemus

NemusStipes wrote:When would be the best time to collect it?
How should I go about doing so?
I identified the tree as a red maple. It has a base maybe 7 inches long. And about 4 inches high. I couldn't remove the leaves from the base, though I probably should have.

Any info you can give me will be appreciated.

~Nemus

Large red maples are relatively easy to collect, but within a few years will typically die off on one side or rot out at the chop, no matter how well you work to prevent it. It's unfortunate, as the species has a lot of good characteristics. You might consider growing them from smaller seedlings. Takes time, but you can avoid a lot of frustration.

Zach

Collecting is easy. Then you spend 20 years trying to make something of it, & the leader dies. Good luck.
Two things I will say for it. It is very easy to thread graft, & it is hard to kill. Just be careful of the top dying back.
Also, it is hard to reduce the leaves.
Iris

Also, it is hard to reduce the leaves.

The one leaf that had stayed on it through the winter was about an inch, inch and a half long. (also how I IDed it) I don't know if the leaves will stay that big but it seemed like a decently small size anyways.

Zach Smith wrote:
Large red maples are relatively easy to collect, but within a few years will typically die off on one side or rot out at the chop, no matter how well you work to prevent it. It's unfortunate, as the species has a lot of good characteristics. You might consider growing them from smaller seedlings. Takes time, but you can avoid a lot of frustration.

Here is one that I collected 3 or 4 years ago and have been working on. It did just as Zach said by dieing off on once side, which is typical for large diameter A. rubrum that are collected. One can take advantage of that property by including it into your design. The inner wood is soft and does rot and can make for an old looking tree rather quickly. A. rubrum is a rather variable species with some seedlings having consistently smaller leaf size but even the larger leaf forms can be reduced quite well as long as you make the right size tree to keep the composition in scale. I would dig the tree now as long as your weather permits and is above freezing. Good Luck on a nice find! Looks like it could be made into a multi-trunk clump or raft.

Thank you Randy for your very useful information. (: How big is the tree in the picture?

I went back out today to take another look at it. This time I went with a ruler and a better camera. As I brushed the leaves away I found htat it was closer to 10 inches across, will this increase it's likelihood of death?

If you would like to see the better pics, just post saying so. Right now I'm being lazy and I don't want to upload them. *shame*

Also, another question. Currently it is growing in clay. What kind of soil should I plant it in? And how big of a container?

NemusStipes wrote:Thank you Randy for your very useful information. (: How big is the tree in the picture?

I went back out today to take another look at it. This time I went with a ruler and a better camera. As I brushed the leaves away I found htat it was closer to 10 inches across, will this increase it's likelihood of death?

If you would like to see the better pics, just post saying so. Right now I'm being lazy and I don't want to upload them. *shame*

Also, another question. Currently it is growing in clay. What kind of soil should I plant it in? And how big of a container?

Nemus,
My tree is about 8" at the base as I recall could be a bit larger.
It seems that your tree was larger at one time and the live re-growth you have is the result of it being broken or cut off close to the orginal base. I suspect that your tree, if you get enough root out with it will not die back too bad. The trick is getting it out of the ground. I'm sure when you start to dig it, it will have some large roots at the surface that will need to be cut off but I'm also sure you'll find a good amount of fine hair roots as well which is good. The size of container that you use is dependent on the size of the rootball that you end up with. Making a temporary container out of wood to accomodate it may be necessary if you don't have a commercial plastic container of the right size. Here is the picture of mine right after I collected it out of the ground. You'll see that much has changed since then, all as a result of the normal die back issue. For soil, a mix of turface (or equivalent), clay and humus of equal parts by volume should work quite well for initial training.