Arakawa Maple Growth Management

Design
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Hi. My Arakawa Maple is pushing growth like crazy. I’m not sure what to do with it all. The leaves haven’t reached the hardening off stage, but there are tons of new shoots, and even though I pinched back most of the tips of the branches there is a lot of extension with long internodes.

I pinched the tips back trying to stop long internodes. That doesn’t seem to have worked. What should I do with all this growth? I assume I have to let the leaves harden off before doing anything, but then what?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

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Here’s pics that I meant to put in the original post. Pre-push and post push.

Arakawa Pre-Push 2020
Arakawa Pre-Push 2020750×1333 368 KB
Arakawa Post-Push 2020
Arakawa Post-Push 20201333×750 437 KB

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Let it harden off and then do a partial defoliation. At the leaf pairs remove one of the two. On the remaining leaf remove the “fingers” aka pointy parts of the leaf so that you’re only left with the round “palm” That’ll encourage a second, and finer, flush.

I pinched my plain ole acer palmatum and it kept everything to a single shoot. Leaves look normal. It didn’t get too dense as a result, so I’ll probably leave it be. I pinched my other maple (forget the name) and it also kept everything to a single shoot, but the leaves are gigantic. It put all of the energy into the leaves that it actually had. I’ll be defoliating that one soon.

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I did a partial defoliation one time on an arakawa but new leaves came out. The internodes on my arakawa are very long too. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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@bonsai_bentley @Sukky Thanks for the feedback. I will let the foliage harden off and then try the partial defoliation on it. I do that with my Palmatums every year, but none of them are pushing growth like my Arakawa is at this time of year. I have a Trident as well and even it is pushing growth faster than the Palmatums, although not nearly s much as the Arakawa. I got the Arakawa in the middle of last summer, so this is the first spring that I have had it to experience it’s growth. Amazing tree.

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Hi all,
As far as I know, Arakawas are notorious for doing just that. I was just wondering…In one of the podcasts with mr.Vojtilla, Denis mentions that he does not fertilize his maples in the autumn. It might be worth a try with this one.

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I just finished pruning back my Arakawa about 30 minutes ago. It had turned into a giant bush. It took me 2 hours to figure out which shoots to prune back, which to remove and which to leave untouched. At least now some sunlight can get into the tree. No where near any kind of refinement yet, but it is a step forward!