![]() ![]() To conserve moisture during the growing season and to control weed growth, you can apply a layer of cured, shredded or chipped wood mulch or pine straw around the tree in spring. A good time to fertilise is in early spring after new leaves have just started to show. ![]() Younger trees will benefit from fertilisation to help them establish a good root system. They have an expansive root system which can access nutrients through the soil and from rainfall. Older and well-established maple trees don’t usually need fertilising. ![]() Avoid the use of raw manure around your maple tree. If you maintain good soil health this will be key to growing big and strong maple trees. You want to avoid dry, sandy or rocky soil. Maple trees grow best in soil that is moist, deep and well-drained and the texture should be fine to medium. Maple trees prefer an acidic to neutral soil ranging from 5.0 to 7.0 in terms of pH scale. ![]() Full sun means the tree needs a minimum of six hours of sunlight a day but can also cope with 8 to 10 hours of sun. October red maples on Elbow Pond in WMNF.Maple trees like full to partial sun or partial shade. Embrace the new seasonal mood as you anticipate hillsides aflame with autumn foliage.Īll too soon… well, we all know what comes next after the leaves have all fallen. That first unexpected glimpse of red leaves changes my perspective and triggers an “inner foliage season” resetting our biological clocks to “autumn.”Īs spiritual beings, we respond innately to the signs of changing seasons.Īutumn is the most nostalgic season for reasons I’ve not fully figured out. A 12” diameter tree can produce nearly a million seeds!īut when I see the earliest blush of red maple foliage, it’s a metaphorical traffic light – turning the seasonal mood from green to yellow to red. Red maple produces the smallest seeds of any of the maples.Ī tree between 2 and 8 inches in diameter can produce between 12,000 to 90,000 seeds per season. Red maple is a prolific seed producer: it generally produces seeds every single year with a bumper crop every other year. Mottled red maple leaves in the understory. The variable rooting strategy gives red maple flexibility, a diversified portfolio of growth strategies. On dry sites, they develop long taproots (think “carrots”) with significantly shorter horizontal, lateral roots to access a deeper water table. Inundated in wetlands, red maples grow short tap roots with long, well-developed lateral roots. Red maples can also tolerate drought and have the ability to stop growing in dry conditions and begin growing again as conditions improve, even if a drought lasts for weeks. One study demonstrated that 60 days of flooding caused virtually no leaf damage. They win by default where growing in wetlands other trees would not tolerate. Red maples tolerate “wet sneakers” due to periodic flooding. I prefer “blush” to impart some modesty to an unquestionably successful tree species. Red maples are often the first to burst buds: flowering, setting seeds and leafing-out in spring and also the earliest to “flush” – turning red in late summer. A minority species, it adds diversity to overall forest composition. In mature forests, red maple is NOT generally a dominant tree. Red maples increasingly populate young forests prone to natural disturbances such as flooding in wetlands along rivers and due to human disturbances. Forest ecologists believe red maple is increasing as a percentage of Eastern forests, replacing more-specialized trees. Photo Emily Lordīecause red maple grows on a variety of soil types and tolerates a wide range of soil pH, and can grows in both dense shade and full sun, red maple is adaptable, a generalist which dominates disturbed sites. Changeling red maple is also called “swamp maple” or “soft maple” by those acquainted with firewood. Turns out, a flush of early crimson is typical of red maples – adaptable trees renowned for signaling impending autumn. The early changing leaves on red maples earned them a dubious nickname: “Judas Trees” - betraying late summer… It's an adaptable tree renowned for signaling an impending autumn. That flush of red you’re seeing likely comes from the red maple, also known as “swamp” or “soft maple.” and 8:45 a.m., or subscribe to the Apple podcast here.Įven before Labor Day weekend, a very few early green leaves have already started to change to red. You can hear Something Wild on NHPR every other Friday at 6:45 a.m. We recommend listening to it in its original format but a transcript of the show is also below. Something Wild is joint production of NH Audubon, The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests & NHPR. ![]()
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