Japanese maple gone green
 

My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it, but
now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in shade, so that
is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of direct sun per day. Now
I read in places that it gets green when its in shade! Is this just a phase
of growth for warm temps? Or is it solely do to the shade? Any advice
appreciated.

Larry

"Larry" wrote in
:

My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it,
but now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in
shade, so that is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of
direct sun per day. Now I read in places that it gets green when its
in shade! Is this just a phase of growth for warm temps? Or is it
solely do to the shade? Any advice appreciated.

Larry




What is the cultivar name?

--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
email:
http://beyondgardening.com/Albums

David Bockman ) wrote:
: "Larry" wrote in
: :

: My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it,
: but now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in
: shade, so that is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of
: direct sun per day. Now I read in places that it gets green when its
: in shade! Is this just a phase of growth for warm temps? Or is it
: solely do to the shade? Any advice appreciated.
:
: Larry
I believe it's just due to the shade. I have a Japanese maple ("Bloodgood")
which started out in full sun, but now that surrounding trees are bigger,
some of the more shaded branches are less red and more green.

Albert

Hi Larry

Your Japanese Maple needs more sunlight. Too much shade makes the
Chloraphyl turn green to photosynthsize the little light it gets.

Move the plant to a sunny spot and it will be fine.

Derryl


My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it, but
now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in shade, so that
is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of direct sun per day. Now
I read in places that it gets green when its in shade! Is this just a phase
of growth for warm temps? Or is it solely do to the shade? Any advice
appreciated.

Larry

Larry wrote:

My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it, but
now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in shade, so that
is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of direct sun per day. Now
I read in places that it gets green when its in shade! Is this just a phase
of growth for warm temps? Or is it solely do to the shade? Any advice
appreciated.

Larry

I'm a docent in a public garden. In the Japanese Garden, we have
four different varieties of Japanese maples, only one of which is
red. Yes, they all turn red in the fall. But while growing in the
spring and summer, three are green.

By the way, the red one gets the most shade.

--

David E. Ross
URL:http://www.rossde.com/

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See URL:http://www.mozilla.org/.

Larry,

You need to supply us with the cultivar name so we can better help
you. In general there are several reasons "red" maples will turn
green.

1. Some green maples actually have red spring colors and then fade to
their normal green after a week or two. Shindeshojo and Bonfire are
two green Japanese maples that leaf out red in the spring and fade to
green later.

2. Too much shade. Cultivars like Bloodgood need some direct sunlight
in order to look their best. I'd say at least somewhere between 4 to 6
hours of preferably morning light, but afternoon light is okay too
depending on your location. Unfortunately the Bloodgood cultivar has
been diluted, meaning most, if not all, are not true genetic copies of
the parent plant. Because of this they may exhibit more greening than
the true Bloodgood. Also, it's natural for Bloodgood types to go
bronze green (red with a greenish undercast) in certain locations.

3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen stimulates vegetative
growth, but it also causes plants to green up. That's why lawn ferts
have relatively high nitrogen numbers so the lawn looks nice and
green. Nitrogen on maples can also cause them to green up. On maples
that have variegation you should supply only minimal amounts of
nitrogen to keep the plant healthy, but too much and the tree can lose
it's variegation character and put out all green leaves.

Hope this helps,

Layne

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:13:18 GMT, "Larry"
wrote:

My newly planted Japanese maple tree was crimson red when I bought it, but
now has gone green. Everything I read said they do better in shade, so that
is where I planted it. It does get an hour or so of direct sun per day. Now
I read in places that it gets green when its in shade! Is this just a phase
of growth for warm temps? Or is it solely do to the shade? Any advice
appreciated.

Larry