AusBonsai

Hi everyone,
Looking for some direction regarding my Taiwan maple. I am looking to progress the tree as much as possible this year. It has just burst forth with its new leaves and a whole bunch of flowers which will shortly turn into seed pods. I have included a pic of the tree taken in Jan 2015 which shows some seeds however this year there is an absolute profusion.
Am I best to remove the flowers now to promote more ramification/growth or should I allow it to go through its normal process?

I'm hearing crickets.
I'll ask elsewhere.


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If you are looking to the refinement stage, I would remove the flowers.
If you are looking to enjoy the tree through all it's phases, you could leave them.
I have a field maple that I intend to remove all the flowers very soon so I can get a tighter internodal length.

Generally plants divert energy from growth into flowers/ seed so if you want to concentrate on growth (including ramification) you should take off the flowers.
In my experience Taiwan maple does not ramify very well so don't expect miracles.

A really good alternative is to leave some flowers and allow them to set seeds, then send the seeds to me so I can experiment too. ( I would be more than willing to send you a stamped self addressed envelope and some poinciana seeds in exchange.)
Cheers, Frank.

I've tried a couple of times to germinate seed from my Taiwan maple. Not a single seedling so far. Not sure whether the variety is sterile or maybe it needs 2 to be fertile. There's also the possibility I'm doing something wrong. Wondering if anyone else has grown this from seed?

Thanks everyone.
Last year I took them off once the seeds matured and threw them in the garden. Nothing.
I might remove them early this year and encourage ramification. Shibui you are right, they are slow.


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