did your japanese maple bud out yet? I overwintered mine on my upstairs balcony and it struggles to bud. This morning I cut off 1/3 of the top trunk which went dead with our harsh winter which also killed half of my C. Elm -(
2nd question. The dead trunk can be used as a deadwood project? What's needed to keep the wood from shrinking and rodding away?
-
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 749
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:28 am
- Location: Cedarville (SE of Utica) NY, USA
The usual process is -
remove all bark,
apply lime sulfur,
coat with a wood hardener (Minwax makes a good one)
I have never tried this with a deciduous tree, only conifers.
My only Japanese maple bonsai is leafing out nicely. I'm in a much colder zone than you. But I'm still bringing it into a closed entryway at night and back out during the daytime. We're still getting frosts here. Frost is the killer of young buds on these trees. Any forecasts of 35 F tell me when to bring it back in. We call this 'dance' the Texas 2-step.
remove all bark,
apply lime sulfur,
coat with a wood hardener (Minwax makes a good one)
I have never tried this with a deciduous tree, only conifers.
My only Japanese maple bonsai is leafing out nicely. I'm in a much colder zone than you. But I'm still bringing it into a closed entryway at night and back out during the daytime. We're still getting frosts here. Frost is the killer of young buds on these trees. Any forecasts of 35 F tell me when to bring it back in. We call this 'dance' the Texas 2-step.
