Japanese maple gone green

[Larry]

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

[David Bockman]

"Larry" wrote in news:yW0ce.45476$ [e-mail]:

What is the cultivar name?

[ajeans]

David Bockman ( [e-mail]) wrote: : "Larry" wrote in : news:yW0ce.45476$ [e-mail]:

: > 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

[Derryl]

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 [e-mail]

[David Ross]

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.

[Layne]

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.

1. 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.

2. 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