Trimming an out of control Japanese Maple

[shw104]

Just moved into a house and we have a large Japanese Maple that I need to cut back. It has been growing for 15 years at its present location and is very large, having never been trimmed. Unfortunately, it is right against the house and covers and is growing into the front porch.

I need to cut this tree back but would like to try to save the tree.

Any advice on the best procedure and how much I can cut this tree back without causing major damage. If I can't get it cut back, it will have to be removed but I really would like to save this tree.

It is in the middle of summer here (near Baltimore) which probably isn't the best time to do this but I need to start trimming this tree back.

Thanks!! Scott

[William Wagner]

Go slow and remove anything that touches your house. Tip trimming more in time as once gone it is gone. I've got one 35 years old and that¹s what I do.

Then again if you are young and intend to live there consider selling the tree (Folks do that) and start a new one of the variety you love a little further away from your home. Variety's effect size and color and leaf type and form and probably more.

Have Fun!

Bill

[David Bockman]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

We're probably at the height of the bad season to make any cuts into hard wood. To do so now would invite a flush of extraordinary growth at the cut location. Late fall to very early spring are good times for major pruning.

[Vox Humana]

I recall reading that early spring wasn't a good time to prune maples.

[David Bockman]

"Vox Humana" wrote in news:frNIe.48937$ [e-mail]:

Yes, the folk wisdom is that the poor little Maple will pump sap at a prodigious rate until it bleeds to death. I've worked with Maples for over

15 years, both as bonsai and as landscape trees, and I've never seen it. Hard pruning just as the buds are beginning to push results in a flush of adventitious buds forming from old wood, some of which can be chosen as better-placed branches, or they can be simply rubbed off.