|
Post by Use Less on May 21, 2015 16:30:08 GMT
I had to have a very large sugar maple taken down. A number of maple saplings are starting to spread out and up. Two yards over is a very beautiful red maple. Dark like those dark beech trees. Some of the saplings are red, though not so dark. I have read maples can be self-pollinating. Is there any way to guess if some are from seeds, and not crosses? Do I take my best guess via color and hope? There's maybe 80' of property line. I thought I'd leave a few, maybe four?, for a year or two, and then thin again based on health, size and color. Thanks.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 3:13:26 GMT
I was curious about maple hybridization so I looked into this. I'm in the PNW and bigleaf maple is common, also vine maple. But, for your question about sugar maple and red maple, your answers to your questions are at this link www.na.fs.fed.us/Spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/acer/saccharum.htm which seems to be a reputable source. "Hybrids have been reported between sugar maple and black and red maples (30). Hybrid seedlings have been obtained by pollinating sugar maple with another maple (presumably Acer macrophyllum) (30)." Also, "Vegetative Reproduction-Sugar maple reproduces by stump sprouts and will occasionally layer (22). Root suckering is rare. Seedlings broken during logging readily sprout from dormant buds on the lower bole and quickly regain the height of undamaged seedlings (52). Initial deformities, primarily crook, and stem losses from deer browsing are rapidly overgrown and corrected without development of internal rot (51)." My bigleaf maples sprout from seed very readily, but the parent trees are quite old and mature to produce seeds. It seems like maples need both a male and female to reproduce (can't reproduce with one plant that has both male and female flowers, like an avocado)..... Good luck.
|
|