![]() ![]() ![]() They hope to demonstrate to landowners that the profits they stand to make by selling syrup are worth their time and effort. In the spring, the researchers will tap the trees to collect sap, which Henderson will boil and reduce to make syrup. They set up a network of rubber piping connecting the trees to a central vessel at the base of the hill. On that crisp, early October morning, the trio selected 30 of the largest maples they could find on a sufficient grade and within close proximity to one another. UI Extension received a $50,000 sub-grant through USU to assist in the effort, focusing on the foothills near Oxford, an isolated farming community of 48 people in southeast Idaho. USU received a three-year, $500,000 grant through the Acer Access and Development Program under USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service to test the feasibility of commercial syrup production in parts of Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. The researchers are in the first year of a project aiming to introduce a new niche agricultural industry to the Intermountain West – locally sourced maple and boxelder syrup. Looking for a way to help your Japanese maples? Use Preen Garden Weed Preventer Plus Plant Food! It will prevent weeds around your Japanese maple for up to three months, as well as give it a boost to build strong root development.On a steep hillside beneath a canopy of scarlet leaves, University of Idaho Extension Educator Bracken Henderson searches for the perfect copse of bigtooth maples.Ībout 25 yards uphill, his collaborators – Paul Harris, a research technician with Utah State University’s Center for Water Efficient Landscaping, and USU plant sciences graduate student Jesse Mathews – evaluate trunk circumferences within another grove. Avoid too much mulch (two to three inches is plenty), don’t wound the bark with string trimmers and lawnmowers, and limit pruning to winter or early summer (never in fall). Well-drained soil is very important, and so is keeping the soil damp in dry conditions… but never to the point of becoming soggy. Japanese maples generally like part-shade spots out of hot afternoon sun, especially in a site that protects their thin leaves from cold wind. Microscopic nematodes can injure roots and make trees more vulnerable to verticillium wilt, while scale insects can suck the life out of branches.Īll of that can be problematic for trees that aren’t healthy to start with due to poor plant placement or poor care. Maples planted in poorly drained clay soil suffered rotting roots, leading to branch diebacks and sometimes death as late as a growing season or two later.Ī sudden fall freeze turned these Japanese maple leaves brown, and they hung on the tree all winter, interrupting their growth cycle George Weigelīugs occasionally are a factor in harming Japanese maples, too. That shock left many Japanese maples ill-prepared for winter’s drying cold and killed trees that otherwise would survive a region’s usual winter temperatures.Īdditionally, wet summers the past two seasons were another potential contributor. The sudden autumn temperature drops turned maple leaves straight to brown and left the leaves hanging on the branches all winter. ![]() Lingering summers also delayed Japanese maples’ usual gradual preparation for winter, which is normally capped by stunning fall foliage and then leaf drop. ![]() These hard fluctuations in temperature cause severe damage to the buds, leaving Japanese maples with limited chances to rebud each year. The warm winter caused those thin, tender Japanese maple leaves to emerge sooner than they should have, only to freeze when the cold returned. Many parts of the country saw a warm winter this year followed by a sudden nosedive in temperatures, followed another warm spell, then a later-than-usual freeze in May. Wild weather swings are a key factor in the uptick in Japanese maple deaths. Multiple issues ranging from unsuitable site choices to erratic weather have been conspiring to make life miserable lately for Japanese maples. Unlike emerald ash borers killing ash trees and fungal disease killing blue spruces, no single executioner is to blame here. More have died than usual the past few years, leaving gardeners puzzled about what’s going wrong. Japanese maples aren’t the easiest tree to grow and keep alive. Japanese maples are a coveted small tree, especially the easily recognizable ones with red, weeping, lacy-leaves. ![]()
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