Bought a home over the winter that had this Japanese Maple in the front. Leave coming out are full green in some sections and red in another. Is this normal? Noticed after a couple cold/frosty nights after the leaves started coming out. Single trunk underneath but difference does seem to be around new vs old growth.?. In zone 6b – Columbus, Ohio area.
by LauneDerNatur-66
5 Comments
I suspect you’ve got two different plants there growing next to each other.
Yeah this totally normal behavior for Japanese maples, they can be bit dramatic about temperature changes. New growth usually comes out different color than older leaves and those frost nights probably triggered some stress response which made colors more pronounced. Your tree looking healthy overall though, just doing its seasonal color dance – some varieties are notorious for this kind of mixed coloring in spring before they settle into their main color
The vast majority of Japanese Maple are grafted. A cutting (scion) of the desired cultivar will be spliced into a random seedling (understock). This is primarily done because maples are hard to root from cuttings. The reason you are seeing two different looking trees growing out of the same plant is because they are two different trees. It doesn’t happen too often, but sometimes the understock throws a branch like this.
You’ll need to cut the green branch back to where it starts because that is going to but an upright tree that will eventually dominate over the cutleaf type you want. After you remove the offending branch it may try to re-sprout. The best way to deal with sprouts is to just rub them off when they are still young shoots. They’ll just snap off at the base like asparagus. If you repeatedly cut branches after they have made some wood you will end up with a knot that will endlessly sprout. Ideally you want the plant to give up sprouting and just heal over the wound while the scion steals dominance.
Japanese maples are grafted. The green is from the root stock (usually stronger than the red).
As others are saying, 2 sets of genetics in one plant due to grafting, cut the green stalk at the base wherever it branches out. Try to make it clean, damaging as little of the main trunk as possible. If you want, you can cut up the green branch into pieces, apply some rooting hormone to the ends, & pot them up in an attempt to get some free green maples