My red maple forest has filled in nicely this spring – so much so that some of the interior leaves are already turning yellow.

Acer rubrum, Red maple

Weak interior leaf

To let more light into the tree’s interior, I shortened elongating shoots and removed the largest leaves.

Elongating shoot with red, bronze, and pale green foliage

After cutback and removing large leaves – 26″

Although it’s possible to fully defoliate red maples, I took a conservative approach as the tree is rooting in after being repotted a couple of months ago (you can see the before pics here).

Depending on how the tree responds to the work, I’ll look to partially defoliate the tree once or twice more during the growing season.