Reflections on my vacation leave.

Guess i have learned a few thinggs about our noble art this summer, by not beeing on spot to maintain new shoots etc. Here is what i learned:

1. Vacation is best taken during a time when my trees are not growing at a fast pace.
2. All my one year old maples grow insanely fast in mid-summer.
3. Watering and feeding can be taken care of by good neighbours, but the trees will not pinch themselves.
4. Never leave an Acer unpinched for more than two days during the summer.
5. Beeches and birches grow much slower than the maples.
6. Atropurpureum needs more shading than i thought and are VERY sensitive to dryness.

Thanks to good friends for watering an feeding while I was away:) Next time you will need to learn pinching techniques as well! As a result of my mistake 80 percent of the new branches on my maples, (except the "atropurpureum" species which received to much sun and hence lost most of its leaves which in turn prevented long internodes) will have to be pruned all the way back next spring. All in all I have learned a lot by not beeing there.
Next summer I will be concentrating very much on the pinching of new shoots on the maples and I am considering no vacation at all.
This book is in the mail btw: http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218029023&sr=1-11
My hope is to learn more about this species.