Thanks, Al.

We are dipping into the upper 30s tonight, so that might help them along the way.

If any consolation, I have about 125 temperate bonsai, but it's been so warm here most of the trees are showing little interest in dormancy yet, though we did have our first frost last night & it was a heavy one. Hang in there.

Al

Mine aren't bonsai (they are for in-ground planting eventually), but same rules apply.

I'm sure they'll survive, I just hate having to retrain a new leader when the tip dies back. Especially on maples with their opposite leaves/buds, they like to fork unless I do as you said and rub off one of the two buds at the end of the living part of the branch.

I dug this Rubrum from the woods last year and potted it for the winter. It was only about 10" tall, had 4 leaves and stem diameter of 1/8". I didn't know what to do with it and didn't want to throw it away.

Last spring, it started budding in 3-4 places, about 1/2 way up the tree and I could see the top 5" was dead. Once it started showing signs of a dominant leader, I snipped off the dead above it and pinched the other leaders off. Planted it where I thought and put a DYI tree tube on it. It grew as a single leader and now is close to 4ft tall. You can't even tell where the break was. The stem is close to 3/8" dia. at that point and the base is 1/2". The leaves are deep blood red now.

HM4E - check out the photo sequence

Spring of '14 ^^^ The A buergerianum in the middle started out as a 10' tall tree growing in the landscape (raised bed). I had previously wired a low branch to an almost vertical orientation in preparation for the chop. I lifted it, removing more than 90% of the roots, chopped it back and potted it in a cut-down nursery can. Talk about needing a new leader!

^^^ Here's the tree later in the year - lots of potential leaders, but I'll let it grow to heal up the large wound left by the chop.

Large wounds heal much faster if you wrap them loosely, cover the wound with moist sphagnum moss (not peat), and keep the moss moist.

spring of '16 ^^^ wound nearly closed.

"I just hate having to retrain a new leader when the tip dies back.
Especially on maples with their opposite leaves/buds, they like to fork
unless I do as you said and rub off one of the two buds at the end of
the living part of the branch." Even if they fork, it's no big deal to fix a co-dominant leader situation when the tree is so young. Simply let the branch you want to be leader grow (and you can easily guide one branch of a pair or the other to an appropriate attitude), then truncate the branch you don't want as leader just above the first pair of buds. If one of the buds is facing inward, just rub it off. All maples I have in the landscape regularly get some or all terminal buds removed. It's such a nonevent that I hadn't thought about it in years - until I read your post, so no need to fret.

Al

Oh, I should have added: This is the first time I tried a "grow tube". I read it would cause the tree to reach for sunlight instead of branching out. I was impressed. The tree grew as a single leader until it got taller than the tube (and I got lazy and didn't extend the tube). Only then did multiple branches appear on the sides of the stem.

of coarse if you have many trees to do, this could get to be a lot of work!

hairmetal I have the same problem with my Idesia polycarpa seedlings. They don't look like they will survive the winter! But they weren't that important to me anyhow, so it's not a great loss whatever happens. The two Dalbergia hupehanas seem to be getting a bit woody so they know winter is coming. But they still look delicate and off course I will keep them in my garage this winter.

Acer nigrum. Has a terminal bud down in there, but it's maturing VERY slowly. Has only progressed this much since 9/20:

Another pic.

Almost two-thirds of the stem is still green. I assume I'll have considerable dieback.

Let us know how they come out. In Z7 you probably have some time left for them to harden off.