Care Techniques for Autumn Blaze Red Maple (Acer x freemanii 'Autumn Blaze') and Methods for Preventing and Controlling Longhorn Beetle Pests

The red maple is a fairly well-known colorful-leaf tree species, with brilliant, eye-catching fiery red foliage that always stuns people at first glance. Let's take a detailed look at some knowledge about it below.

Characteristics of Autumn Blaze Red Maple

1. It grows rapidly; a small seedling of about 10 cm can grow to more than 2 m in 1 year. Its diameter can reach 1.5 cm.

2. The color change is uniform and pure, with strong color impact, and the leaf coloration lasts a long time. It offers excellent visual effects both from a distance and up close. Compared with other hybrid red maple varieties, the Autumn Blaze red maple has a more elegant and refined tree form. Its leaves are dark green in summer, it has strong heat resistance, and its color is vivid. In autumn, the leaves change color earlier, and the color is pure, a bright red.

3. It has extremely strong cold resistance and can withstand cold climates of above minus 30°C.

4. It is drought-resistant and tolerant of poor soil, and can be planted in ordinary soil. This disease is very common when other red maple varieties are planted in soil with a higher pH value; it can cause leaves to turn yellow, and in summer it often causes leaf scorch. In short, Autumn Blaze red maple shows better red-leaf performance in areas with higher pH values than other varieties. Compared with other local red maple varieties, Autumn Blaze red maple is more resistant to anthracnose, red spider mites and leafhoppers, which is also an advantage of this red maple variety.

Seedling Care of Autumn Blaze Red Maple

1. Control humidity. After cutting, water thoroughly at once, which both allows the cutting medium to fit closely against the cut surface and increases soil humidity. Cover the greenhouse or arched shed with plastic film, and mist or spray water inside the shed to increase air humidity. The amount of water sprayed should not be too large; especially, there must be no standing water in the cutting medium, otherwise it easily causes the lower ends of the red maple cuttings to die and rot. The amount of water sprayed is generally 2 to 3 times per day, and 3 to 4 times during high temperatures.

2. Lower the temperature. Cover the surroundings of the plastic greenhouse with shade netting to prevent direct sunlight, which can lower the temperature. Spraying water, ventilation and other measures can also be used.

3. Adjust light intensity. Red maple cuttings need sunlight to take root and grow. However, too strong light easily leads to excessively high temperatures and scorching of the cuttings; too little light means weak photosynthesis in the cuttings, poor rooting ability and slow growth. In production, shade netting is often used for shading. That is, open the shade netting in the early morning and evening to let sunlight through, and cover with shade netting during the period of strong sunlight from 7:30 to 19:00 to prevent sunlight from scorching the seedlings.

Prevention and Control of Longhorn Beetle Pests on Autumn Blaze Red Maple

For newly hatched larvae in the phloem, spray the trunk with 500-1000 times dilution of fenitrothion, or 500 times dilution of 20% fenvalerate-killing emulsifiable concentrate, or 500 times dilution of 40% omethoate.

Use polyester-type pesticides for control, such as 1500 times dilution of beta-cypermethrin sprayed on the trunk, or inject this pesticide at 800 times dilution into the longhorn beetle's excretion holes to control the beetles, but this effect is not very obvious.

For larvae that have entered the xylem, remove the frass from the insect holes, and use 50-100 times dilution of 80% dichlorvos, or 100-200 times dilution of 40% acephate; or pour in Guoshu Bao or Shu Daifu, etc.

If adults are found, spray 2000 times dilution of 2.5% deltamethrin, or 2000-3000 times dilution of 20% fenvalerate-killing emulsifiable concentrate, or 1000-1500 times dilution of cypermethrin.

Spraying with a pesticide specifically for controlling the Asian longhorned beetle ("Huashi Fengbao No. 1") gives the most remarkable control effect, capable of killing more than 99.5% of longhorn beetle adults. At the same time, applying "Huashi Fengbao No. 2" can prevent further damage by the larvae of the citrus longhorned beetle and the Asian longhorned beetle, and can make the entire longhorn beetle population disappear in the red maple grove, with very few reappearing the following year.

Relatively speaking, the red maple has rather few pests and diseases, so it is relatively easy to grow. It can generally survive by cutting propagation, so friends who want to use some trees to decorate their courtyard can give priority to the Autumn Blaze red maple.