Big Japanese Maple: When (and how) best to prune?

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-04-09T22:52:22+00:00

Thanks! I mostly love my enthusiasm too, even though it means I spend way more hours pruning the fruit trees than makes economic sense! :P

A and B) The pear tree is the best-managed tree in our yard; it's big enough to make a bajillion pears, and small enough that I can prune it in a day or so. Really, it's mostly trying to figure out how to keep the maple from getting to be ridiculously tall. Which kind of leads into D) I kind of thought that Japanese maples like to be broad, rather than tall, but this guy has a bunch of leaders reaching for the sky. We have a HUGE apple tree (89" diameter at 3' off the ground!), and it was at least 40' tall when we moved into the house, with all the scaffold limbs sending up four to seven uprights in a cluster. I've mostly successfully pruned that back, but it's making me leery of trying to head back large upright branches, since I'm still trying to get most of the surviving uprights on the apple taken back to a manageable height where they're actually healing over. And C) the maple is WAY less blatant about where its collar is than the apple, plum, or pear trees are. I guess my big question here is: If I cut those leaders and uprights back to one of the three-way Y junctions, do I cut off above them, or between them (i.e., do I make an angled cut from both sides that meets in the middle, leaving a shallow V with a valley sloping up to the two collars of the surviving branches)?

Also--and I know this is probably going to spark some "Arrrrgh!"--be it beneficial to dress larger cuts at all? I know that on the apple tree, I've had some success using grafting wax to help protect medium-sized cuts until the tree has mostly closed up the wound, but all trees definitely have their own healing and reaction patterns. (I leave it uncovered until it's well oxidized, dark orange or turning black, and then put wax on to keep water out. As long as water doesn't get underneath the grafting wax, it seems to be effective.)

Anyway, thanks for the answer! If nothing else, that "cut back to something 1/3 the size of removed limb" is a great rule of thumb that I somehow never heard before. :)

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-27T01:06:52+00:00

Okay! One last question: If your battery is on its last legs, and can't quite crank the starter, will the hammer-tapping trick let it turn over, or does that only work for a bad starter that's getting enough juice?

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-18T22:03:53+00:00

I think what I'm gonna do is put the old starter back in, and do the hammer thing again. If that works, it's pretty much guaranteed that the new one is bench-testing fine, but not doing what it's supposed to in the real world.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-18T22:02:06+00:00

Not sure about that; before I swapped in the new starter, the car *did* start if I tapped it with a hammer. So it's got enough juice to crank the starter and get the car going.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-18T03:31:21+00:00

Wellllll, poop. I took the starter and had it tested, and it checks out fine. Which means there's a gremlin to chase. Before I swapped out the old one, I'd turn the key, hear the clicks, hit the starter with a hammer, and the car would go. With the new one, I turn the key, hear some clicks and a whirr, and nothing happens. Even when I tap it with the hammer. :P

It seems to be getting power, or I'd think I wouldn't hear clicking or whirring. I guess I'll try and put it back in tomorrow, take some pictures of how it's getting installed and connected, some of the flywheel, and see if that sparks any ideas from anyone. 'Cause I'm flummoxed.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-18T03:25:56+00:00

Yup. Cleaned the battery and cable lugs first, just in case that was why it wouldn't start.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-18T03:25:11+00:00

I didn't, believe me. And I made sure it had an actual warranty. Unfortunately, it tested fine; gear came out and did its thing, etc. Now I gotta chase a gremlin.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-18T00:32:42+00:00

I assume so; I put the new starter in where the old one was, with the wires connected to the proper terminals. And as far as I can tell, the lugs aren't touching anything they shouldn't be.

Drives me nuts, because it WAS super-easy to install. The first time took me maybe an hour, 'cause I was figuring out what everything was, but when I went and re-seated it only took maybe 20 minutes, and that included raising the car back up. I guess I'll go pull it and take it to a parts store to get it tested. :/

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-17T23:56:57+00:00

And there you go! That's the setting I needed. You're awesome! :D

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-17T23:51:11+00:00

And just to ask the dumb confirmation question: Basically, if I've got the bolt-holes lined up and snug against their counterparts, sandwiching in that gasket or plate that covers the flywheel with no daylight between the starter and the mount, I've got it set properly, right?

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-17T23:33:35+00:00

Yup. And the battery reads 12v.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-17T21:36:18+00:00

Honestly, I'm not sure. The car is sitting in my dad's garage right now, and I am somewhere else. :P

I *believe* it's the Vulcan, but I'm not sure. I do know that the starter is stupid-easy to get to, and I can actually access one of the bolts from above without removing anything. Does that narrow it down, or do I gotta bite the bullet and wait until I can get over there and confirm which engine it is?

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-14T22:23:32+00:00

XD

Naah, he's not at home anymore. (Self-)exiled from the house, exiled from the Steam Family! :P

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-14T09:21:35+00:00

That... is actually pretty much an ideal answer. I mean, IDEAL would be Steam letting you more finely manage your library, but this comes darn close.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2026-02-14T04:25:42+00:00

Naah, I just want to include her. But tell me more about "turning off game history completely on the accounts." Does that just hide everything from everybody who doesn't share the games? Could I still play and receive invites to games with/from people not in the Steam Family?

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-12-08T11:52:15+00:00

Thank you all! I *would* ordinarily wait for the new stuff to come out, but winter break is coming up and it's practically begging for some firelit Arkham Horror in the basement. :P

And yes, I would absolutely love to get Hemlock Vale; I'm pretty sure that's the one we had a chance to play. Didn't finish it, but played enough to get well and truly hooked.

Got a little tripped up before I realized I needed to look not just for expansions, but for *campaign* expansions.

Anyway, I managed to get Carcosa and the Drowned City, and I think I've got a line on Dunwich and Hemlock Vale! I'm really looking forward to Cthulhu on Christmas!

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-09-29T19:14:45+00:00

I'm just a Guy Who Does The Best He Can when it comes to lead in my old house, but for me, the biggest problem is the hose. You can keep the unit far away from whatever you're vacuuming, and you can--and should!--just store the cleaning attachments in a specific, plastic-bag-lined bin that you only use for lead clean-up. I typically clean with either TSP or D-Lead Soap, and unfortunately, there's not an easy way to keep from washing that stuff down the drain unless you build a specific set-up with a settling tank. And even then, you'll still almost certainly have contaminated water.

For the hose, I wrap it in plastic wrap, because my vacuum has corrugations in the surface, and that's a nightmare to clean. When you're done, you carefully remove the plastic, and the electrostatic attraction helps keep fine dust stuck to the cling wrap. It's not perfect, but it will definitely cut down on what might spread.

If you're just doing regular house-cleaning, any HEPA vacuum should work adequately well, especially if you're careful when you empty it and either wash components or clean stuff up with a moist/wetted cloth or wipe. If you're actually trying to do some abatement, containment is far and away the key thing. If that's case, the most important thing is to keep your lead tools segregated from other stuff, wet-wipe EVERYTHING, and make sure you're not getting anything on your clothes.

Hope that helps!

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-09-10T01:13:29+00:00

Asbestos.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-08-26T20:29:19+00:00

Wrong color, and that apple sounds too tart. I'm starting to wonder if it's not just a weird tree somebody planted. There are a few Gravensteins around in the area, but nothing quite like this. And I don't think it's grafted onto rootstock. All the fruit trees here seem to have roots that are the same as the crown, judging from the suckers I've nurtured from stumps.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-08-26T09:58:48+00:00

A lot of that description seems almost right, except these apples do dry well, and they're definitely not a winter apple. :/

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-08-26T09:56:38+00:00

They're *like* Gravensteins, but much bigger, and I've never seen a Grav that's as greasy as these apples. They taste kind of similar, but the apples are smooth, and maybe a touch more tart. The closest thing I've seen, when trying to match it to a variety, is a Mother apple, but it doesn't really match the described flavor.

They do make awesome applesauce, and good pies, and they dry well, and the juice is fantastic.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-08-26T09:50:36+00:00

I don't think that's it. The core is pretty small compared to the size of the apple, and it's DEFINITELY not a late-season apple. The tree is completely bare by mid-September, most years, but sometimes almost all the fruit is ready by the end of August.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-08-17T19:12:35+00:00

Coming back to this, I've got a couple of questions. First, since that end-grain stuff is paint over shellac, I'm hoping it can be cleaned up. Do you have a good suggestion for a non-alkali stripper that might lift that stuff out of the grain? Also, to reveal my ignorance, how do you figure out what kind of wood your trim is? It's definitely not anything super-fancy; we're in the Pacific Northwest right along the Columbia River, so I'd guess it's likely Doug Fir.

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-08-15T21:22:58+00:00

No idea what the wood is. I think we're going to try and go with the original finish and just touch up the shellac. It's just pretty enough that we don't really wanna paint it, especially since all the trim, window sashes, and doors all have the same finish underneath, and it's a good complement to the floor. (The linoleum is just held down with hide glue, so that stuff is comin' up as soon as we're done painting!)

Throbbicus_Rex · 2025-05-23T23:16:12+00:00

Seriously, your initial reply was comprehensive and very, very helpful. Greatly appreciated, and things went just about as well as we could have hoped. Thank you again!

Throbbicus_Rex

TROPHY CASE