Pruning Acer - warm winter?

chelseagreen

We've been having a very mild winter here in Scotland and I'm concerned it hasn't been / won't be very cold this year and might be damaging to prune an acer now / this winter. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks!

Lizzie27

It's probably only a matter of time before real winter blows in so I'd be inclined to hang fire for a while. 

chelseagreen

But will the increased light levels mean the sap starts rising / lose dormancy, which will make the acer bleed? It is a strange lack of winter dormancy I see this year and not sure a couple cold weeks will make a difference...

Pete.8

I pruned a big acer about 3 weeks ago (only small branches overhanging a public footpath) and it's only just stopped bleeding!
Never known it happen before when pruning in Dec/Jan, but I guess winter hasn't arrived yet. Only 1 frost so far this winter and down here in the balmy south east its 12c today. No rain for weeks either, and I mowed the lawn this morning

treehugger80

Acers are affected by temperature rather than day length, so if it still warm i'd wait until after we've had a good cold snap to put it fully to sleep

Allotment Boy

Yes I checked with my Acer guru & he says you need at least 2 weeks of continuous cold to make them fully dormant. Not sure where in the country you are but here in the suburbs we have had daytime temps of +11 and even night time temps of 7-8. We have had colder days & nights but only one or two at a time. Apparently there is an Arctic blast on it's way tomorrow, but how long for we will have to see.