AusBonsai

Some meddlesome children have decided that the leaves on my maple would make a good addition to their flower picking.... raging right now.

It's a small plant that I'm trying to get to grow some bulk. It's branches are very long and spindly at this stage. One of the branches, which was the main growing side branch, has been snapped in half and another has been stripped of leaves.
Will this affect it's growth? It does still have leaves but probably half of what was there..

Less leaves will slow the growth a little for a short time. The tree will grow more leaves, maybe even more than there was before so might even increase growth in the longer term.
I'm sure the maple leaves made a great addition to the bunches of flowers , most bunches of flowers look better with some green foliage.

Just prune the broken branch back to a node and it will shoot out more buds there.

Hi C8
Your maple should be OK as they can handle defoliation and there
Is enough growing season left for it to push out some new growth from latent buds.
A light feed, sensible watering regime and not too harsh direct sunlight and all should be well.
And kids will be kids....Usually it is a parent not watching closely enough that is the problem!
Cheers, Bonzaidog

Hang in there!

My son used to kick the footy around the yard and you guessed it, broken branches galore:x Looking back he did some of my more adventurous pruning for me

Thanks son

I thought this thread was spam with your title.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Tree is doing fine.
These were the casualties. Farewell young branch. Taken too soon.