Japanese Maple defoliation - regrowth timeframe

[Red C]

Hello,

At the end of last year I started a move from Wollongong to Cowra, NSW. Unfortunately after dropping most of my trees off there was a solid heat wave while I wasn’t around to monitor their health, which lead to a few trees with quite bad leaf burn and damage.

I decided to defoliate the deciduous trees, some partially and a few completely due to the extent of the damage. Nearly all trees have bounced back fine, except one Japanese maple with some potential, that I picked up from a seller in Wollongong in November.

I am wondering what the timeframe roughly is for the tree to bounce back? I know it was the most heat stressed of the lot when I next got to check on the tree on Christmas Eve and I decided to immediately defoliate. At the time, I did a scratch test on some of the higher branches which will likely be removed in winter and they still had some life in them, but almost a month down the track I am unsure if it’s going to bounce back at all.
I have attached a couple photos of some buds that I hope will come through with some dates of when the photos were taken;
02/01/25

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21/01/25

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Cheers, Red

[shibui]

It's normally only a couple of weeks for most trees to start new buds - which I assume you've seen with the other trees.

Occasionally one doesn't respond as expected. I suspect there can be a number of reasons for slow return but there's probably very little we can do after the event except wait.
Just keep up normal care and fingers crossed. It will either recover or not.
Beware of overwatering. When a tree has no leaves to transpire, they use much less water so there's a real risk of root rot if we continue to water as for trees with leaves.

It's a bit early in the year but, occasionally I've pruned or defoliated a bit late and the trees have decided to go into early dormancy. Most grow as normal the following Spring but it can be a traumatic wait with fingers crossed. I'll leave you to decide whether to keep it until Spring new growth.

[Red C]

Thanks shibui! I’ll keep a close eye on it and my fingers crossed in the meantime!

[TimS]

Basically just confirming as Shinui says, I’ve had them do any of the following; flush again before autumn, go dormant and regrow happily in Spring, and I’ve had them lose branches too. The otherwise health of the tree will have a big impact on how it reacts to the stress, but I’m involuntarily going through the same thing now with one of mine due to pest attack, just crossing fingers for mine.