by Connie Oswald Stofko
Maple trees in my neighborhood are heavy with seeds, and some trees have few leaves.
“These things happen in cycles,” said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara County.
No one knows why it happens; it may follow a period of stress for the tree, he said. But since no one knows what conditions produce a bumper crop of seeds, there’s no way to predict when it will happen.
What gardeners may notice is that some maples will have a lot of seed pods and not many leaves.
“It takes a lot of energy for the seeds to form,” Farfaglia explained. When the tree drops the seeds, it will produce more leaves.
While you may be annoyed by maple seeds filling your gutters or sprouting in your garden beds, your tree will be fine.
I have maple seed pods on my tree, grow every year, older one 2-3 years ago still remain
, getting a little ugly
Thank you for this information. It is raining maple seeds daily. I have never seen so many seeds and there are so more on the trees.
Thanks for this info. We were wondering about the condition of the big, old maples we have, since there were no maple seeds the past two years. 😉