not with a sideways pic ....

i agree.. it needs some work ....

if it were me.. i would get a few beers.. for intestinal courage.. and my good pruning shears ..

set a bucket right there.. sit down .... stick my head in.. and compare old growth.. to new growth.. trying to figure out how it was previously pruned... and try to re-establish the old structure..

most likely.. you have too much new.. low.. trunk growth .... remove that.. crack beer.. study again ...

repeat.. until beers are gone.. or tree is to your liking ...

never forget.. you cant glue stuff back on.. but you can always do a little today.. and come back in a month and do more.. etc ...

there never really is any hurry with tree pruning ...

its not all that hard to do.. you just have to take the time to get up close and personal with it.. to intuit where it has been.. and where you and it.. are going to go ...

just dont give it a hair cut ...

you might want to check youtube.... who knows...

ken

I always thought you pruned weeping trees in early spring when you can see bare branches. This evidently isn't the case...comparing new growth to old...that is great advice I'll try and remember.

Good luck pruning...

I prune Japanese weeping maples by starting at the inside bottom and working up, leaving a thin umbrella. Branches are removed where they begin. Don't cut the tips and leave a 'bob cut'.
This pruning job looks a little severe, but it will fill in soon enough. Take care to leave enough foliage to protect the branches from too much sun, especially on the south side if shade is not available from that direction.
Green Japanese weeping maples are in the background to the south, and the large tree trunk is an Abies procera I planted 35 years ago.
Mike

Mike, just wanted to tell you what you already know. Namely, that's a gorgeous tree, and your pruning has helped it take shape. Kudos, good sir!

i prune things.. when they piss me off or i walk by with the pruning saw/shears ...

this is not a flowering plant.. so timing in that regard is not important ...

but.. if i had 10,000 acres of my retirement wrapped up in tree production.. i would perfect timing ... to avoid a plague ...

i believe mike.. botann has agreed with this system ... but he can speak for himself.. if he comes back ...

ken

so it's okay to prune now in August? or should I wait till winter?

Thanks so much guys!

Beers on me next time :)

I agree Ken, I prune Japanese maples almost anytime I have the tools in my hand. Been doing it that way for many years with no problems, and I have over a hundred in my garden. Only five weepers though. Three green and two red. Almost all of the upright forms have been grown from seed. I'm on the third generation from the original seed I obtained from a collection.
Weepers have nice looking trunks and I prune to show them rather than leave a shapeless mound where you can only see the trunks in the winter. Hey, if you have nice legs, show em'!
Mike

Mike makes a really good point about shading the trunk, though. If you suddenly expose a previously shaded bare trunk to the sun in the middle of summer it is not gonna be happy. That kind of pruning should be done in winter or early spring.

It is easier to prune deciduous trees when the branches are bare as it is easier to see them. However, you get a much more vigorous response as when they're dormant, all of the carbs are in the roots and then they push spring growth and go nuts at the wounds. In this area, the Japanese maple experts prune in May, well after the tree has leafed out. They get a lot of sap flow, which makes the homeowners nuts, but it is not harmful. By doing this they avoid the aggressive growth response to the pruning. Japanese maples have enormous redundant growth already, so it is generally easier to try not to get even more.

And Mike, I totally agree on the trunks! At the ACS National meeting last week we toured a property that claimed to have the largest private Japanese maple collection in the country. They had over 400 and there was some really gorgeous wood on a lot of those trees.

Sara

In colder zones I prefer to prune all maples in summer. Damn things just don't heal well with the winters.