Black Maple

Size, growth and what to expect

Black maple grows at a moderate pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It grows fast when young and slowly later, and planted trees averaged 16 feet after nine seasons. Expect 60 to 75 feet with a crown 40 to 60 feet wide. It may live 200 years. Trees begin to bear seed at about 30 years.

Yellowish green flowers hang on long, hairy stalks in April and May, as the leaves open. Paired samaras about an inch long drop in late September and early October in New England. Birds eat the buds and seeds. Its fall color comes earlier than sugar maple's, yellow and sometimes orange and red.

It grows wild from New England and southern Quebec west to Minnesota, south to northeastern Kansas and Missouri, and east through Tennessee to North Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey. It is most common on moist river bottoms and ravine slopes, often over limestone.

How to grow Black Maple

Black maple grows in full sun, part shade or heavy shade, and does best in sun on a deep, moist soil that drains well. It takes alkaline soil and stands heat and drought a little better than sugar maple. Still, road salt, severe drought and polluted air harm it. Plant it 30 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 50 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Pick the samaras from the tree as they turn brown in fall. Sow them outdoors at once, half an inch deep in a mulched bed. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and in long dry spells after that. Deer browse young trees and rodents gnaw the stems, so guard each one for its first several years. Avoid pruning in early spring, when a maple bleeds sap.

Male and female flowers grow on the same tree, and wind and bees carry the pollen. A tree sheds its pollen either before or after its own female flowers are ready, so a second black maple nearby improves the seed crop. Heavy seed crops come about every 4 years in Vermont. Leaf scorch, tar spot, anthracnose and verticillium wilt can show up, along with borers and scale. It tolerates the roots of black walnut.