My shade tree a red Japanese Maple had dead branches. We removed what we thought were the affected ones and removed the debris to the landfill for chipping. before trimming Hopefully we won’t loose the tree. We wiped the saw with alcohol each time we cut another branch. This is the southwest side of the house and we have always had a deciduous shade tree on this side of the house. After.
well, the tree looks healthier but now there's a massive gap in the middle. I wonder if you could tie some rope on some branches and like train the branches to grow more vertical.
A little later in the summer we will probably trim the branches on top back. I will be watching to see if there are more branches affected with die back. Hopefully not This variety of Japanese Maple was only supposed to get to 12 feet not 20.
This tree will respond to a bit of "training," as it looks like the two branches start to separate quite low down. Try putting a strap round the two around half way up and putting a bit of tension on it, pulling them together but not by much. Leave it a couple of months, then tighten it a bit more, but not a lot. Repeat it every a couple of months during the growing season. Then leave it until the Spring of next year and try a bit more. It may take a couple of years to make it look better, but it can be done.
