I wonder whether the previous owners trimmed it like that so that it produced a lot of those reddish winter stems... like stooling willows or cornus...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
There are questions about pruning Acers nearly every month on here, I have said this before but here goes. The Japanese prune Acers at all times of the year except very late winter early spring when the sap is rising. It is true that if you cut at this time they can bleed sap but if (as it has been here for the last weeks) it is very cold with frozen ground the sap may not be rising yet, but it is a risk. Like all shrubs and trees you should only make large structural cuts in the dormant period, but you can trim and shape at other times. Most notably if you trim in late summer early autumn (as you would trained fruit trees) you restrict growth. If you cut hard in winter you promote growth, and this often gives rise to long whippy growth such as on your tree. It is possible to re-train your tree but it will be a slow process over many seasons. It will also depend on what cultivar your tree is, in general palmatum types are more vigorous than the finer leaved dissectum ones. Like all trees if it wants to be 40 ft tall and you are trying to keep it to 10-12 it will be an ongoing battle. Unfortunately there are no good books with details on how to do this as the Japanese still train their gardeners by having apprentices working under supervision of a master. There is some information in a few books but it is quite scant. You are aiming to shorten the long growth back to one or two pairs of buds to encourage back budding and a compact shape. Cut straight across just above the pair of buds but do it gradually .
You are looking to achieve branches like this, with short nodes, but you need to do it gradually over several seasons.
This standard has been trained into these tiers, it has taken about 7 years. This is quite early in the season it was re-shaped later in the summer, to tidy up the straggly growth . Hope this gives you some ideas.
Many thanks for your detailed reply and especially the photos. Wow! your standard tree looks lovely in those tiers and it might be a way off but that is what I would like to achieve.
Perhaps I will try a few small pruning cuts just to get an idea of what I am doing and small ones so as to avoid too much sap bleed.
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The Japanese prune Acers at all times of the year except very late winter early spring when the sap is rising. It is true that if you cut at this time they can bleed sap but if (as it has been here for the last weeks) it is very cold with frozen ground the sap may not be rising yet, but it is a risk. Like all shrubs and trees you should only make large structural cuts in the dormant period, but you can trim and shape at other times. Most notably if you trim in late summer early autumn (as you would trained fruit trees) you restrict growth. If you cut hard in winter you promote growth, and this often gives rise to long whippy growth such as on your tree. It is possible to re-train your tree but it will be a slow process over many seasons. It will also depend on what cultivar your tree is, in general palmatum types are more vigorous than the finer leaved dissectum ones. Like all trees if it wants to be 40 ft tall and you are trying to keep it to 10-12 it will be an ongoing battle.
Unfortunately there are no good books with details on how to do this as the Japanese still train their gardeners by having apprentices working under supervision of a master. There is some information in a few books but it is quite scant. You are aiming to shorten the long growth back to one or two pairs of buds to encourage back budding and a compact shape. Cut straight across just above the pair of buds but do it gradually .
You are looking to achieve branches like this, with short nodes, but you need to do it gradually over several seasons.
This standard has been trained into these tiers, it has taken about 7 years. This is quite early in the season it was re-shaped later in the summer, to tidy up the straggly growth . Hope this gives you some ideas.
Many thanks for your detailed reply and especially the photos. Wow! your standard tree looks lovely in those tiers and it might be a way off but that is what I would like to achieve.
Perhaps I will try a few small pruning cuts just to get an idea of what I am doing and small ones so as to avoid too much sap bleed.
Thank again
Ken