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I have 5 years old Acer platanoides globosum, nice and healthy. Last two or three years I noticed new stems from the base of the tree, and I regularly cut them - until the last year, when I left them grow spontaneously. Now I have two small globes and one large. They look somewhat funny, but I still find them interesting. I don't see any difference of leaves between large and two smaller crowns. Do you recommend keeping two smaller parts of the tree, or perhaps not?

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Bottom left, one can see the leaves of the "suckers".

There is also some two years long injury of unknown origin on the main trunk, at the bottom of the pic, bit it looks it doesn't bother the tree, it healed already. (it looks as if two trunks joined into one, but it is not the case, it is just some kind of injury)

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Again, no trace of the graft.

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Leaves are large and look healthy.

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Contour is fine, I don't expect perfect sphere.

Aleksandar M
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Acer platanoides globosum is usually grafted (Source). When a grafted plant grows root sprouts (also called "suckers"), you should trim off the root sprouts. Otherwise they can out-compete the top part of the tree, causing the top of the tree to die.

csk
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  • I thought so too. But no difference in leaves at all. They all start reddish in the spring, and turn dark green after. Same size too. And, surprisingly, the "main tree" is even more vigorous this year, in spite of two little "sons"... – Aleksandar M Oct 05 '20 at 01:40
  • Is yours not grafted? You can usually see where the graft was made, because there will be a visible bump where the two stems join. – csk Oct 05 '20 at 01:43
  • I don't recall seeing any bump at top of the trunk (bottom of the crown), it just flows naturally into branches, but I will take a look again. – Aleksandar M Oct 05 '20 at 01:49
  • While you're at it, please take a photo and add it to your question. That way we can give the best advice for your particular tree. – csk Oct 05 '20 at 01:53
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    Assuming that the 'Globosum' is a grafted tree, it's almost certainly grafted onto a standard Acer platanoides, which is why the leaves of the suckers and 'Globosum' would be the same size and colors. A standard A. platanoides will certainly out-compete the 'Globosum' bybrid, eventually weakening and probably killing it. – Jurp Oct 05 '20 at 13:50
  • @csk I added pictures, mostly around the place where graft should be. But I honestly don't see it. – Aleksandar M Oct 10 '20 at 17:56