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Author Topic: Japanese Maple  (Read 437 times)
BonsaiEngineer1493
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Posts: 82
USDA Hardiness: 6B
« on: January 21, 2013, 11:14 PM »
Hey Forum,

I'm going to graft 2-3 year old Japanese Maples with my Bonsai club next month. The really young maples that I will bring home from my graft will be pre bonsai material of course. I would like to work with older maples, because the grafted ones have a long time to develop. Can you guys recommend online nurseries for Japanese Maple bonsai? 
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John Kirby
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Posts: 1657
USDA Hardiness: 6
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2013, 11:44 PM »
I would suggest getting seedlings and do your own air layers, unless you want to invest significant dollars, doing them right yourself is probably the best start. I think MattOuinga is selling seedlings on Ebay, or you can buy seed from Treeshrubseeds.com. It takes a long time (sometimes forever) to fix bad roots, you can make good trees to work on in a few years with good initial technique.
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BonsaiEngineer1493
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Posts: 82
USDA Hardiness: 6B
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2013, 11:52 PM »
I never really encountered growing a plant from a very early stage. In addition, I'm not familiar with air layering (will look into it). Do you recommend planting seeds in huge pots or in ground?
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John Kirby
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USDA Hardiness: 6
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2013, 08:25 AM »
Pots, then transplant the next spring. If you buy seedlings, then you save a year, there was a nice article in Bonai Today that showed how to make flared bases and fused trunks by planting trees through holes drilled in to ceramic tiles. I will look for that one.
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bwaynef
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Posts: 1030
USDA Hardiness: 8a
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2013, 08:38 AM »
I'd grow them in pots or flats.  The first year they don't need a large soil mass so you can grow them closer together.

At each transplant, start sorting out the roots.  If you have to choose between developing trunk/branches or roots, always choose to get the roots in order first!

Work in movement into the trunks from early on, but remember that sometimes wiring movement isn't the only way ...nor is it always the best.  (Trunk chops add movement too, and sometimes its more believable.)

Gary Wood has posted a series where he plants seedlings through a tile.  I know its on his blog, but I think its posted at another site as well.  I'll have to dig around for it.  (I know I've linked to it before.)
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Chrisl
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Posts: 691
USDA Hardiness: USDA Hardiness 5b
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2013, 10:32 AM »
Quote from: John Kirby on January 22, 2013, 08:25 AM
Pots, then transplant the next spring. If you buy seedlings, then you save a year, there was a nice article in Bonai Today that showed how to make flared bases and fused trunks by planting trees through holes drilled in to ceramic tiles. I will look for that one.

I read that one John, but don't recall which one.  It's a very interesting technique that I plan on trying.  I also recall Chris from Telperin documenting the same technique somewhere online. 
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marie1uk
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Posts: 46
USDA Hardiness: UK (wet a LOT of the time!)
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2013, 06:04 PM »
If you're going from seed then JM are prone to damping off - use a fungicide every month until they gain strength and produce bark. If transplanting / sorting roots, handle by the leaves - grabbing the fragile stem will crush it or induce damage, inviting fungal attack.
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