Garden Grown Maple

kalare

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Hi all,

My wife and I just recently purchased a house with what I believe to be a Japanese maple (I could be horrible wrong) in the front garden. It has however been butchered by the previous owners and needs some serious work. I've always loved bonsai since I was a child and my recent trips to Redwood and Sequoia National Parks has resparked my interest.

Since I was contemplating tearing the tree out anyways, I thought it'd be a great learning platform for me at a cost of zero dollars. The tree is approximately 30" tall and has a 3" trunk with non-existent taper. I'd love to turn this into an 18"-24" bonsai eventually.

So, I'm here asking for advice as a complete newbie. I'm thinking chop it to 6-12", chop off the branches at the base (maybe leave one just for vigor?) and wait till next season to see what happens and work roots then? I'm thinking chopping to 12" might be better, then I can chose a new branch to create the new apex and chop down to that next year? There are what look like (to me) decent roots on one side of the trunk, however on the other side it drops 1/2" or so into the soil and then slightly flares out. Maybe root graft on that side in the future? Or at the same time as the chop?

Apologies for the deluge of questions and any suggestions/advice is greatly appreciated!

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0soyoung

Imperial Masterpiece
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The root stock is likely a generic green acer palmatum which is excellent for bonsai. Those suckers you've trimmed are shoots from the root stock. This is symptomatic of the cultivar on top being very weak. Normally I would suggest air layering the cultivar, but it is clearly very weak and will be very difficult to accomplish. So I suggest, @kalare , that you just get rid of it. Saw it off just below that line where the bark shifts to green, about even with the tops of the 'sucker' stubs. Let one (but no more than three) of those 'sucker' shoots grow all this season.

There will be some trouble getting it out of the ground because the fine functioning roots are, right now, a long way away from the tree. You will have do some root pruning to get some fine, working roots near the trunk. Use a sharp spade, at roughly 18 inches away from the trunk, to cut through roots at roughly 3 equally points around the trunk - like at the points of a triangle, leaving about an equal space between where you'll leave the roots in tact for now. Do this again a little farther away from the trunk and remove all the pieces of root in this little trenches (use some pruners to clean things up, if necessary) - replace the soil. Doing this in the next few months, say, you will have to make a judgement in the spring of 2019 as to whether you have enough close in roots to lift the tree or need to spend another year at it by spade cutting all those roots you didn't do 'this spring'. Hence, in another year or two you've got it into a pot with the beginnings of a healthy trunk (and the fun really begins because you've studied and learned what to do to finish developing a nicely moving trunk while getting to here ;)).

My noob days are not that far behind me - that taperless and arrow straight cultivar trunk is boring; you don't want it - get over it :mad::).
 

Eric Group

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I do not se emuch that screams bonsia to me, if you want to keep it jus tkeave it wher eit is and leave it alone for a while to recover. At this point I woukd not go hacking on it ant further..
 

sorce

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Florida?

They might a hacked it cuz it looks like poopy ?

Seems the yard may have alternatives!

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce
 

miker

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I don't see where the location of this tree is stated to be in Florida, but if it is, I would keep it as a landscape tree just for the novelty of a Japanese maple in Florida (the most heat tolerant varieties of Japanese maple aren't super rare in North Florida, but you basically never see them in Central or South Fl). But, as stated above, I would take steps to restore it to health. That may be impossible, as very roughly half of Florida will not be able to support a Japanese maple long-term, but it is there, so why not try?
 

kalare

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Thank you everyone for the advice.

I updated my profile, I'm actually in the SF Bay Area. I'm not too concerned about keeping the tree as I was going to replace it anyways.

I may just chop it now as Osoyoung suggested and hope for the best. May not be good bonsai material to start with, but hey, why not try?
 

sorce

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San Fran....check!

Sorce
 

Eric Group

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I do not se emuch that screams bonsia to me, if you want to keep it jus tkeave it wher eit is and leave it alone for a while to recover. At this point I woukd not go hacking on it ant further..
Wheww man... that is a hot mess! Typing on this phone is Hell!
 

GailC

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If it were mine, I would try and air layer the top, probably right about the graft. It might be a waste of time but it would be good practice. If you got a successful layer, you could have two free trees to learn with.
 

kalare

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Thanks all.

Surgery has been performed. I think I'll leave in ground for a bit for it to recover (if it does recover) and see how it does. If looking good next winter, I may pull it and place it in a colander or something, as I'd really like to redo this area of my garden. Hopefully it can recover and I can develop it into something fun! Nice trees @Stickroot

And yes, I think I used way too much cut paste!
 

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plant_dr

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Very brave chopping for a self-proclaimed "complete newbie"! Go big or go home, huh? I look forward to seeing how this goes. Could become a nice clump style tree eventually.
 
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