6 month Japanese Maple saplings progression....

[Wee]

Got these JM saplings in April of this year.....They were just pulled up from under the parent tree. Took the after pic first week in Nov.

Brian

 

[Dav4]

Cool. Do you have plans for them? If not, I'm thinking next spring would be a great time to do some root work and wire some movement into the trunks before they get too rigid.

 

[Poink88]

Cool. Do you have plans for them? If not, I'm thinking next spring would be a great time to do some root work and wire some movement into the trunks before they get too rigid.

...and put them in their own pots. Otherwise, it may be tough to separate later w/o risk of damaging the roots.

 

[Eric Group]

Yeah, what is your goal- You trying maximize growth? Trying to create a forest?

If you want nice big specimen trees one day with some movement, wire them out early- I wire over the winter for delicate barked deciduous trees like these, as that generally prevents major wire scars because the trees are not rapidly growing- and seperate in the Spring to get them into their own pots and allow them to grow rapidly.

If you want a little forest planting I guess you could leave them as is and let them develope together, but it will take years and years to get anything that looks convincing if you do it that way.

 

[Eric Group]

Just for comparison.. I grew many JM from seed this Spring- one grew up about 3-4 feet high with maybe a quarter- half inch trunk in one season... Most the others grew maybe just a little taller than yours to about twice their size. JM are so hybridized, you never know exactly what you will get from seeds collected from the wild like mine were, but the trees I am growing seem to be happy and the one that REALLY took off looks like it is mostly Blood good... Another seems to have the bright red bark normally associated with coral bark trees... Not sure yet if any will have rough bark, but half the seeds were collected from a tree in a yard with an Arakawa growing in the ground, so anything is possible..

 

[Wee]

No plans really other than to separate them in the spring.....My daughter-in-law brought these home in a wet napkin so I stuck them in this pot figuring only 1 or 2 would make it....Only one died on me.

Brian

 

[Eric Group]

No plans really other than to separate them in the spring.....My daughter-in-law brought these home in a wet napkin so I stuck them in this pot figuring only 1 or 2 would make it....Only one died on me.

Brian

That's a great survival rate!

 

[Stan Kengai]

What a great demonstration of the variability of seedlings! Thank you for sharing.

As for what to do with them, I'd wire some movement into them and plant all of them out in the spring . . . save for the smallest one. I would plant it into a small container and let it grow for about 20 years. That's the latest Japanese shohin craze . . . old mame with character.

 

[Wee]

Here they are as of 1-23-16....I didn't separate them as planned this past spring....I will do that in about a month or 2. I did wire them for some movement, I still have no idea what to do with them at this point.

Brian

 

[Wee]

Well 3 of them made it thru a repotting a couple of years ago and I repotted those again today. I will admit, other than water and a little of fertilizer, I have neglected my bonsai over the last few years. One of these has a real good root spread and I put them all in bigger grow boxes. I hope they thicken up.

Here are all three in new grow boxes.....I need to repot all the rest in the next few weeks.

Here are the 2 monsters....I'll need help with these.

Brian