Acer palmatm deshojo (from cutting)

[clem]

hello, here is another acer palmatum project : a deshojo that i bought 2 years ago.

the tree in the nursery in september 2018 ->


I bought it because of the nebari (from cutting) and the curve at the base of the trunk ->


In march 2019 while repotting it ->


In a woodbox to let it grow ->


In July 2019 ->


Today ->
the orange line is the trunk line that i think i'll keep in the future (but i'm not sure yet) :


I plan to let this tree grow in the coming years

 

[clem]

hello, i pruned that tree yesterday but there are still a lot of sacrifice branches. i'll do drill grafts on the 1st section of the trunk to have better tapper ->



the left branch of the fork will be removed later.

 

[leatherback]

Do you and @AlainK have the same nursery for these maples? Or are maples very popular in France!?

 

[Canada Bonsai]

Or are maples very popular in France!?

This is not where @clem goes I believe, but are you familiar with bonsai galinou @leatherback ? I just came across them recently and was blown away by the scale of their production!

The nursery:

En juillet à la pépinière bonsai !

L'été est synonyme de repos pour la plupart des personnes. Chez nous, c'est certainement le moment de l'année où la pépinière est la plus belle à regarder. Les pousses de printemps sont taillées, les bonsaï respirent la santé et possèdent de belles couleurs vives. Ils profitent du soleil ainsi...

bonsaigalinou.com

You can see their trunks up close here. From what i can tell, it does look like they emphasize quantity over quality.

Bonsai érable : Palmatum, Burger, Deshojo et bien d'autres variétés

Découvrez la production de notre pépinière bonsaï avec de nombreuses variétés. Nombreux produits en stock et livraison partout en France en emballage soigné.

bonsaigalinou.com

 

[leatherback]

Kicking myself for not knowing about them!

 

[clem]

Do you and @AlainK have the same nursery for these maples? Or are maples very popular in France!?

hello, i don't know were AlainK buys his palmatum.. but yes palmatum are popular in France. I don't know if they are more popular in France than in Germany ?

 

[AlainK]

Or are maples very popular in France!?

Yes, they're very popular.

I bought some from garden centres, others from online specialists, others were sent to me by members of the Maple Society from France or the British Isles, and I also grew a lot of them from seeds...

 

[clem]

hi, i removed the soil on this maple, to check the nebari. I will repot it next spring and place the surface roots better.
IMO, both sides are possible as a future front ->




The possible trunk line in the future ->



I also plan to make drill grafts on the trunk under the fork, to improve the tapper of the trunk

 

[BobbyLane]

A tree that looks great from a few angles is a good dilemma to have. at least you wont get bored of it as you rotate it throughout the season.

 

[clem]

hello, i've done 2 grafts on this tree, to try to improve the tapper of the trunk. I've also repotted it.

The nebari of both sides ->



I drilled 2 holes in the trunk to insert an auto-graft and a cutting of deshojo ->


The 2 thread grafts inserted ->



The rootball fixed in the wood box ->


I hope that the 2 grafts will grow and improve the tapper of the trunk, like this (hope gives life) ->


The tree repotted inside the green house ->

I performed an auto-graft and a graft with a cutting to compare...

 

[leatherback]

Not my choice. You have a nice blemish-free lower trunk. Now you have 4 extra holes there..

To really affect the lower trunk you will need a lot of growth on your grafts!

 

[clem]

I think that those scars will be far better than the ugly scar of the fork... I will cut the fork in the end of spring

 

[ConorDash]

What's the plan for those 2 grafts? I understand you are doing it for taper but do you mean simply add the 2 grafts, leave for a number of years enough for them to improve taper, then remove prune the branches/grafts off?

Id have thought that given the shallow depth of the box, in time, the base of the tree will be pulled out quite well, which would help your taper.

 

[clem]

this palmatum is the most difficult i have because i made mistakes in the begining. The 2 mains problems with it : the ugly scar of the fork (swelling) + the ugly shape of the trunk above the fork (blister showed on the pic below). If those 2 grafts are successfull, i have the hope that the trunk below the fork will get thicker, better tapper, and the ugly part of the trunk less visible.


I hope that the 2 grafts will help the trunk thicken, and maybe i will keep 1 graft with the secondary ramification ->

 

[BobbyLane]

i didnt notice a scar until you mentioned it, but still struggling to see it. maybe its worse in person when viewing from above

 

[clem]

i didnt notice a scar until you mentioned it, but still struggling to see it. maybe its worse in person when viewing from above

this type of scar (on a fork) are said to be the most difficult to heal. And you can see on this side pic of the trunk that there is a swelling ->



Just my 3 years experience, i have seen great differences in term of scar healing :
1-The worst case scenario is to heal a scar from a fork.
2-A scar from clip and grow (a 45° cut) heal more easily than a fork.
3-The best case scenario to heal is a cut of a branch directly on the trunk : it heals very quick (2 times quicker than clip&grow scar) and the scar is very discreet. It is the scar i will have with my grafts normally ...

 

[BobbyLane]

ive always found that a concave or V cut between two major growth points often begins to callus quite fast

the hornbeam cut below will for sure roll in much faster than the chop on the maple where there isnt a direct point of growth just sap flow. theres lots of variables

the flat cut in your diagram would never look right and will indeed take much longer to heal.
in the first photo its obvious the hornbeam was chopped. in the second the owner knows it was chopped, but if someone is viewing from the correct angle its not noticable that the tree was chopped or even has a scar that is rapidly healing over. eventually it just be a trunk that splits into two.

 

[clem]

ive always found that a concave or V cut between two major growth points often begins to callus quite fast

Don't you find that the callus is bigger (less discreet and thicker) on this type of cut than on the 45° clip & grow cut or , even better, on a branch cut ?
For me, when you cut a trunk and leave 2 branches on the same level to heal the scar, those 2 branches grow and thicken, and there is a swelling, that you don"t encounter in a 45° clip&grow cut.

 

[BobbyLane]

there is slight misconception that a trunk that splits into will inevitibly result in swelling or a bulge at the point. yeh sometimes it will, other times not, then other times the point can be managed as in drilling a hole in between the points of growth and removing excess wood, ive see Adair show a diagram on Markys broom thread of the procedure, but ive known about it for years.
of course its a lot different if you start already having inverse/swelling.
i also find some swelling desirable if you have a fat base and nebari to balance it out. just my tastes

 

[BobbyLane]

Don't you find that the callus is bigger (less discreet and thicker) on this type of cut than on the 45° clip & grow cut or , even better, on a branch cut ?
For me, when you cut a trunk and leave 2 branches on the same level to heal the scar, those 2 branches grow and thicken, and there is a swelling, that you don"t encounter in a 45° clip&grow cut.

its the callus that causes the swelling. if the chop or cut was chopped or concaved properly the swelling wont be as pronounced no matter what type of cut.
sometimes using a concave cutter isnt enough for me, often i go in further with carving, like with a dremel and termite ball, to take the concavity deeper.