Arakawa Maple from Cutting

[Grant Hamby]

I want to document my whole experience with this tree, so I may as well start now. Plus, with advice from all of you, hopefully I can keep this tree on the right path!

I got this one from @Stickroot, cutting-grown. Here it is when it arrived:


And a few days ago, color starting to show:


My current plan (open to suggestions):

Repot Season 2017 - Sort the roots and train them using ebihara techniques and plant into 15x15x4 screen-bottom container.

After that, let it grow like a weed until it needs more root work.

 

[JoeR]

Got any more @Stickroot ?

I think your plan is great. I would screw it to a board and plant it in the ground or a grow box, use staples to organize roots if you need to. No pruning...

 

[AlainK]

Congrats!

Very interesting experiment: here, we can only find grafted Arakawa, and even if the graft is rather low, they'll never make decent bonsai. So I'm planning to air-layer one I have in a big pot (it's about 1,20 meters from the soil, that's about 4 feet).

I don't know if genetic strains play a role, but mine is hardly showing cork-bark on 3-year-old shoots.

This is a very interesting cultivar for maple fans, but it's rare to see convicing 'Arakawa' bonsai. Yet to my surprise, at our last local exhibition, there were three:

Veeery dificult to get a good design....

 

[Grant Hamby]

I really like that first one. It seems like branches usually go upward on arakawa bonsai. Maybe I'll try wiring shoots downward while they're still soft, when it's time for branches anyway.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Good to plant it bigger and sort out the roots. It will grow fast, so if you want to use current trunk, think about adding movement. If you wil chop, leave only the apical part so your lower shoots stay happy. It's not that critical now, but i like to do that before it is to late. Also think ahead and figure out where you will airlayer a portion out, you can ad movement when it is young...

 

[Grant Hamby]

Good to plant it bigger and sort out the roots. It will grow fast, so if you want to use current trunk, think about adding movement. If you wil chop, leave only the apical part so your lower shoots stay happy. It's not that critical now, but i like to do that before it is to late. Also think ahead and figure out where you will airlayer a portion out, you can ad movement when it is young...

I plan on chopping for movement in the future. What do you mean by leaving only the apical part so lower shoots stay happy?

 

[augustine]

15 x 15 x 4 flat will be too large for next season's repotting, imo. The soil will not dry. Better off starting smaller and working up. You can repot every spring and increase size of container each time.

 

[Grant Hamby]

15 x 15 x 4 flat will be too large for next season's repotting, imo. The soil will not dry. Better off starting smaller and working up. You can repot every spring and increase size of container each time.

I was wondering about that. I have a bunch of screen material so I was thinking I could make a custom container if need be.

 

[petegreg]

I've got one taller arakawa. This year the growth was leggy enough, the tree empty from inside. I was advised to defoliate it. Defoliate? I thought it was done for different reasons. But I did defoliate in May completely, did it like we would do it with Ficus including cutting of terminal buds. And the tree responded with activating probably all sleeping buds and literally exploded with new growth.

 

[pweifan]

What do you mean by leaving only the apical part so lower shoots stay happy?

If I understood @dirk hoorelbeke correctly, I think he meant to trim the branches above where you plan to chop all the way up to the apex so the lower branches don't get shaded out. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Dirk

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

If I understood @dirk hoorelbeke correctly, I think he meant to trim the branches above where you plan to chop all the way up to the apex so the lower branches don't get shaded out. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Dirk

This is indeed what i ment to say. The side branches don't shade your eventual tree and removing them will give your apical bud even more power. Growth in length is growth in diameter. I always try to have the next leader ready and starting to develop while your escape branch is running. This way you can cut back to it when time is ready and portion of your next section will have short internodes and sidebranches ready. I'll try to post a picture in a few days. Remind me if i forget.

 

[Grant Hamby]

I built this box today, I may end up putting this tree in there. I would put down a fairly coarse layer of pumice, then put in the board screwed to the tree, then my regular soil mix over that. I don't think I'll have too many issues with soil staying too moist. My only concern is that the little pine slats I used for the box will probably not last too long.

The box is 10 x 11 x 3.5 (exterior)

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Nice box, should work for 3 years, by that time its time to repot again. Most of the time for a growing box i make the gaps small enough so i don't need mesh. But this can even be better. I hope the staples will hold, should be ok.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Got this one defoliated and sprayed for dormancy today. Can't wait to get some growth on this thing.

 

[Stickroot]

Got this one defoliated and sprayed for dormancy today. Can't wait to get some growth on this thing.

View attachment 124549

What's the temp down there? I haven't even thought about bringing any in yet.

I actually have cuttings out still

 

[Grant Hamby]

What's the temp down there? I haven't even thought about bringing any in yet.

I actually have cuttings out still

Nights have been in the low 30's and upper 20's, except for the past couple of days.

Later next week is supposed to dip into the teens.

 

[Grant Hamby]

So many of my trees are small so I get nervous about the roots freezing in the little pots. Probably jumping the gun a little. This one had just finished up its fall color so hopefully it was safe to defoliate.

 

[miker]

On the subject of late fall defoliation; is this done for aesthetics mainly or to make for a more tidy and disease free environment when putting trees in winter quarters? All my trees are bare now except for a few on my large JM and my Southern sugar maple (btw excellent fall color on this one up here) and I figure I will let the leaves fall off or freeze off then keep especially the sugar maple in conditions suitable for zone 7 bonsai.

 

[just.wing.it]

So many of my trees are small so I get nervous about the roots freezing in the little pots. Probably jumping the gun a little. This one had just finished up its fall color so hopefully it was safe to defoliate.

Better safe than sorry !
My stuff has been in for a few weeks now.
Decided to just bring em in early this year, and forget about doing the Autumn Shuffle.

 

[Stickroot]

I agree, better safe than sorry. It has been mid 40s here.