Arakawa Maple from seeds

[grizzlywon]

I'm just curious, does anyone have experience growing Arakawa maples from seeds. While I know that you get a consistent/predictable result from a graft off a parent.

Couldn't you get some pretty spectacular variations grown from seed.

Just a question. How long to they take to seed and how well do the seedlings reflect their parent? I was told months back that bloodgood seeds won't produce the same but my seedlings are almost a perfect copy so far. No greens at all!

 

[grizzlywon]

There are a lot of views and no replies. The number of views tells me people are interested in this. Anybody got experience trying this?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Well I have grown Japanese maples from seed and they were truly random. The genetic diversity that makes them such great plants to create cultivars from affects their offspring, let me tell you. Two years ago I planted about 50 A. palmatum (Johnnie's Pink) and got quite a mix of seedlings. About 2/3rd's budded out green, while the balance were red. Johnnie's Pink is supposed to bud an orange color and stay a soft orange/brown/green. None of my seedlings looked like this at all I had a problem with critters eating the seedlings, and the Southern California sun took care of most of the rest. I have two left (both red) that are now in their third year and starting to strengthen up slightly. They are VERY weak in my opinion - this may be due to the seedlings being from a weak variety, or it may be due to seedlings in Southern California in general. I do not have another data point to compare them to. However I will say that I am now fully convinced that unless you strike cuttings, graft, or propagate via air layer, there is no way to guarantee that you will even get a single A. palmatum offspring from seeds with the same characteristics as the parent.

 

[mapleman77]

I have to agree with Bonsainut here. While I've never grown JMs from seed, I've collected them (and have over 30) for the past ~4 years and I've ALWAYS read that seedlings cannot be considered the cultivar, as they will be too varied...if you think about it, the mother plant is only half the equation, a rough way of putting it. But even if both parents were the cultivar, there is still sexual reproduction and that means that genetic materials are combined to make unique individuals. So seedlings (unless they're clones, which wouldn't happen) should and are always slightly, or radically different then their parents.

Hope this helps! For the Arakawa seeds, you might get a few that have some rough bark, but I wouldn't particularly expect it. If you want the rough bark, I again agree with Bonsainut and suggest buying a plant and air-layering it or growing it from cuttings. I just got a JM cutting to work, so it shouldn't be that hard. ;D

Cheers!
David