Arakawa Maple

[Mellow Mullet]

Can't seem to find the tread that I had on this one so I decided to start a new one. I have had this one for a while. It is in desperate need of a new pot, haven't found one yet. What do you think?

John

 

[Eric Group]

Great taste in trees and the man drinks "the best beer in America since 1944" (says so right on the can!) in a tall boy no less! You Bama boys now how to live!

 

[Cypress187]

Perhaps the roots should get trained more flatter, because this pot is relative deep, and I would go for a more wide pot, it looks cramped.

 

[LanceMac10]

Yahooooooo......PBR lb'r!!!!

Nice tree, too!!

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Thanks, guys.

Yeah PBR is a good flavored beer, and inexpensive too, the local water-hole had the four packs on sale. Win-win!

There is actually a little more base under the soil and it is very cramped. The base is a little one sided, but it is what it is, too many projects to worry about grafting, etc. I hope to get it a new pot, I wish there was somewhere local where you could just go and put your hands on pots and pick one out. By the time you pay shipping when you buy them off the 'net, you could have bought two.

John

 

[Giga]

Looks nice - my only complaint is that the 1st pic(if thats the current front) is that there is slight reverse taper that my eye keeps drawing too. If it was a normal J maple I would suggest through grafts to fix that but with the bark I don't think that will work. Great tree though

 

[sorce]

When I start making pots....

The first thing I'm going to do is make one for all your trees.
And send them to you free.

Sorce

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Looks nice - my only complaint is that the 1st pic(if thats the current front) is that there is slight reverse taper that my eye keeps drawing too. If it was a normal J maple I would suggest through grafts to fix that but with the bark I don't think that will work. Great tree though

Yeah, it does have a little bit of reverse taper. About ten years ago, it caught a virus or fungus that I thought was gonna kill it, whipped out half of the tree. After trying every thing I knew, I took it to my dad, who has 10 green fingers, not just one thumb. He pulled it through. The resulting taper is where the bark grew back. If you look closely, you can see a difference in the bark, the new bark has larger plates. This is the reason I am reluctant to try extreme measures to improve it, it has already been through a lot.

John

 

[Mellow Mullet]

When I start making pots....

The first thing I'm going to do is make one for all your trees.
And send them to you free.

Sorce

That would be awesome! Maybe I could send you some PBR as payment. lol

 

[sorce]

That would be awesome! Maybe I could send you some PBR as payment. lol

Cool!

Also....I will put the name of the thread in the bottom so you only have to look under to see where to post it!

Lol....

Your trees are way too dope to not get it figured!

Sorce

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Cool!

Also....I will put the name of the thread in the bottom so you only have to look under to see where to post it!

Lol....

Your trees are way too dope to not get it figured!

Sorce

That is awesome, sorce is a sorcerer when it comes to ideas.

John

 

[Mellow Mullet]

I finally got around to repotting this maple. I really hate that I have neglected it the past few years, I can't even remember the last time that I repotted it.

Here is what I started with







The good news is that the wound from the disease attack is almost completely healed. It used to have a hole down the center of the trunk. I filled it and covered it with epoxy a couple of years ago and this is all that is left.


This was the exit, it is completely healed

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Here is what is under the hood



This is what happens when you let it freeze after a rain. Dead roots.

Luckily, the rest are in good shape, the damage was just on the edge.



Gonna stick it in this pot just to let it recover some

 

[Mellow Mullet]

All cleaned up.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Had to remove this limb, it was dead.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Some wire and more trimming, she is done. I plan on just letting it grow and work on chasing some of the limbs back.

 

[MACH5]

Nice arakawa Mellow. Nice to see lately so many pop up on this forum. Can't beat this cultivar that exhibits such character on the bark against the delicate and colorful leaves. Very nice work on the flaring base. Personally, the slight reverse taper does not bother me as I think arakawa, because of its rough bark, is a bit more forgiving in this regard as opposed to the normally smooth textured bark of most other cultivars. However, I'd love to see the wiring being applied a bit more neatly. I would work towards making sure your wire is snug against the branch without being too tight. Your tree will look better and the wire will be even more effective.

As your tree develops, I would turn the branch ends slightly up as this will give you a more natural looking deciduous tree. This is entirely a matter of taste, as some folks like to design their deciduous bonsai to look like conifers.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Thanks, M5, I agree that I could have done better on the wiring. I was running out of daylight. The Merlot did not help much either.

 

[j evans]

Nice looking tree with great bark. Congrats to you and your dad on helping it survive its disease. You know that it is pretty good when the biggest thing someone can moan about is the wiring.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Nice looking tree with great bark. Congrats to you and your dad on helping it survive its disease. You know that it is pretty good when the biggest thing someone can moan about is the wiring.

Thanks, Jamie. My dad can grow anything, he nursed it back to health. M5 actually had some good advise on the wiring, I was in too big of a hurry.

Crap, I just noticed that I posted the pictures twice in the last post, I wonder how I managed that.