Asexual Maple Propagation

[Attila Soos]

I have a theory about the Palmatums, and mind you this is just a theory, but because the A. Palmatum is for all intents and purposes an isolated species in a relatively small land mass, the opportunity for bazaar recessive genes pairing up to form some of the spectacular diversity we see in this tree is more likely to occur. According to the rules and mathematics in genetics the more closed a gene pool the more likely deeply buried recessive genes will find their mate and produce an anomaly such as Shi Shi Gashira, Kio Hime, and so on. The tendency is to make what would normally be dominant genes,-- recessive, and because of the exclusivity of the anomalous gene pairings the anomalies becomes dominant.

Beautiful and elegant theory, and makes much sense. I like it.
And one can add the willingness of humans to enhance this diversity, and you have the richest variety in the world.

 

[Vance Wood]

Beautiful and elegant theory, and makes much sense. I like it.
And one can add the willingness of humans to enhance this diversity, and you have the richest variety in the world.

You're right Attila, I did leave out the human intervention factor. This is of course a very important event in the artistic development of this species; man's ability to notice and appreciate one of these anomolous events, isolate it, and subsequently cultivate the thing. Sometimes these trees will produce seeds and their wierd genes will be passed on somewhere else creating other oddities and wonders for us to discover and grow. Thanks for pointing that out Attila, not only is this important it is critical.

 

[AlainK]

As has been said, growing cultivars from seeds will give trees that revert to the plain palmatum species, or similar variants. On the other hand, many cultivars are very difficult to propagate from cuttings or even air-layering.

One technique I read about is the one used by Seitsu Muira. It is a combination of grafting and air-layering. The idea is to graft a scion of a cultivar on plain palmatum stock, "strangle" the graft with aluminum wire, and wrap it with long-fiber moss. A lot of water and fertilizer, then the grafted part starts growing roots and then can be treated

I made a sketch to give you the idea of it : in blue, the aluminium wire, in grey, where the moss is, in green, the roots that are supposed to grow if it works. I've never tried it myself, but there are photos illustrating the article of the technique, and of some of the several hundreds of plants he grows each year.

 

[BONSAI_OUTLAW]

Do you have a link for this article Alain? It sounds like an interesting read.

 

[AlainK]

Do you have a link for this article Alain? It sounds like an interesting read.

Sorry, it's from a French bonsai magazine, probably a translation of an article published in Japan.
But I can scan the pages and send them to you if you like, PM me if you are interested because I can't post them on the site or make them public because of copy rights...

 

[AndyWilson]

Not really related but, i have a huge Trident Maple that gives rise to quite a few seedlings around the house. To my surprise while weeding through my vegeatable patch i found a variegated trident maple. Now my Trident is the only one around these here parts, so the fact that a plain trident can produce this variegated seedling astonished me.

How exactly do these twiches in genetics occur? Will i likely encounter another one if i try to propogate as many of the seeds as possible?

Any interesting reads on this topic?

 

[Vance Wood]

Not really related but, i have a huge Trident Maple that gives rise to quite a few seedlings around the house. To my surprise while weeding through my vegeatable patch i found a variegated trident maple. Now my Trident is the only one around these here parts, so the fact that a plain trident can produce this variegated seedling astonished me.

How exactly do these twiches in genetics occur? Will i likely encounter another one if i try to propogate as many of the seeds as possible?

Any interesting reads on this topic?

This is how "They" have come up with all these cultivars, anomalous seedlings that sprout up now and then. Are you likely to encounter another one? Maybe; but there is no assurance that will be the case. It is also possible you will find other oddities.