Big Tooth Maple (Acer grandidentatum)

[Desert O'Piñon]

This tree is the first I've acquired from another bonsai enthusiast. This was collected in Utah by @Captkingdom. Many thanks for your help and advice! No immediate plan for "Captain Maple" yet. I definitely like the two trunks.
You can see how he captured plenty of finer roots.

One option (I'm risking the hope that it grows well starting sometime in March) is to pull them a little closer together to build a more cohesive and compact form, kind of a mother and child feel.

On the other hand, with its current spread, it has potential for an interesting "rivalry" of sorts, a conflict of siblings.

A third option (currently my least favorite idea) is to layer off the smaller trunk, ideally giving me a second tree to work with. I should have plenty of time to take cuttings and air layers in the next two or three years while it grows in the ground.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

This is one of the only  Acer species native to my area. The desert is unforgiving, and even less forgiving with contained plants. I realize (after paying attention to so many people giving the same advice repeatedly) that I have to learn how to grow natives first. Then learn how to get them to thrive. And then, maybe, I can start to learn bonsai culture. It's not just the trees that take a lot of time to grow, it's the knowledge, experience, and understanding that takes so long.
I definitely need to learn how to get better photos!
So, this will be the first of my Bigtooth Maples. These will be the focus of my deciduous collection, for now. I hope for great results, once I figure out what they need to thrive.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

Another angle, but still a bad photo. Keys for scale.

As I am such a novice, I really have no idea where to go next. I'm studying on nebari development, ratification, and trunk thickening, which I believe should be my first focus, but what steps and how soon are the questions I have to figure out answers for.

 

[Michael P]

I have bigtooth maples in my landscape and love them! Success with air layers has been very spotty, only about 30% made it. I don't have any in training as bonsai, watching this with interest.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

Maybe just paranoia, but I'm still not seeing leaves. The buds started to swell, but maybe our cold weather last week paused the leafing? The branches are still pliable, so I'm not giving up, but I am getting anxious.

 

[Michael P]

For some reassurance, our late winter was warm with a few cold snaps. Big Tooth maples in my landscape have open leaves but still very small and soft. Other maple species (bonsai and landscape) are fully leaved and some already need need trims.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

That's what I'm attributing this to. Also, since it was just collected and planted last fall, it could be late for this reason as well.

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

I'm not giving up yet, but I moved this to a different place in the yard. I'm afraid I may have planted it too close to my tree of heaven, which has allelopathic properties. I wish I'd known beforehand. I did take a few cuttings from a couple twigs that still had some pliability. I was really hoping this tree would thrive.

 

[NMbonsai]

I have two that I collected in November of 2021. I was not able to get much of the soil to stay with them and they ended up being almost bare rooted. I put them in pure pumice together in one basket and just left them to develop roots for the last four years. I started fertilizing them after the second year. I did no development work on the upper parts of either tree. Each year, they would develop buds early (February?), but seemed to take forever to leaf out. This year, in March, I separated them and put them in bonsai soil in separate training baskets. One had a lot more roots than the other, smaller one. The larger one just fully leafed out this week. The other has buds but nothing more. The branches are flexible so I think it has survived the repotting. I will just have to wait and see. Alot of bonsai work seems to be like that. Hurry up and wait!

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

I'm not so hopeful about mine. A couple twigs were still slightly flexible, and those are where the cuttings came from. I'm just going to get some seeds this fall and put them in seed beds over winter and hope for the best.

 

[NMbonsai]

If you are going to move it, you may want to put it in a pot with pumice, rather than another location in the ground,. That's kind of the standard procedure on yamadori, regardless of species. Hopefully it won't get to warm too soon down there. We have had pretty moderate weather so far this spring, just a few windy days.