I bought a Japanese maple the other day.

edprocoat

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First off let me say I know this was neither a great buy or a great tree. You ever see something that just appeals to you though, and I am not a big fan of deciduos trees either. This tree kinda reminds me of the christmas tree purchased by Charlie Brown in the old Peanuts Christmas cartoon. Its a small japanese maple, scrawny little trunk, Slanting style which is my favorite! its growing in a shallow pot with very little soil and has the roots prominent on the side away from the lean. It was freshly leafed out when I seen it and I fell in love with it, two small foliage pads loaded with striking small maple leafs.

The first thing that attracted me to it was the shallow planting, the pot is less than 2 inch deep and there is no more than 3/4s of an inch soil that its growing in. I know there will be no root reducing needed. Despite this it has vigorous leafing. When I spied it at NDGC I had to wait for the Bonsai guy to get a price, he said "Well that little Jap maple needs some more work than my usual Bonsai maples, I could let it go for $59. I was buying it anyway and as usual when I am enthralled with something I did not bother with a counter offer. It has a cheap pot and is nothing special, I will post some pics when I pick it up. I put $20 bucks on it and had him hold it until the end of April as the leaves are already out and we were expecting some cold weather.

I am glad I had him hold it as we had a hard freeze the next night and it did a lot of damage to my tropicals and my Vomitoria. The tropicals have bounced back, they lost about 1/3 the leaves to the freeze, despite being in a box covered with a tarp, the little Ilex has been the slowest coming around, I even took a little damage on a few of my Junipers too. It went down to 28 degrees for about 10 hours though. This would have ruined the leaves on this maple for certain.

ed
 
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Well, I picked up my Japanese Maple. I promised to show pics, but first a little explanation and a request for any help or advice anyone can give me! I went to North Dayton Garden Center to pick my plant up, when I got there I noticed in his Bonsai section he had hundreds of hanging baskets of pansies and other types of flowers hanging over the Bonsai. I went to my plant, right where I left it and noticed about 7 purple flowers had fell off the basket above it and literally welded to the foliage of my Maple. I had to remove the leaves to remove the flowers. I was not happy but I picked it up and paid the balance and left.

Then driving home on I-70 a clown slammed on his brakes for no apparent reason right ahead of me and I had to do the same. Jap Maple on the floor and out of the pot! I pulled off the exit and picked it up, noticing that not only was it miserably root bound in about 3/4's an inch of soil, there was also a red centipede crawling in the soil. I placed it back in the pot squished the critter and went home. Once back I seen four of what I call pill bugs or potato bugs, the little ones that roll up like an armadillo, these are usually harbingers of death to plants, at least mine. Then I noticed 2 slimy slugs sticking to the trunk, only seen them after noticing the broken branch from the fall.

Now I have a plant with bugs and a broken branch and some missing foliage. I figured seeing as how its already been savaged I might as well address the roots. I went to wal-mart and bought some Superthrive as I remembered it advertising that its great for transplanting, it seems like it says its good for everything so I may just drink a few swigs and see if it will help my knee, anyway, I mixed some up in some water and soaked the tree in it while I readied the pot. Then I removed the fine circling roots that went several times around the rectangular pot, finding one more centipede and another pill bug. I removed about 25 more leaves to maybe offset the loss of roots somewhat, and wired it into the pot and added my soil mix and put a layer of fine gravel on the surface just for looks. Then I lightly wired two branches, I figured make a science project out of it and see what happens as I feel it may be near death already.

Now I know this was not the appropriate time to do any of this. I have never owned a Jap maple before if anyone has any suggestions or hints, hell I will even take wild conjecture at this point, of anything that might be done to aid this tree's chances to live. What is a good pesticide for this plant in case the bugs return? Has anyone ever repotted and root trimmed a Jap Maple this time of year, did it live? Any Maple people out there know any magic spells or incantations that may help?

This is the back?

mapleback by edsnapshot, on Flickr

This is the leaves from the top, there are two distinct types it seems on the tree.

mapletop by edsnapshot, on Flickr
Its hard to see but some have pinkish edges while others are more green, the greener ones seem more wrinkled.

This is the front? I am still not sure on front or back and kind of wish I had planted it leaning away from the viewer when looking at it.


maplefront by edsnapshot, on Flickr

Advice would be greatly appreciated, and you will be rewarded by mother nature for your efforts! :p

ed
 
First off, get it outside in a shadier spot for a week or two and cross your fingers your root work didn't kill it-- I suspect not, but if the leaves start to wilt or discolor in a week or so, things may take a bad turn.

Second, lighten up :D on the bug thing. The bugs you mention aren't a threat to your tree. Centipedes, if I'm not mistaken, are predators and eat other bugs. The pill bugs eat rotting organic matter, not trees...

Don't water the tree by submerging it in water. THat kind of watering is a death sentence for a root-bound tree as it keeps the tangled interior from drying and sets up perfect conditions for fungus and rot. Water from the top and only when the tree needs it.

Did I say GET IT OUTSIDE?

Take the gravel off. Even though it looks good, it's not helping the tree and is obscuring the soil beneath, which you need to keep any eye on for watering.

Don't go out and get insecticide UNLESS you have a bug problem. Healthy maples generally don't attract alot of bugs, like, say apples.

As for the flower petals on the trunk, those come off with a little rain. ;) Can't help you with the dimwitted drivers, though.

Thirdly, maples produce different-looking leaves from time to time depending on stress, lighting, etc. BTW, the leaves on this tree look extremely chlorotic--which could improve as you have addressed a possible underlying cause--the bound up roots.

Skip the Superthrive. It's useless and expensive...
 
Thanks Rockm! I was hoping the gravel would keep the mix in place when watering as well as look good. The flower petals actually were on the foliage and literally welded to the leaves as they started to decay, I could not remove them without removing the leaves they were on. I only submerged the plant in water to remove the root mess, I bought the Superthrive as a last ditch effort hoping to maybe help the tree some. Believe it or not I normally would use a disolved aspirin in a halfgallon water as my granny would do that when transplanting and it always worked.

I kind of thought Superthrive was a scam, as I said before here, it is promoted like the old Snake Oil cures of years gone by, good for whatever ails you. Pill bugs are no problem? I have only had them on one other plant, a juniper I lost many years ago, looking back at it, the rotting organic matter they were eating at the time was proably the roots :confused: lol, as it had severe root rot going on and by the time I seen the stress on the foliage and tried to salvage it, it was gone, at the time I attributed it to the pill bugs and wrote it off to experience.

Its going outside as soon as the weather stabilizes a bit here, we have been getting really bad storms, last night we had hail and weather in the low 30's. I guess a Jap Maple could handle that with the leaves on. For now its staying inside on that table I took the pictures of it under a light.

And now I will have to look up " chlorotic " and see what the hell that is!

ed
 
Chlorotic means "yellowing" and usually indicates an iron deficiency, but it can also mean a few other things. The visible green veining on the yellower leaves is not a good thing.

Unless there is frost forecast, this tree needs to be outside ASAP, bad storms or no...It is NOT a houseplant.

In confining it indoors, you are greasing the slippery slope of its decline.
 
"And now I will have to look up " chlorotic " and see what the hell that is!"

I am glad I am not the only one that did not know what "chlorotic" meant. I thought it meant too much chlorine. Thank goodness for google. Chlorotic is my new word for today.

Ed, surely hope your maple survives and flourishes after all it went through.
 
Rockm, I moved it out just a few minutes ago. I went ahead and fertilized it with some liquid Vigoro as it has 10% iron in it, maybe that will help the Chlorotic condition. Funny thing, the color of the leaves is what attracted me to this plant in the first place, they are lovely to look at. I guess from what I read this condition can cause twig and branch dieback and eventually kill the tree.

ed
 
Good luck with your beautiful maple Ed! :) I would also suggest not to worry too much on what is the front or back of the tree at this point. I would eventually put this tree in a larger pot or ground and let it grow and develop for a few years. Then you can start to make some more serious design decisions. Just my 2:rolleyes:
 
Good luck with your beautiful maple Ed! :) I would also suggest not to worry too much on what is the front or back of the tree at this point. I would eventually put this tree in a larger pot or ground and let it grow and develop for a few years. Then you can start to make some more serious design decisions. Just my 2:rolleyes:

Mach5, thanks for your 2! My plans for this tree since I seen it have been to air layer it right below the the branch sticking to the right in the first picture, the one thats just above the coke can in the first picture I posted as the back. I want to layer it ther and when I sever it fuse it to the bottom part and create a twin trunk from it. First I will have to give it time to recover, if it can, and get healthy. I love twin trunks and joining the two trunks will of course thicken the width of the trunk base while allowing it to remain small size. Thats my plan anyway. I have did this before on junipers as well as Ficus with success, and I see where trunks on most maples will grow together naturally over time. This will also allow me to address the nebari issue better as the roots, which I buried for now, are mostly protruding away from the lean.

ed
 
"I want to layer it ther and when I sever it fuse it to the bottom part and create a twin trunk from it. First I will have to give it time to recover, if it can, and get healthy. I love twin trunks and joining the two trunks will of course thicken the width of the trunk base while allowing it to remain small size. Thats my plan anyway."

Honestly, this trunk is not worth all that effort and time. The time in creating a better base--instead of air layering a monotonous trunk to get two monotonous trunks--would be to put this in the ground for two or three years. I know, I know, you didn't buy it to plant it in the ground. Well, the procedures you've decribed above will take just as long and may not be all that successful. While planting this out and developing a thicker, more interesting single trunk is almost a definite success...

I guarantee ten years from now, when you're still not happy with the fused trunks you tried to create, you will have wished you had just put this in the ground and let it go...
 
Rockm, I am not looking for a massive trunk or a big tree. I plan on making a twin trunk tree less than 12 inches from the soil height. I think I can pull it off in two years and be happy.

ed
 
First off, get it outside in a shadier spot for a week or two and cross your fingers your root work didn't kill it-- I suspect not, but if the leaves start to wilt or discolor in a week or so, things may take a bad turn.

Second, lighten up :D on the bug thing. The bugs you mention aren't a threat to your tree. Centipedes, if I'm not mistaken, are predators and eat other bugs. The pill bugs eat rotting organic matter, not trees...

Don't water the tree by submerging it in water. THat kind of watering is a death sentence for a root-bound tree as it keeps the tangled interior from drying and sets up perfect conditions for fungus and rot. Water from the top and only when the tree needs it.

Did I say GET IT OUTSIDE?

Take the gravel off. Even though it looks good, it's not helping the tree and is obscuring the soil beneath, which you need to keep any eye on for watering.

Don't go out and get insecticide UNLESS you have a bug problem. Healthy maples generally don't attract alot of bugs, like, say apples.

As for the flower petals on the trunk, those come off with a little rain. ;) Can't help you with the dimwitted drivers, though.

Thirdly, maples produce different-looking leaves from time to time depending on stress, lighting, etc. BTW, the leaves on this tree look extremely chlorotic--which could improve as you have addressed a possible underlying cause--the bound up roots.

Skip the Superthrive. It's useless and expensive...

I would also suggest getting a look through Vertrees' J. Maple book. There are a great many strange cultivars out there and it would be futile if not damaging to be trying to make a rose into a fig.
 
I would also suggest getting a look through Vertrees' J. Maple book. There are a great many strange cultivars out there and it would be futile if not damaging to be trying to make a rose into a fig.

Do not worry Mr. Wood, I for one would never try to create a fig from a rose! Afterall, a rose must remain in the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true.... And a fig can be grown indoors with the proper lighting! :p

ed
 
Do not worry Mr. Wood, I for one would never try to create a fig from a rose! Afterall, a rose must remain in the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true.... And a fig can be grown indoors with the proper lighting! :p

ed

Forgive me for assuming you were seriously asking for advice. I also made the wrong assumption that you could tell the difference between metaphor and stupidity.
 
Forgive me for assuming you were seriously asking for advice. I also made the wrong assumption that you could tell the difference between metaphor and stupidity.

Touchy I see, excuse me for assuming you could understand humor. I was seriously asking for advice on saving the tree after all its been through. I neither wanted nor asked for advice on styling this tree, although I will still forgive you.

By the way Mr. Wood, the standard convention online in forums assumes that one is being humorous when one uses a cute little smiley face in ones post, or even a "lol", lighten up my friend as I meant no disrespect.
 
"And now I will have to look up " chlorotic " and see what the hell that is!"

I am glad I am not the only one that did not know what "chlorotic" meant. I thought it meant too much chlorine. Thank goodness for google. Chlorotic is my new word for today.

Ed, surely hope your maple survives and flourishes after all it went through.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement its refreshing to see here, and a sense of humor too, I hope we can be friends!

ed
 
Sad to see all of these threads going to hell.

Nice looking maple you've got. Enjoy it!
 
Touchy I see, excuse me for assuming you could understand humor. I was seriously asking for advice on saving the tree after all its been through. I neither wanted nor asked for advice on styling this tree, although I will still forgive you.

By the way Mr. Wood, the standard convention online in forums assumes that one is being humorous when one uses a cute little smiley face in ones post, or even a "lol", lighten up my friend as I meant no disrespect.

Not wishing to cause further dispute, I do understand how what you say here can at onetime or another can cause intent to be misinterpreted. That was not my intention. First of all I only suggested that you find and look through Vertrees' book on Japanese Maples. It might be a good idea because there are so many cultivars out there that the physucal appearance of your tree might be the result of genetics not poor care. That's where the metaphor about figs and roses came from. Second: I did not offer one word of design help, criticizm or opinion.
 
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