J. maples are great to work with

[AlainK]

J. maples are great to work with : grown from seeds, cuttings or air-layers, they're a very resilient species.

I have this one grown from a seed collected on a tree that was planted on the side of a street, I collected several from lace-leaf specimens (green or red), but when this one germinated, it was very close to the plain Acer palmatum species. I didn't like the shape so much so I decided to air-layer the top for a double-trunk that i still have and which is not as good as I thought it would be, and kept the lower part.

August 2013 :





It developped well. December 2014 :



But there was a problem with the base, so I air-layed it just above the dead roots :



In June 2018, it began to look nice again :



... but the pot was too small, and in the heat of the summer, two days without watering and I thought if was the death of him.

I had to cut off the dead leader and a couple of branches, and I repotted it in a more "comfortable" (ugly) pot in March.

In April, it looked about OK :





Close-up of the cuts :



Today, it looks promising again. I wired the new leader which was going a bit backward and I'll let it grow, at least until next spring. This hybrid, or chimera, or whatever it can be called, has leaves a bit smaller and more serrated that the other plain A. palm. I have.



Morality :

Never give up on a Japanese maple.

One of the best species for beginners, a very resilient tree, a lot to learn with them.

 

[Shibui]

I have to disagree AlainK.
Japanese maple seems only moderately resilient here. You have already pointed out some of the problems: root infections, loss due to lack of water are only a couple. I'd argue that if your tree was a trident maple it would not have had those problems and there are many other species that would have come through unscathed as well.
I'm not sure how long you have been growing JM but I also found that without rigorous pruning and cleaning excess multiple shoots I kept getting thickened ends on branches and lumps on the trunks. Everything seems to be going along really well for 6 or 7 years before the lumps sneak up but by the time you notice it is too late.
JM also don't respond quite as well to severe cutbacks or reduction so extra care must be taken.
Trident maples respond far easier on all these counts and also grow much quicker. trident maple is my choice for beginners wanting to grow maple bonsai.
JM do make great bonsai but take more work and need better skills to produce and maintain good bonsai.
You only need to look at local shows and bonsai nurseries to see the relative numbers of good maple bonsai and the prices of good JM compared to the same quality tridents to see which is easier to grow and develop as bonsai.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

@Shibui all of the things you mention (root care, pruning, constant watch, and having to plan ahead) are all on my list of specific reasons why i agree with @AlainK that japanese maples are great to work with! I find them especially enjoyable as landscape specimens as well as bonsai!

in other words, you and i don't disagree on the work and care required, we just look at it differently

as usual, a lot has to do with perspective

 

[Shibui]

We may indeed be looking at it differently.
Don't get me wrong, I like Acer palmatum as bonsai and I like the challenge of working with them but they are a challenging species. Alain's final line says:

One of the best species for beginners, a very resilient tree, a lot to learn with them.

I agree there is a lot to learn but dispute that JM is one of the best species for beginners.

 

[ConorDash]

Yeah also no fan of them for resiliency.. Elms, hornbeams, beech, those are resilient. Acer P I would say not so much... i think after 2-3 years of bonsai then an Acer P to learn on.
I got one very early on in my career (career spanning only 3 years at this point) and it was not forgiving.. but it lived, which means it taught me a lot.

I think a tree doesn't have to be resilient to teach you, just need to be careful the correct lesson is learnt.

 

[VERMONT USA !!!!]

A Monptellier c'est pas toujours facile

 

[AlainK]

A Monptellier c'est pas toujours facile

Même ici, even here. Our summers are warmer and drier each year.

Maybe it's easier in Montpelier, Vermont , but J. maples resent hot, dry climates like around the Mediterranean sea, in Montpellier or in the center of the world, la gare de Perpignan, the train station in Perpignan

Have you tried Acer monspessulanum (érable de Montpellier) ? They're a lot more difficult to work with but they are adapted to your region and maybe you can find some interesting garden centre plants or even "yamadori".

Like everywhere in France we has unusually high temperatures, and only ... 0.2 mm of rain in a whole month !

That's what I kept almost all my trees, icluding big potted ones, in the shade and watered them at least once a day, twice a day for the bonsai. Here are some that barely saw any sun, protected by lilac, forsythia, etc., and a big 'O-sakazuki' (phto taken on Oct. 22nd) to the west. Today's pic :

Phoenix, Tamahime, Arakawa, O-sakazuki and Beni hagoromo :



J'espère que le confinement nocturne n'est pas trop dur à supporter en ... Septimanie ?

 

[Mapleminx]

Those vibrant pinkish red leaves

 

[leatherback]

in the center of the world, la gare de Perpignan

You sure? Is it not Paris?



Looks like this maple is an ever-lasting challenge. Two steps forward, three back?

 

[AlainK]

La gare de Perpignan was the center iof the world for Salvador Dali : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpignan_station

 

[baron]

I remember, when my interest in bonsai just started, reading somewhere (maybe here or in some book) working with maples is like playing chess.
At that point I didn't understand, now a few years later I do...

 

[eryk2kartman]

I like JM but i think there is a lot to do with your climate and how they grow, different zones might have different experience with them.
They are sort of easy and not at the same time, they a bit fancy with substrate ive notice - pure inorganic is not go i learnt hat lesson(they better grow in regular garden soil than in fancy inorganic one)
but they do give a lot of joy with their colors, so even if you make a mistake or something didn't go according to the plan, the all they year around colors would make up for it, so i guess i agree with Alain saying its a good beginner tree - but i would not recommend to get it as a first tree and specialy if that would be expensive one.

At the end of the day, we all love JM, im sure........