Japanese Maples
- Thread starter Warlock
- Start date
0soyoung
Imperial Masterpiece
Actually, as it gets taller, the trunk will thicken. Further, if you anchor the pot to the ground, the summer breeze (sounds like an oldie tune!) will flex the trunk and make the lower parts thicken even more, giving it that taper we so prize in bonsai.
What really does the work is the foliage. The tree is mostly wood. Wood is mostly cellulose. Cellulose is just a polymer of the sugars made by the leaves. Hence, more leaves = making more tree. Since you've already got leaves, you'll get the most progress if you just leave them and just do what is necessary to keep it growing.
Come fall, right after the leaves drop you can cut it down, but I strongly suggest that you cut no further than the lowest bud pair you can clearly see. Then next spring (2021), before the buds break, again cut it to the lowest visible bud(s). You can 'rinse and repeat' as more buds become visible until you are either as low as you want to take it or you just see one (pair of) bud(s).
Then those two most apical (highest up) buds will each produce a new shoot, they will extend with shoots having many sets of leaf pairs on each, roughly double the number of leaves you have this year (ideally). Were you to cut back to two leaves on each stem as is done with 'bonsai', your trunk growth will be missing all that horsepower for the 3 to 6 weeks that it takes to push new shoots. So when you are trying to make a trunk, no pruning when it is in leaf.
Of course, in spring you could also have at CHOPPING! the trunk, which I guess is every noobs dream. At some point you likely will be forced to anyway. It just always works out better if you've got a pair of opposing branches just below the chop point OR a pair of buds. Because of lots of other unfortunate outcomes I experienced, I made it my habit to cut back only to a branch or a visible bud, on anything, not just maples.
enough for now, I think.
What really does the work is the foliage. The tree is mostly wood. Wood is mostly cellulose. Cellulose is just a polymer of the sugars made by the leaves. Hence, more leaves = making more tree. Since you've already got leaves, you'll get the most progress if you just leave them and just do what is necessary to keep it growing.
Come fall, right after the leaves drop you can cut it down, but I strongly suggest that you cut no further than the lowest bud pair you can clearly see. Then next spring (2021), before the buds break, again cut it to the lowest visible bud(s). You can 'rinse and repeat' as more buds become visible until you are either as low as you want to take it or you just see one (pair of) bud(s).
Then those two most apical (highest up) buds will each produce a new shoot, they will extend with shoots having many sets of leaf pairs on each, roughly double the number of leaves you have this year (ideally). Were you to cut back to two leaves on each stem as is done with 'bonsai', your trunk growth will be missing all that horsepower for the 3 to 6 weeks that it takes to push new shoots. So when you are trying to make a trunk, no pruning when it is in leaf.
Of course, in spring you could also have at CHOPPING! the trunk, which I guess is every noobs dream. At some point you likely will be forced to anyway. It just always works out better if you've got a pair of opposing branches just below the chop point OR a pair of buds. Because of lots of other unfortunate outcomes I experienced, I made it my habit to cut back only to a branch or a visible bud, on anything, not just maples.
enough for now, I think.
Warlock
Shohin
Thank you.. Great info...!!
When new branches emerge from spring buds, they typically push a short internode with a pair of leaves. The second internode is usually very long, with 6" or more being very common in typical japanese maples before a second pair of leaves is set. You'd want to leave these alone to grow unencumbered on the sarlcrificial top and on branches you don't plan to use in order to thicken the trunk faster , however on branches you plan to keep this will create long internodes. To keep this from happening, you can pinch out the central leader as soon as the first set of leaves is formed - the earlier the better. Pinching the leader forces new buds from the leaf axils you left. From each of the new buds you'll get a short internode and a pair of leaves followed by another very long internode, so to prevent that from happening, you'd pinch EACH of the central leaders on the 2 pairs of leaves. So, you start out with a pair of leaves, you pinch and get 2 pairs of leaves. Pinch and get 4 pairs of leaves, then 8 pairs, then 16, 32, 64, ALL in the same season. Also, because the amount of photosynthate is divided among soooo many more leaves than normal, the leaves grow smaller and more in proportion to the size of the tree you're developing.
Warlock
Shohin
Would it be ok to repot them in a 2 gallon or maybe 3 gallon.. They get a little top heavy and the 1 gallon they are in tip over..
0soyoung
Imperial Masterpiece
Sure. I use medium landscape bark with a lesser volume of garden/potting soil.
Hold the base of the trunk. Knock off the existing pot. Loosen the surface of the soil plug (also called loosen the roots from the surface of the plug) with a hook, or one of those 3-prong garden thingies, or just make several vertical cuts down the curved surface with a sharp knife (you just don't want the roots to stay stuck orbiting around). Set it in the new pot and fill with the bark mix (pack it in, gently). A pinch of general purpose fert (not weed n' feed) and you would be good to go for several years. But you'll probably want to build a box for it next spring anyway.
New note to you @Warlock. Too large a pot will actually slow down the growth above ground. It is best to have pots just a smidge (say one or two inches in diameter) bigger than the existing root spread. Commercial growers do this, 'up potting' just about every year.
If you already repotted this season you could drive a stake in the ground and tie it to the trunk to keep the tree and pot from tipping over. Repotting right now, would cause a lot of stress on the tree.
0soyoung
Imperial Masterpiece
Good answer, @Cascading-Echinocactus ! 
Similar threads
