LG Large Japanese Maple from Growing Grounds

[Lars Grimm]

This is my progression thread for a large Japanese Maple originally purchased from the Growing Grounds in February 2017. Here it is as originally pictured once removed from the burlap sack, covered in thicken clay soil. Raw stock is an understatement. There had been enormous sacrificial branches used to thicken the trunk line.

 

[Lars Grimm]

The first thing I did was put it into a large box. There was some nice gradual taper to the trunk, but obviously huge branches that needed to be removed. I originally posted about using the Ebihara technique to partially removed branches.





My attempts to do so were not that great. In the spring of 2020, I decided that I would ground layer above the major lowest chop site. The other cut sites were actually healing quite well and would be on the proposed back. I filled a plastic pot with bonsai soil and packed sphagnum at the site after removing the cambial layer.



After a few months, I knew it had taken as the soil in the new pot would dry out daily.

 

[Lars Grimm]

I deferred separating it in fall, as I though it would be easier in Spring with a big repot. After removing the pot, there were a ton of roots, but unfortunately the roots only filled about 60% of the circumference.





I elected to use vet wrap to tie up the roots to enable me to get a saw into place.



Here was the enormous stump after I was done.

 

[Lars Grimm]

I elected to put the tree onto a board and into an anderson flat. I actually had to remove a lot of roots to just get it flat. I cleaned off the callous, packed with sphagnum moss with some rooting hormone and tied everything in.





A couple bamboo stakes allow it to sit flat now.

 

[Lars Grimm]

Here it is all potted up now in Spring 2021. This was my first time doing a ground layer. I think I made the mistake of not rotating the pot enough (it weighed about 100 lbs), and that contributed to the uneven root growth. This has been a really fun tree. I will feed heavily to encourage root growth and start working on getting primary branches to grow where I want them to. This tree will require multiple thread/approach grafts in the future and maybe even some root grafts even it doesn't take at the new cut site. A really nice project tree though to try out all the techniques.

 

[JudyB]

Wow nice work. I think that just getting in there and starting can be daunting, but you've made the most of what you had to start with, good on you!

 

[Lars Grimm]

Wow nice work. I think that just getting in there and starting can be daunting, but you've made the most of what you had to start with, good on you!

Thanks Judy. I was having this exact conversation the other day. It can be very intimidating to do work sometimes for fear of screwing it up. I've tried to force myself to just do it, otherwise I will always end up putting it off until later and the trees never advance.