Never rains, until it pours!

[RKatzin]

This is how it happens. You get a call from a friend, Hey, you want some Japanese Maples? We're landscaping the garden and the tractor is coming tomorrow, so come and get them!

My mind is racing, how many? What kind? Who cares! Japanese Maples! I'm told they're seedlings, so we'll go with standard Acer p., you never know!

So I grab my digging kit and hit the road, on a mission to save the trees. Here's what I found:

I know the pics are terrible. They are in my shaded barn, just wanted to show what I brought home. I count 15 seperate trunks. All in full leaf. Lucky it's late in the wanning phase of the moon and relatively cool today. I got my work cut out today!

Most are generic Acer p. but several are seedling grown from ordered seeds, I'm trying to track down the original grower, but they are quite unique. The last two pics show the top and bottom of the leaf. green on top and purpleish underneath. Small leaves growing in tight formation, Very pretty little trees! I'm so excited!

My first order of biz it to get there back in some soil and keep them going. These were growing out in the full sun, in that good old red Oregon clay. The small holes were like clay pots in the ground and the trees came out with little resistance. There is some weedwacker damage around the bases of some (damn kids and their weedwackers! Squint your good eye and shake your fist at them), but other than that they're in good shape.

I'll get some better pics as I sort through the mob. Any advice is certainly welcome, but this aint my first rodeo. Wish me luck! Rick

 

[Lazylightningny]

Bonanza! You lucked into a treasure find! Congrats!

 

[RKatzin]

Ha! Funny thing Steve, when the guy got these a few years back, he didn't know what to do with them. I said let me have them and I'll make some bonsai, to which he replied, naw, I'm gonna put 'em in along the fence. Things change and now they don't fit in. I think he realized he had planted maples along the south and west sides of his garden. DER!

 

[MidMichBonsai]

The only advice I have is to send some my way!

In all seriousness, you gotta love free trees. I honestly communicate my love for bonsai often if for no other reason than to be the one that folks send trees to when they don't know what to do with them. I don't mind being the tree depository. Bring 'em on!

Best of luck with these.

 

[RKatzin]

Well, I thought I was cuttin' a fat hog here and you know what, it's fat and sweet! I'm half way through and the more I look at them in the daylight, good grief! These are Sango Kaku! Of course they are seedlings so there are slight variations, but they are Coral Bark for sure!

This is unreal! I could not be happier ay this moment! Come on, really, who stumbles into a pile of Coral Barks on the gimme?

There are two types I see. One looks very Sango in every respect and the other is the one with purple underleaf. Very striking coloration and a bit smaller leaf and tighter configuration. A real beauty! Pics later after I get them all tucked in.

BTW, I love to share so we can talk on that when we're certain we're talking about live trees and not maybes, Rick

 

[Lazylightningny]

Are they going in the ground or in pots?

 

[RKatzin]

I'm processing them into pots for now.

Before you ask, I'm using potting soil, a premium blend called Northwests Best and cutting this 50% with perlite. Hey, it's a dozen trees to pot up and I'm on a budget here. LOL I want to get them into as big a pot as possible (and still have some beer money) and the perlite really fluffs it up and makes it real easy to repot.

I'm not doing alot of root work, just trying to get the clay out. The trees grew as though they had been in a pot. A small wad of roots in potting mix is what I'm seeing. The clay is all stuck to the outside and washes off. Then I prick out the roots and trim only the really long fatties and spread the remainder out. The root balls are pretty loose so I think we're in good shape even though the trees are in full leaf.

I'd rather not, but does anyone think defoliating the trees would be advised?

 

[RKatzin]

Well, I just got in and I've been at it all day. There turn out to be an even dozen trees, all potted up. I'll leave them in the barn a few days and see how they develop. I'll get some show-me pics when I can, I just don't want to mess with them anymore today thank you very much.

They're good looking trees and my estimation is they are going to do just fine, all things considered. I'll tell you I feel like I earned those trees today! Don't let me get my whine on, later, Rick

 

[RKatzin]

It's June first and all but one are doing very well. I've moved the trees to an outside shaded area, out of icu into recovery room. Getting a bit of sun and a muted breeze.

This one had some pretty bad weedwacker damage and has started to wilt a bit. I drug it back into icu and did an emergency ground layer.

The way I do this is cut a pot up the side and remove the bottom. I slip it around the base and set it on the surface then tie with good ol baler twine about half way up the pot. Fill the pot with potting mix and slide the twine up to allow the pot to expand as you fill. When it's the size you want put an inch or so of soil around the base to hold the pot in place.

The moon is on the rise so the next two weeks will tell the tale for these trees, I'll get back to you after the full moon.

 

[drew33998]

It's June first and all but one are doing very well. I've moved the trees to an outside shaded area, out of icu into recovery room. Getting a bit of sun and a muted breeze.

This one had some pretty bad weedwacker damage and has started to wilt a bit. I drug it back into icu and did an emergency ground layer.

The way I do this is cut a pot up the side and remove the bottom. I slip it around the base and set it on the surface then tie with good ol baler twine about half way up the pot. Fill the pot with potting mix and slide the twine up to allow the pot to expand as you fill. When it's the size you want put an inch or so of soil around the base to hold the pot in place.

The moon is on the rise so the next two weeks will tell the tale for these trees, I'll get back to you after the full moon.

Sango Kaku have nice small leaves too. I haven't put one in a container myself but I'm sure they would reduce even further. Congrats

 

[RKatzin]

One for JudyB?

There is one of these girls that makes me think of the clump Judy did and it keeps telling me it wants to be Judys tree. I would be happy to regift the tree if the interest is there. (I would not dream of making you pay shipping on a gift!) The tree has one main trunk with two twin branches emerging from the base= clump, yes?

I'll have to get a clear pic of it, but let me just tell you about it to see if it's something worth your time.

As I say these look like Coralbark seedlings, several years old now. Some of them have this peculiar trait, that I really like, but I'm not certain how it will work into bonsai. The leaf stem tends to twist a bit and invert the leaf, some anyway. Those that 'flip' get this purplish tint to them contrasting the lighter shade of the upright leaves. The little twist gives a much fuller, kind of fluffy look to the foliage.

Does this sound desirable in the long run for bonsai training? Has anyone seen and worked with maples having this distinction? Sincerly, Rick

 

[RKatzin]

Well, it's been almost a month and most of the trees are still with me. Most of the smaller trees were not able to get past the weedwacker damage on their tiny trunks. I did what I could, but they all expired, except for the little clump I offered to JudyB (yes that was an offer). It had no whacker damage and is growing nicely again as are all the larger trees, whos trunks were big enough to absorb the damages.

So I have now eight new lovely maples, oh boy, just what I needed. LOL I am inching them out into the sun a little at a time. Still not certain about the variety so let's call them Acer p., but they look very coral barky. Rick

 

[JudyB]

Wow, not sure how I missed that when you posted it! Glad I caught it this time. Thank you for the kind offer, I'm happy to hear that you wound up with 8 new trees out of the batch. They sound lovely, you'll have to take some photos.
Right now, I have my hands full, and the weather is getting hot hot hot. If you still want to part with it come fall, then let me know. I would of course pick up shipping... but really, you might just fall in love with it, and need to keep it, I'd be happy to know there is something on your bench that makes you think of me...

 

[RKatzin]

Here's a few pics of the little clump, I didn't want to show it til I was sure it was going to pull through the transplant. Somehow the weed wacker missed this one all together. These pics were taken right after I repotted the trees and it never lost a leaf. I'll get some fresh ones tomorrow of this and the other live ones.

The tree is happy and safe and I have no problem keeping it until dormancy, my pleasure in fact. The trees seem to really like the 50/50 potting soil and perlite, but I wish I had the yard of pumice when I pulled these trees, mostly because of the floatiness of the perlite the bigger girls had a bit of trouble staying upright until they started rooting in. Now they are standing tall and firm and we've been getting some real gusters blowing through here. Batten down the hatches!

 

[JudyB]

Sweet lil tree, very pretty coloring on the leaves. I would look at air layering this right below/at the junction, to turn it into a true clump. You would probably want to wait a year, let it build strength first.
Windy and rainy here, but better than dry like out SW... Are you in a drought area? I feel for anyone who has been in that horrible drought for so long.

 

[RKatzin]

Being that the tree was yerked out of the ground in full leaf I would let it go for this year and begin work next spring. If I would have had the time I would have air layered all the trees that had bark damage before digging them out. Everything I didn't take that day is gone, there were several others, but my Explorer was full with a dozen already!

I am not in a drought area, that is on the other side of the mountains in the Klamath Lake area. We get a good amount of rain in the winter, 50-75", but in the summer it is bone dry here from the end of May until Sept/Oct when the rains start again. Think about that and the fact that there are more conifers here than anything else. Our state tree is the Doug. Fir. Second in the running is Maples, Vine and Bigleaf. The Vine is a relative of Acer Palmatum and the Japanese Maples are very much at home here.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Perlite is an excellent potting medium, I use it a lot with all but "finished" trees. It does tend to float when watering, but a top layer of moss or granite grit, or lava rock will take care of that. Nice cheap media for sticks in pots.

Nice haul of maples. Have fun.