New Baby Maples Need to Layer

Johnathan

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Okay so I just picked up some maples, Arakawa, Sango Kaku, and Shin Deshojo. They are all in 1 gallon nursery pots.

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Im having some boxes built to grow these out roughly 15 inch squares, about 5 inches tall. These are all grafted, and I would like to get them onto their own roots ASAP. So they can be put into the boxes asap.

Any suggestions on the best method to get these separated by summer?
 

leatherback

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Well.. Starting them layers now owuld be the fastest way to get roots.

Personally I would let the trees grow a season; They feel thin for layering. I would be concerned about them snapping / rotting through before they have roots.
 

Shibui

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Agree that these look too thin to layer using ringbark. You could try tourniquet method which only affects the trees as they thicken. Takes longer but seems a bit safer for thin material.
 

Johnathan

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Anyone have a good idea of exactly how large of a container I should go with? I was thinking just slip potting these into a 5 gallon bucket or something with perlite, compost, and potting soil.

Something to let the roots just run crazy... although the understock is Japanese maple, maybe I can do something with those one day 🤷🏾‍♂️
 

Shibui

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Too big can sometimes cause problems if roots cannot grow into the new soil before it goes sour. Usual commercial upsize is one or 2 pot sizes. Your trees are fairly big and look vigorous so they should be able to manage a slightly larger container than normal.
You can also get good growth by leaving the pots on the ground and letting the roots escape into the soil below. Roots can be chopped outside the container each fall if you need to put trees in winter storage in your area.

I was going to advise proper root pruning at the earliest opportunity as nebari is very important for maple bonsai but then I realized the roots on these are not your priority.
 
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