Project Seiryu

Jetpack

Seedling
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Hey all,

So I bought this A.P. Seiryu at my local Lowes back in October. Needless to say, it was an impulse buy (First and last time I do that) due to it being on clearance for $10. Its been in its nursery pot since then and the weather is finally good enough to try something with it.

As I did more research into Maples and bonsai in general, I realized that this may not be the best stock to create a bonsai with. I also saw that the dissectum (lace leaf?) varieties are hard to grow/propagate/work with. Nevertheless, I came up with a few ideas and was hoping to get some advice on each idea, advice on going a completely different direction than my ideas, or just told I'm dumb for trying is cool too. Ha! :p

Here is the tree as it stands now:

WARNING: Terrible drawing skills ahead.

Option 1: Raft (I would support the upper pot/box with some shelving. YELLOW TEXT: Pebble/object to hold wound open?)
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Option 2: Cascade (the H shaped white thing under the drawn pot is supposed to represent the shelving I would put the tree on.:D)
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Option 3: Just trunk chop the f@$%in' thing and see what happens. :D

I'm really willing to try anything with this tree, seeing as it wouldn't be a big loss if I kill it. I'm completely open to other ideas.

Thanks for everyone's time!
 

GailC

Omono
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Agreed, it needs some time in the ground to get bigger.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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Plant it out. Let it grow for five years. Yeah, I know, sounds boring and like a cop-out. It's not. This could have some potential if the trunk so wispy. To make a decent bonsai with it at this point would require chopping it to an inch long stub of a trunk. THEN planting it out to develop branching...

For $10, if you do plant it and let it develop a decent trunk, you could wind up with a 1000 percent return on your investment.
 

Jetpack

Seedling
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I'd yard it for a while.

Sorce

Thanks sorce!

Agreed, it needs some time in the ground to get bigger.

Thanks Gail!

Plant it out. Let it grow for five years. Yeah, I know, sounds boring and like a cop-out. It's not. This could have some potential if the trunk so wispy. To make a decent bonsai with it at this point would require chopping it to an inch long stub of a trunk. THEN planting it out to develop branching...

For $10, if you do plant it and let it develop a decent trunk, you could wind up with a 1000 percent return on your investment.

You make a good point. I'm probably being too overzealous/impatient. Fortunately I just moved and now have a decent amount of yard space. I'll put it in the ground on Sunday!





Thanks again everyone!
 

aphid

Mame
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Seiryu grows very fast. Definitely plant this in the ground and you'll have 3" trunk in 5 years. Tie a piece of wire above the graft union and you'll get very nice radial roots, too.

I tie underneath on dwarf and dissectum. (Although, the cultivar in the picture is neither.. lol) Seiryu, you can tie above.
 

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ysrgrathe

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Can you explain this technique Aphid?
 

Grant Hamby

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I also got one from Lowe's when I first started bonsai! I planted it in the ground and tied a wire above the roots. I think I may have went below the graft though... It's only been a couple years but I've seen good growth. Still waiting for it to get a little bigger before I work on it. I loooove the fresh spring leaves on them!
 

aphid

Mame
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Can you explain this technique Aphid?

The concept is similar to air layering. As the tree grows, the wire will slowly cut into the cambium. Eventually nutrients can't travel down so roots will sprout above the wire all around. The wire should be a few inches in the soil though so the new roots don't dry out.

This was taken 5 years ago. I got a bunch of 1-year grafted Japanese maples from eBay. I put them all in pond baskets. On the ones with ugly grafts, I either wrapped wires above or underneath the grafts depending on the cultivars.
 

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aphid

Mame
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Here's one of them this spring when I repotted it for the 1st time. The cultivar is called Corallinum. I think I wrapped the wire right underneath the graft union because it's a dwarf, but you can't see union anymore. The old trunk was dead and still with the wire on underneath all these roots.
 

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aphid

Mame
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Jetpack, here's my Sieryu from 5 years ago and now. It's only 1.5" thick though because it was in the same pond basket the whole time. I wish I had more land so I can plant all of these in the ground. It would have been 3" thick by now if I did. Maybe even 4" for Sieryu. It's been my most vigorous one in the baskets.
 

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0soyoung

Imperial Masterpiece
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Jetpack, here's my Sieryu from 5 years ago and now. It's only 1.5" thick though because it was in the same pond basket the whole time. I wish I had more land so I can plant all of these in the ground. It would have been 3" thick by now if I did. Maybe even 4" for Sieryu. It's been my most vigorous one in the baskets.
I'd like to see these trees you grew in the ground to these thicknesses in such short times.
 

aphid

Mame
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I'd like to see these trees you grew in the ground to these thicknesses in such short times.
I don't have any pictures from 2012, but these were $40 trees from Lowe's. Similar to Jetpack's plant.

Here's a picture 2 years later in 2014. From left to right: Fireglow, Butterfly, and Bloodgood.
 

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aphid

Mame
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Here's the Fireglow. It didn't grow much the last 2 years. There wasn't much soil on the left side of that wall. It's mostly big boulders underneath. I just chopped it this spring and put it in a pot. Probably only 1.25"?
 

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aphid

Mame
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Here are Bloodgood and Butterfly. The silver tag is about 3.5" long I think.
 

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aphid

Mame
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I'd like to see these trees you grew in the ground to these thicknesses in such short times.
I also have a hedge maple that was supposed to be a compactum that I planted in 2012. I got it as a pencil thin whip that was a few feet long. It's now like 10 feet tall and about 3.5" thick. Obviously not so compactum. :confused:

I feel bad trunk chopping it so I may just airlayer it instead.
 

AndyJ

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Hi Jetpack.

How did you get in with your Seiryu over the last year? There were a lot of options that were offered as - it would be interesting to know which route you followed?

I've got a Seiryu that was bought as a present but it's sitting on a really horrible graft so am interested to know if they grow well on their own roots - if they do, I could get a layer on it.

Andy
 

KiwiPlantGuy

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Hi Jetpack.

How did you get in with your Seiryu over the last year? There were a lot of options that were offered as - it would be interesting to know which route you followed?

I've got a Seiryu that was bought as a present but it's sitting on a really horrible graft so am interested to know if they grow well on their own roots - if they do, I could get a layer on it.

Andy

Hi Andy,
Thread #6 describes how you can wire above the graft ( good on own roots ) for air/ground layer for Seiryu.
I have had success rooting this cultivar by semi hardwood cuttings with 1% IBA, if that helps also
Charles
 

AndyJ

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Thanks Charles,
Yes saw that comment at #6 but wasn't sure how many BNuts are growing them on their own roots with good success. I'll have a go at some s/h cuttings this year - thanks for the tip on that.
Andy
 
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