The start of my Acer Ginnala.

Hartinez

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Sup nuts?!?! Here is an Amur Maple (acer ginnala) that I picked up from a local nursery on clearance this last fall. Ive had a few Japanese maple, but have had no luck with my very hot dry environment here in Albuquerque. A few of my fellow club buds have an Acer Ginnala and they are healthy and look great. Needless to say, when I found this guy for $25 I had to try. It wintered over just fine and begin to break bud about 4 weeks ago. In the last 2 weeks I drastically pruned both the trunk line and the roots. In searching for the nebari, to my delight, I found a wonderful flare of relatively radiating roots. I raked and washed the roots as much as possible careful to leave quite a bit of feeder roots considering the amount I had cut away already. I potted it up in an extra oversized clay container I had in a 50% pumice, 25% lava, 15% sifted compost and 10% bark chips. Then I waited. To be honest I didn't entirely expect success considering my history with Japanese maple. To my excitement though, buds popped everywhere. I went through and toothbrushes and cut away tangled surface roots today, further exposing what I feel is going to be a stellar nebari with still of years of work to be done. The buds are all in very advantageous positions though they are all growing upward. Once the branches harden off enough, I'm going to wire them down and then leave it to grow!

At this point I only have before and after shots with no process photos. Ive decided however, to start documenting the process here as Ive seen several other masterpiece members with great Ginnala. I believe Mach is one who has an excellent Ginnala. Ive read people have had issues with dieback so I will keep my work slow and steady (though I did a lot of work initially). Any thoughts? let me have it!!IMG_1533.JPGIMG_2588.JPGIMG_6770.JPGIMG_2154.JPG
 

Hartinez

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Wow!
You didn't know what was under that soil line???
Lucky duck!
Very interesting trunk, I like it!
My thoughts exactly! The roots were so dam tight that I couldnt peel them away at the nursery. I should really be able cultivate a great radius long term.
 

cbroad

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Awesome movement! I'm jealous! I have three I'm working on but mine are small and nowhere near as cool as yours.

I knew they could take the cold, but that's great they'll take your heat out there! Keep us posted!
 

Hartinez

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Awesome movement! I'm jealous! I have three I'm working on but mine are small and nowhere near as cool as yours.

I knew they could take the cold, but that's great they'll take your heat out there! Keep us posted!
Every tree I have, even the local junipers getter filtered sun mid summer here. And as Dad as I’ve seen and can tell this ginnala should thrive. I’ll post another pic midsummer though to see if I’m gettin any leaf scorch.
 

Hartinez

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Holy smokes. Spelling errors and auto correct issues all over the last post. ?
 

Hartinez

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@MACH5 Hi there! Ive gone through this thread of yours ( https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/acer-ginnala-styled.18951/page-11 ) multiple times in regards to your Acer Ginnala and wondered if you'd give me a few hints/tips of advice. I love the tree you've made and you obviously have a knack for the species.

This tree has pushed even more, quite advantageous buds since the last pic was taken. My plan for the rest of this year is to allow the branches I envision long term, to extend and thicken up. I'll then prune heavy come fall. Id like to wire the branches in a more desirable direction. My question to you is, since I've root pruned HEAVY, and cut back signifiant growth this year, is defoliating and wiring the branches down a bad idea? Id love to get the branches pulled down significantly but don't want to rush it. My concern is, if I wait till next year to defoliate and bring the branching down they may be too thick to place them convincingly. Ive never worked with Ginnala but I really like what this tree could be someday. Any advice would be great.
 

MACH5

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@MACH5 Hi there! Ive gone through this thread of yours ( https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/acer-ginnala-styled.18951/page-11 ) multiple times in regards to your Acer Ginnala and wondered if you'd give me a few hints/tips of advice. I love the tree you've made and you obviously have a knack for the species.

This tree has pushed even more, quite advantageous buds since the last pic was taken. My plan for the rest of this year is to allow the branches I envision long term, to extend and thicken up. I'll then prune heavy come fall. Id like to wire the branches in a more desirable direction. My question to you is, since I've root pruned HEAVY, and cut back signifiant growth this year, is defoliating and wiring the branches down a bad idea? Id love to get the branches pulled down significantly but don't want to rush it. My concern is, if I wait till next year to defoliate and bring the branching down they may be too thick to place them convincingly. Ive never worked with Ginnala but I really like what this tree could be someday. Any advice would be great.


You can/should wire branches into place with no problem this year. However, I would not defoliate. In any case, it is too early in the process to do so. Set and develop your main branches first, then think about your ramification.
 

Hyn Patty

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Man, I really, really like this tree too! I'm jumping on board this band wagon to say nice find! One of my Japanese maples has a similar look to the base and I really need to repot it and work on root training. I want some nice wiggly nebari on that sucker and I don't mind at all to pin those roots into place to achieve it. Mine also has a nice bend right there like yours but maybe not as pronounced. I'm going to see what I can do to make it more obvious but until I depot it I can't really know what I have to work with yet. This moving stuff is killing me, having to wait on so many things. Next year will be better!

Keep us updated on this one. It shows promise to become a really nice tree, I think.
 

Hartinez

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It gets hot here in ABQ. But its been unseasonably hot of late for may. Mid 90’s everyday. Any j maple ive attempted has wilted and failed at this point, even the 2 in my landscape right now. ?. This Ginnala just keeps pushing and showing no sign of stress, that I can see at least.
 

Hartinez

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@MACH5 what is your opinion on the development of a Ginnala in its first season after a hard chop?I’ve wired my branches down and this one continues to grow vigorously. Do you suggest allowing the growth to continue through the end of the season without cutting back in order to thicken primary branches as much as possible? Or does cutting back now make sense to start the process of ramification? My initial thought is to leave it till the end of the season and cut back in the fall in order for the tree to maintain its vigor through the first season. Or do you think I’m being too cautious and am missing out on a precious oppurtunity to start detail development? Thanks once again.
DH
 

Hartinez

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UPDATE:

Tree is growing very well. After months of solid growth the leaves started showing signs of iron deficiency, so I treated heavy with a chelated iron. It quickly rebounded and I made the decision to cut those first shoots back to the first two set of leaves on each branch to begin deceloping ramification. I didn’t expect to do this in the first year, but the tree has responded very well to everything done to it so far. After the cut back and a new fertilizer regimen the tree has pushed lots of new growth from the cut points exactly as expected. At this point I’ll let the new growth push through the rest of the year then wire once the leaves drop!
 

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raydomz

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Looks like it's developing nicely!
My 2 cents on choosing to cut vs. leaving for elongation: In my climate, we do not get a tremendously long growing season and because of that, I choose to let my amurs in development fully extend throughout the season. I typically go through 1-2 wirings on the same shoots in that time as well. These are primary branches FYI. What I have come to learn about amur is that they do not gain much diameter by way of ramification, but seem to do much better when left to elongate fully before cutting. Again, these are just primary branches I am talking about.

On the more developed amurs (re: primary branches + secondary + tertiary branches) I clip them like crazy throughout the year and they respond with almost endless pushes of growth, to the point that you need to be careful of fall/winter timing. But again, if I was doing this expecting the primary and secondary branches to get larger throughout the season, I would be dreaming.

One of the great things about amur's is that you can quickly build a convincing canopy. But be careful, it's a wolf in sheeps clothing. You'll be regretfully clipping off portions of your canopy that seem right from the outside for sake of adding convincing diameter and structure down the road. I think we have all seen the mallsai elms with a nice rounded and full canopy, which only upon closer inspection, is built like a bush.
 

MACH5

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@MACH5 what is your opinion on the development of a Ginnala in its first season after a hard chop?I’ve wired my branches down and this one continues to grow vigorously. Do you suggest allowing the growth to continue through the end of the season without cutting back in order to thicken primary branches as much as possible? Or does cutting back now make sense to start the process of ramification? My initial thought is to leave it till the end of the season and cut back in the fall in order for the tree to maintain its vigor through the first season. Or do you think I’m being too cautious and am missing out on a precious oppurtunity to start detail development? Thanks once again.
DH


Sorry just saw this. I'd leave tree as is with no cutting back as Raydomz suggested. Too early to start ramification. Let those primary branches thicken. I would also suggest when you wire branches to add movement front to back and up and down on all branches. As branches mature and thicken, that movement will become more subtle. So don't be afraid to add some wiggle!
 

Hartinez

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Sorry just saw this. I'd leave tree as is with no cutting back as Raydomz suggested. Too early to start ramification. Let those primary branches thicken. I would also suggest when you wire branches to add movement front to back and up and down on all branches. As branches mature and thicken, that movement will become more subtle. So don't be afraid to add some wiggle!
No apology needed. Thanks for the response. Unfortunately though, I've cut back the original growth already. The second flush has already began pushing pretty hard. Fortunately the growing seasons here are pretty dam long as I plan to leave this flush through fall. Lesson learned on cutting too soon, but on the positive side its good to know that a repotted and root worked amur can take a heavy second trim on the first year. Looking forward to getting a good look at what I've got at leaf fall. Thanks again.
 

Hartinez

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Looks like it's developing nicely!
My 2 cents on choosing to cut vs. leaving for elongation: In my climate, we do not get a tremendously long growing season and because of that, I choose to let my amurs in development fully extend throughout the season. I typically go through 1-2 wirings on the same shoots in that time as well. These are primary branches FYI. What I have come to learn about amur is that they do not gain much diameter by way of ramification, but seem to do much better when left to elongate fully before cutting. Again, these are just primary branches I am talking about.

On the more developed amurs (re: primary branches + secondary + tertiary branches) I clip them like crazy throughout the year and they respond with almost endless pushes of growth, to the point that you need to be careful of fall/winter timing. But again, if I was doing this expecting the primary and secondary branches to get larger throughout the season, I would be dreaming.

One of the great things about amur's is that you can quickly build a convincing canopy. But be careful, it's a wolf in sheeps clothing. You'll be regretfully clipping off portions of your canopy that seem right from the outside for sake of adding convincing diameter and structure down the road. I think we have all seen the mallsai elms with a nice rounded and full canopy, which only upon closer inspection, is built like a bush.
Yeah in hindsight I should have left the first growth, but fortunately our growing seasons are extraordinary long. The tree is certainly healthy and vigorous at the very least.
 

raydomz

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I think what you'll see is that you can get away with doing things a little differently than we can further north. :) Keep at it! I am excited to see this one progress.
 
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