minto
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by minto on May 3, 2006 10:07:17 GMT -5
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Post by stinkdog12 on May 3, 2006 16:40:36 GMT -5
Well fist of all....welcome to the club. Ask as many questions as you need to ask. That is the great part about a forum, its kinda like fishing, throw a question out there see if you get any bites! Sometimes you get a ton of great advise and other times your question may not match up with the knowledge bank of the readers.
Little background info.....I just purchased my first Japanese Maples the other day as well. My type of Japanese Maple is different from yours though. Yours seems to have a much longer and thinner leave than mine. Also yours is a much deeper red than mine. From what information I have gathered on Japanese Maples so far is that they like partially shaded areas, they like plenty of water but no excessive water staying in the pot, wiring can take place pretty much any time during the year but just watch out during the growing months, they can grow pretty fast.
Things to keep in mind.....red leaf maples (although I find them to be the better looking) are more susceptible to sun, wind and frost damage and are typically slower growers. You must introduce them to spring sun slowly or the leaves will burn. Once the leaves toughen they can with stand longer periods of sun light. The tricky part about the right balance of sun is that if you get too much sun you will burn them and if you do not have enough sun, your trees red leaves will turn green.
What to do.....well I don't know what size bonsai you are looking for but that looks to be a pretty good sized tree. I expect that you will be looking to scale that down a bit (although I don't know, you may be looking for a big bonsai) If you are going to scale the tree down I would probably recommend that you air layer a few branches before you cut them. That way you can get a few free trees off of your branches that you are going to cut off anyway. One of the Japanese Maples that I recently purchased had a very poor branch structure so I chose to turn it into a sacrifice tree. I have 4 branches that I am in the process of air layering and removing to make new trees. Obviously your probably going to repot the plant as well. I would throw caution to the wind about cutting the tree back hard and repotting at the same time. I would recommend choosing one of the other to go with first and then doing the other 3-4 weeks later. Although I have heard some people say that they do both at the same time but they will just do a light pruning and a light root prune....nothing too much when doing both.
Unfortunately I wish that I could speak from experience on Japanese Maples but unfortunately I only have about 12 days of experience with them so far. All of the information that I have provided you with is simply information that I have gathered in efforts to turn my trees into great pieces one day.
Maybe some of the other guys and gals in here may be able to share some experience with you.
Hope this helped.
Brock
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minto
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by minto on May 4, 2006 8:59:13 GMT -5
wow thanks a lot thats a big help!
id like to see how your japanese maples progress!
mine is an "acer palmatum atropurpureum" if that helps?
cheers for the info on the sun, its starting to get pretty hot here now, and ive had it sitting where it gets most of the days sun at the moment, might move it so it gets a bit less.
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graphyfotoz
Junior Member
Green Thumb Wannabe
Posts: 59
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Post by graphyfotoz on May 7, 2006 7:08:41 GMT -5
I also recently got a Jap Maple. Haven't decided if I'm gonna Bonsai it or plant it in the yard? The Deer love to munch off the leaves. So I haven't made up my mind yet!  |
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minto
New Member
Posts: 12
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Post by minto on May 7, 2006 9:09:04 GMT -5
maybe we should start a japanese maple club!  |
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