Proseph
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 12:41 pm

Japanese Maple (Acer Palmatum)

I picked this up today at a local nursery. It is 36 inches tall from the top of the soil. The width of the maple is only 1 inch.

Obviously this tree has many years ahead of it before I will place it into a bonsai pot, however what can I do now to best thicken the trunk and prepare the tree for bonsai? I am assuming that this process will take at least 5 years.

I have some spare 8 inch tall by 6 inch width basic plastic pots, would it be beneficial for trunk growth to re pot (without cutting the root ball back) in modern bonsai substrate or should I get an even larger pot and simply plant the tree in some sort of soil mix rather than bonsai substrate?

Secondly, if it is possible I would like to double my chances with this tree by air layering at about 13 inches up from the base. There is a perfect spot about 12 inches from the base where I believe (hopefully I'm using the correct terminology) I could cut the tree and provide a new lead branch to take over as the top.

Any recommendations, tips or information is appreciated!

Full shot
Image

Base of the tree
Image

Mid section of tree about 1/3 of the way up from the base where I would like to cut the trunk and air layer. I used RED to indicated where and sort of how I would make my cut to start a new lead branch. I then used the GREEN to indicate the new lead branch and its chutes. Finally I used BLUE to highlight the area of the tree where I would air layer. Image

tomc
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2661
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 am
Location: SE-OH USA Zone 6-A

If it was my tree, and I was going to airlayer it, I would go up one more branch.

Because you are girdling your tree to create an airlayer, Give your self (and your tree) a good chance to survive it. More importantly to you for both halfs to have a good set of terminal leaves both above and below the wound.

If the airlayer takes, you can always later (like next year) cut as short as you wish.

I would only slip pot (as in pot into a larger vessel) this year under the One insult rule*.

*One insult rule; older smarter bonsai guys than me started limiting how hard they remodeled trees. To only one major cut per tree per year...



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