Want to grow maple in container-- East Yorkshire, England

[duncan_mackenzie]

Hi, I am a very amateur gardener, with a small raised bed in my front yard. Everything else is grown in pots. My problem is that I want to transfer an Acer from my front garden to a pot and I understand that the ideal conditions for an Acer is a sandy loam soil. My question is: how do I create this soil from scratch?

[rainbowgardener]

Hi and welcome to our forum. Hope you find it friendly and helpful. There are lots of other UK gardeners hanging around here.

Since you put the question in about your maple tree, I took the liberty of moving your post. I started to put it in the tree forum, but decided the most important part of the question was that you want to grow it in a container and want to know about soil for the container. So that's where I put it (the administration doesn't like people putting the same question in different forums, gets confusing that way).

So hopefully lots of people will see your question now who know about those things...

[JONA878]

Hi Duncan
You don't say what species your Acer is.
Asssuming it's the Asiatic type then any good quality well drained soil will do the job. They are more lime tolerant but even so keep the soil a little acid if you can.
If your garden soil is poor then check your local garden centre for some top-soil....they usually stock bags.

Re-plant in the late Autumn/ winter when the tree is fully dormant and keep the soil moist and wrap the pot to protect from hard frosts at least until the tree has established well.
Remember too that they like their roots to be kept cool so keep your pot out of strong sunlight in summer. That said...they do like sun or partial shade so it's a bit of a compremise.
As you know...they detest strong windy sites.
Good luck.
Jona.

[Gnome]

Duncan,

I want to transfer an Acer from my front garden to a pot and I understand that the ideal conditions for an Acer is a sandy loam soil. My question is: how do I create this soil from scratch?

Two of the primary considerations of growing trees in containers are drainage and aeration. Although it may not be obvious at first, soil in pots does not behave the same as the Earth. I use no actual soil in any of my potted plants be they trees or houseplants.

Here are two short articles that should help you.

https://www.evergreengardenworks.com/earthpot.htm
https://www.evergreengardenworks.com/soils.htm

Norm