Sean’s Japanese Maples

[SeanS]

Thread to document some of my Japanese maple projects.

is an air layer off one of my bigger JMs that I separated last November. It’s a tall slender twin trunk. It was little more than 2 long twigs last August. Now it’s at least thickened up to be 2 small sticks in a pot



When I separated the layer November 2020



I did the initial styling in our fall in June. Today I repotted.

Start of the repot




Nice little nebari is starting to form. Any heavy, crossing or misdirected roots were cut off. Bottom of the football was cut flat under the trunk.





Settled in and watered. This season I’ll start the primaries and next section of each trunk. I plan for this tree to be remain somewhat slender and have elegant upward reaching branches. I imagine it’s a tree right at the edge of a forest so it’s found a spot where it can reach up and out towards the sunlight from under some large hinokis or cryptomeria.



Some trees for inspiration (props to @kokufu_maples on IG)

 

[SeanS]

I started a dedicated thread for this little clump a few months ago but I’ll move it’s documentation here to make it easier to find. Maybe once some of my projects are move developed I’ll give them separate threads again.

Here’s a copy last of the original clump post:

Here’s the progression of a shohin clump I have on the go. I air layered a cluster of 5 branches from a nursery tree during the 2020/21 growing season.

Here’s the section I layered

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Here’s the tree separated and growing nicely

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Yesterday I did the initial cut back and wiring. I’ll repot into a bonsai pot in spring as I don’t need massive growth. I’ve left the middle trunk uncut as I want it to thicken slightly. I’ll keep the 2 shoots on the main trunk that will form the apex and top branch short to hopefully avoid too much swelling while I let the the sacrifice grow during the season to thicken the trunk.

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[SeanS]

Time to repot the clump:



All done. I threw some wire onto the small left trunk in the back of composition and gave it some slight movement further towards the rear to add some more depth. This season I’ll let the central trunk thicken while starting work on the primary branches. I’m also hoping the 2 branches cut back on the central trunk will extend so I can build the next section of the trunk while the sacrifice thickens it.

 

[SeanS]

Final repot for the day. This was a long and exhausting one

Once again an air layer off a larger tree. I tarted this one in November 2020 and separated in January of this year. It went onto a plastic disk when I separated the layer and into a “bonsai soil” from a local garden nursery. I mention this because I was cursing using this soil yesterday while repotting. The soil was an organic and crushed stone mix. IT WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GET OUT OF THE ROOT BALL! It took me 2 hours to get everything out and get the tree potted up into a proper soil.

My second mistake when potting the layer up in January was that I planted it at an angle by mistake. This caused one side of the roots above the plastic disk to be covered with more soil than the other side. The resulting root growth was roughly 3x thicker on the one side and took me ages to comb out and reorganise.

Then original layer and when separated





Yesterday’s repot and initial chop




There are some buds that have popped in the last few weeks of winter at the highest node left on both trunks. I’m hoping something will pop on the next node down on the right hand trunk, but left the guaranteed buds on the higher node for now.



I need to remove the strange branch coming off the back of the main trunk. It’s caused some swelling and the start of inverse taper. Cutting it off in 1 go would leave a massive wound to heal, so I’m trying the Ebihara wedge cut technique to try speed up the healing. The wound was sealed after the photo was taken.



The start of the 2 hour battle with the roots!

 

[SeanS]

RootBattle2021 continued






Virt of a possible design. You can see where I’m hoping some buds will pop one node further down on the main trunk. If not I can always thread graft a new trunk leader exactly where I want it.




Big Ol’ bucket of roots!

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Hi Sean,
Great progress with all of your Japanese maples. Your air layers are fantastic !!
Can you briefly explain pot size, media used etc for your air layering and any hormone.
Charles

 

[QuantumSparky]

That looks amazing! Like mentioned, could you shine some light on your air layering methods? It looks like you layered it right into a pot, that's pretty neat

- also Charles

 

[Snorlax99]

Datum that's looking great! As a fellow Saffer who keeps killing maples I'm rather jealous of your success!

 

[LanceMac10]

Nice starts.

 

[Colorado]

Building great foundations on these!

 

[badatusernames]

Great work, and thanks for the link to the kokofu Instagram, hadn't seen that yet!

 

[SeanS]

Hi Sean,
Great progress with all of your Japanese maples. Your air layers are fantastic !!
Can you briefly explain pot size, media used etc for your air layering and any hormone.
Charles

That looks amazing! Like mentioned, could you shine some light on your air layering methods? It looks like you layered it right into a pot, that's pretty neat

- also Charles

Sure. Nothing revolutionary. I found using pots when possible to be much easier to water and get good air flow into. I used 50:50 sphagnumerlite. I tried 1 or 2 layers with pure sphagnum but found the perlite:sphagnum mix was much easier to comb out of the roots when it came time to separate. I also watered them a lot, twice a way until it ran out the bottom of the pots.
None of my layers took more than 9 weeks.
I’ll be doing 2 layers this season and I want to try butting a wire tourniquet right up against the top cut to create more root flair as per one of @SantaFeBonsai threads.

I’ve had zero layer failures so far, I’m 10 for 10

 

[SeanS]

Sure. Nothing revolutionary. I found using pots when possible to be much easier to water and get good air flow into. I used 50:50 sphagnumerlite. I tried 1 or 2 layers with pure sphagnum but found the perlite:sphagnum mix was much easier to comb out of the roots when it came time to separate. I also watered them a lot, twice a way until it ran out the bottom of the pots.
None of my layers took more than 9 weeks.
I’ll be doing 2 layers this season and I want to try butting a wire tourniquet right up against the top cut to create more root flair as per one of @SantaFeBonsai threads.

I’ve had zero layer failures so far, I’m 10 for 10

Forgot to mention I use powdered rooting hormone but have used it for all my layers so can’t say whether it works or doesn’t. I’ve always used it and have always had success so take that as you may

 

[SeanS]

Here’s another funky little maple I layered last season off the top of another bonsai. I repotted it 3 weeks ago. Buds are slowly opening and one has already extended. I think I may have lost the upper right branch as the buds dried up and fell off over winter. The long branch off the back is a sacrifice. Not sure if I’ll use that overly long lower left branch, could make an interesting little tree with it but I’m unsure if cutting it off and starting it over might be better in the long run?

 

[BobbyLane]

Thread to document some of my Japanese maple projects.

is an air layer off one of my bigger JMs that I separated last November. It’s a tall slender twin trunk. It was little more than 2 long twigs last August. Now it’s at least thickened up to be 2 small sticks in a pot

View attachment 393150

When I separated the layer November 2020

View attachment 392959

I did the initial styling in our fall in June. Today I repotted.

Start of the repot

View attachment 392960
View attachment 392961

Nice little nebari is starting to form. Any heavy, crossing or misdirected roots were cut off. Bottom of the football was cut flat under the trunk.

View attachment 392962
View attachment 392963
View attachment 392964

Settled in and watered. This season I’ll start the primaries and next section of each trunk. I plan for this tree to be remain somewhat slender and have elegant upward reaching branches. I imagine it’s a tree right at the edge of a forest so it’s found a spot where it can reach up and out towards the sunlight from under some large hinokis or cryptomeria.

View attachment 392965

Some trees for inspiration (props to @kokufu_maples on IG)

View attachment 393151
View attachment 393153

nice work Sean these are coming on nicely, even got me wanting to go hunting for garden centre maples again

 

[SeanS]

nice work Sean these are coming on nicely, even got me wanting to go hunting for garden centre maples again

Thanks @BobbyLane, great to hear positive feedback from members like yourself who have such great trees. Hoping to have some respectable bonsai myself as the years go by, setting myself up now to really shine in the future

 

[SeanS]

Some more of my projects.

Here are some cuttings I took last season, growing nicely this spring





This cutting snapped when I tried to wire it while repotting it 3 weeks ago. Luckily there was a node with dormant buds right above the roots. The buds have started to move in the last week. I'll let this one grow for the season then cut the shoots right back down at the base and repeat. Jonas documented how a grower in Japan builds chunky little shohin in this manner (https://bonsaitonight.com/2020/03/03/onumas-mini-bonsai-growing-techniques/)



Future exposed root



Here are my seedlings




Some more cuttings



ROR JM projects

 

[SeanS]

My largest JM. I started a thread for it recently. Need to clean up the chop this week before it starts growing. It's one of my last JMs to wake up.



This is a layer off the top of the maple above, and the tall slender twin trunk documented earlier is a layer off the top of this one I took both layers off the top of the big maple above last season. Hoping the big wound on this one will heal over eventually. It's screwed to a plastic disk and will be repotted tomorrow once more soil arrives. Future shohin.

 

[SeanS]

Last 2 JM reports done! I’m getting tired of repotting. I’ve gone through 30L of LECA, more arriving tomorrow to finish off my tridents and 4 JBP

First up a little shohin, started from air layer last season



Nice radial roots but a few too high



Cut them off!




Height reduced to the first set of branches and wired in



Bit of wire on the leader. I’ll only use the first section of the leader up to the first node which is right by the 2nd wrap of wire

 

[SeanS]

Next up on the bench is it he chunky potato I posted earlier



This one was screwed to a plastic disc when I separated the layer



A few roots sprouted way too high up right below one of the sacrifice branches



Soltuion: CUT THEM OFF!

I contemplated leaving them for a minute, but decided if I’m taking all this time and effort I might as well build these trees properly



Now I’m left with a bald spot so I scored the cambium and applied rooting hornone



Wired in



Ready for the season! I scored the cambium around the top wound and resealed. Hoping the sacrifices will thicken the base and help heal the wound



Future virt