Wavy's Big Japanese Maple Project

[WavyGaby]

I won this Japanese Maple at our club auction in September 2023. It came from an air layer from a yard tree. The price was too good to pass especially for all the education I will get / have gotten by building this tree.

It was extremely leggy with multiple branches crowding each other and creating inverse taper in several locations. I trimmed off a lot of branches by cutting back to pairs, and removing obvious problems. I left a bit of length on a few branches that I knew I could use for grafts.



The top was a complete mess. Now I could see the tree though.


After leaf drop, early December 2023




Our club was lucky enough to have Mauro S stop by for a demo and tree evaluation. I brought this one and he suggested a couple more chops, thread grafts, and this as the front.


March 2024
This giant branch in the left is coming off


Some sort of epoxy was used to heal a previous scar.


Top swelling branch removed

Overall pic. I'm not sure if I removed enough of the old branch transition to the first branch.




Grafts coming next!

 

[WavyGaby]

I bought a long drill bit and a friend came over for some thread grafts. I added two branches on the left side. The first low, left one is a back branch. I added a branch to the upper right portion, too.

The graft holes were drilled, the branches were threaded through, the lower portion of each branch was scraped to the cambium and pressed down with tooth picks. We sealed each hole with cut paste. Fingers crossed that these take!
Not sure what to do with the apex but I think I will see it after it grows into summer and I see what is healthy.

 

[bwaynef]

Much improved! I love seeing this type material being improved drastically.

 

[WavyGaby]

Much improved! I love seeing this type material being improved drastically.

Thank you!
I took it out of that giant container and into a mica pot. The roots were very nice and radial below some of the higher, thicker roots. I trimmed off the higher roots except for one area that I wasn't confident about taking yet.

 

[WavyGaby]

The three thread grafts didn't take. I think my friend and I wedged them too tightly with toothpicks and it likely damaged the cambium. I'll try again next year.

 

[19Mateo83]

Even though the thread grafts didn’t take it is still coming along nicely.

 

[WavyGaby]

Even though the thread grafts didn’t take it is still coming along nicely.

Thanks buddy! It's a rewarding project