AusBonsai

Just got my hands on 5 Japanese maples im going to stick them in the ground and grow them for afew years as they are only tiny thin sticks at the moment.

The question i have is should i sort out the roots first and plant them on some tiles now or wait till i dig them up in a year or 2 and do it then?

I have had trident maples in the past but lost interest and moved on. I have very little experience but im wanting to give it another go. Any advice would be very appreciated!

Aaron..

I think that you should take the first opportunity to get the roots right, rather than let them go wrong for 2 years and then have to cut back and start again. Start from the bottom and work your way up and all that...


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At this time of the year I wouldn't be too agressive in cutting the roots.
However arranging to remove crossed and a very minor trim of larger dominant roots will likely be fine.

If you re-pot them now you should spread the roots and plant on a tile. I note you are in Seymour and suggest you contact Shibui for advice.

RogerW wrote:If you re-pot them now you should spread the roots and plant on a tile. I note you are in Seymour and suggest you contact Shibui for advice.

Defiantly contact Neil but I would think atm minimal work as its still pretty hot here. Obviousally winter is best for major root work and Japanese maples in general are not as hardly as some other deciduous trees . Im also in NE vic and don't do most of my root work till july-august

Ok well that has given me a game plan anyway. Ill keep them in their pots till winter and sort them out then.

Cheers.

Yep, sorry, I wasn’t very clear and agree that mid-Summer is not he best time to report. My suggestion was just to address the roots at your first repotting, rather than leaving for a couple of years.

All good and good luck.


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I'll go along with Matthew. I know some people root prune maples in autumn but if your trees have not been done before it is likely they will need quite severe treatment to get the roots right so best to wait until the leaves fall then you can cut fearlessly. You probably would not gain any advantage by starting this late in the season anyway.
I have tried tiles but I don't believe the results are any better than proper root pruning and plant with no tile.

shibui wrote:I'll go along with Matthew. I know some people root prune maples in autumn but if your trees have not been done before it is likely they will need quite severe treatment to get the roots right so best to wait until the leaves fall then you can cut fearlessly. You probably would not gain any advantage by starting this late in the season anyway.
I have tried tiles but I don't believe the results are any better than proper root pruning and plant with no tile.

Nope my trees havent been touched yet. They're stock trees from a lady that grows maples as a hobbie. They are also not very big. Trunks are only about as thick as my thumb.

I might plant 3 on tiles and have the rest grow without tiles and see how they go!

What about the CD method? I’m trialling it with 4 apricots and I’ll check the auto one this winter but on a quick check looked good... and what about not working too much on the root but instead wait and do a ground layer later on?


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pureheart wrote:What about the CD method? I’m trialling it with 4 apricots and I’ll check the auto one this winter but on a quick check looked good... and what about not working too much on the root but instead wait and do a ground layer later on?


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All cards are still on the table at this point. Ive never done a ground layer before so it would be good to try it.

All the tree I planted with Cds just smashed the cds. Power of roots is quite amazing. I use plates made from sheet metal with holes drilled in to plant through. The roots have bent a couple but have not managed to break them yet - I plant 20-30 of these each year for the past 10 years.
If you can get lateral roots to dominate when the tree is young you will get strong basal taper. Layering after will give some basal swelling but nowhere near as much as starting from young.

Thanks Shibui hopefully my cd are still intact can’t wait to check!


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In my experience, regular root work early in the development process is the most reliable way to create great nebari.
Ground layer helps a lot when you have a fairly thick trunk already and want to fully replace the nebari.


CD and other similar methods creates mixed results though is great for mass production as you don't have time to regularly work on every plant.

E.g. I have a tray of trident maples that were deemed unfit for bonsai because they had bad root spread. The good ones went into pots and the ground while these ones stayed in the tray.
Over the 3 yrs, I root pruned the bad ones every year and I believe they have better radial root spread than those I thought were good 3 yrs ago. However, they remained much smaller. It is a slow process initially but yield better results in the long run.

I agree with all you have said Dennis.
I have also noted that trees that are developed slowly have much greater beauty in trunk and branches that fast grown trees. Less scars, less straight sections and more refined look, especially important with smaller sized bonsai. Real quality does take some more time and effort in bonsai like any other things.