Japanese Maple Established Group

[LLK]

Great posts!
Great material too.
Two things I'd like to add: maples are apically dominant, i.e. the strongest growth is at the end of trunk and branches. Unless this is continually controlled it is difficult to get a good taper and lower branch development. IMHO it would be worth your while to check the the upper 1/3 of your trees, especially the large ones. In your place I'd do some tidying up, with branch selection and pruning, i.e. more drastically than you have done until now.
The second thing is: those are some mighty trees you have in that group, with trunks that seem nearly as thick as the height of the pot. Actually, they dwarf the pot, partly because it is such a light colour, but mainly because there is insufficient open space around the group, especially at the sides. It's a really nice pot, but it might be more suitable for a daintier kind of group. This group requires a larger rectangle in a darker colour.

Lisa

[terryb]

they are just left to give me some cutting material this year

Hey TimS, not sure if you have covered your method and timing for JM cuttings in another thread but I’d be keen to hear more about your techniques.

[TimS]

Hi Tim,
I think your changes are an improvement for sure. I really like the rotation for all the reasons you mention. It immediately closes the gap; it is a more natural composition and it creates more interest. The tight clump on the left of the picture contrasts well with the looser set on the right. There seems to be a subtle path that leads off to the left back - my mind wants to explore that path. So, to my eye, there's more interest in this forest now and I look forward to watching it progress under your care.
Cheers,
Mark

Thank you for your kind words and your thoughts as always Mark. It is a very small change in the grand scheme of the planting, but i find the effect of it to be far greater than it seemed when other suggested it. I'm very grateful to you and those people for giving me those thoughts to ponder and play with.

It seems, to my uneducated eye, less 'planned' if that makes sense. Before it was, perhaps not contrived but maybe predictable. As Lisa mentioned after, a bigger pot would benefit it, give better space for more trees to be added in, and allow for further rotation as well. I've seen a pot for sale that might be the ticket, though it is white glazed not unglazed.

[TimS]

Great posts!
Great material too.
Two things I'd like to add: maples are apically dominant, i.e. the strongest growth is at the end of trunk and branches. Unless this is continually controlled it is difficult to get a good taper and lower branch development. IMHO it would be worth your while to check the the upper 1/3 of your trees, especially the large ones. In your place I'd do some tidying up, with branch selection and pruning, i.e. more drastically than you have done until now.
The second thing is: those are some mighty trees you have in that group, with trunks that seem nearly as thick as the height of the pot. Actually, they dwarf the pot, partly because it is such a light colour, but mainly because there is insufficient open space around the group, especially at the sides. It's a really nice pot, but it might be more suitable for a daintier kind of group. This group requires a larger rectangle in a darker colour.

Lisa

Hi Lisa, and thank you for your input on this group. I really enjoy hearing what people would advise, or think might be better because often it's things hadn't considered!

As regard branch pruning there is far too much still there you are right; it will go after i get cuttings this year to grow on more trees to add in down the track. I'm learning that pruning really is my friend, and will absolutely be doing more!

On the pot front, you are spot on, it needs a wider and thicker pot which i don't have in my pot collection (this is the largest pot i have) but have seen a potentially suitable pot. It is a white glazed oval with a thick side wall to it. I like the rectangular pot here, but i feel a bigger and thicker oval might be the right blend of anchoring the mass over the trees, while being a touch more feminine for the maples than a real squared off pot. I certainly want to add more trees in over the years, so the bigger pot is essential, i just hadn't been able to purchase it yet when i noticed the buds were already swelling and ready to break, so had to repot at short notice.

[TimS]

they are just left to give me some cutting material this year

Hey TimS, not sure if you have covered your method and timing for JM cuttings in another thread but I’d be keen to hear more about your techniques.

No real special method or techniques for me! just take a crap load of cuttings and hope for the best! I do softwood or semi-hardwood (1-2 seasons old) up to early summer once the leaf cuticle has hardened off, 2-3 nodes, remove one leaf in each pair and cut the remaining leafs in half. Rooting hormone gel and in a mini-greenhouse for humidity. I don't get huge success, but i do get reasonable results as long as don't put them in the corner and forget about them like i did last year

[terryb]

What medium do you use for your cuttings?

[TimS]

What medium do you use for your cuttings?

50/50 commonly available seed raising mix and perlite usually, though i'm thinking of adding more perlite as the seed raising mix holds a lot of moisture.

[Boics]

Looking better.
Don't be too afraid to chop back the roots.
I'm quite aggressive with my JMs and experience no I'll effects.
Ie I'd have no issue with chopping and pulling that whole mat to bits.
No worries though.

[LLK]

.... have seen a potentially suitable pot. It is a white glazed oval with a thick side wall to it. I like the rectangular pot here, but i feel a bigger and thicker oval might be the right blend of anchoring the mass over the trees, while being a touch more feminine for the maples than a real squared off pot. I certainly want to add more trees in over the years, so the bigger pot is essential,

Sounds good, but maybe just check that pure white isn't too harsh. My groups are all in oval pots - I couldn't imagine any other shape for them.
I am looking forward to future photos!

Lisa

[TimS]

.... have seen a potentially suitable pot. It is a white glazed oval with a thick side wall to it. I like the rectangular pot here, but i feel a bigger and thicker oval might be the right blend of anchoring the mass over the trees, while being a touch more feminine for the maples than a real squared off pot. I certainly want to add more trees in over the years, so the bigger pot is essential,

Sounds good, but maybe just check that pure white isn't too harsh. My groups are all in oval pots - I couldn't imagine any other shape for them.
I am looking forward to future photos!

Lisa

Good point! As I recall it's not a bright white glaze, but i'll go check it out properly on the weekend along with any other options I can find. I'm not sure it will actually be larger than this one, as the square is already a fairly substantial pot at L58cm x W40cm x H5cm. I know the sidewall was at least twice what the current one is. I tried to work out the chop on this pot just to know, but it's pretty warn sadly.

Anyway, i do love a good bonsai pot hunt, and I need some others anyway!

[TimS]

Looking better.
Don't be too afraid to chop back the roots.
I'm quite aggressive with my JMs and experience no I'll effects.
Ie I'd have no issue with chopping and pulling that whole mat to bits.
No worries though.

Thanks for the thoughts there, i'm happy enough to cut roots up on individual trees, but not really knowing what roots belong to what tree tempered my usual enthusiasm for a hard root prune.

Next time i repot I'll pay more attention to my timing so i'm not trying to hurriedly do it at the last minute before bud break, and not rushing a bit to get it done before going out for dinner .

[TimS]

November 2019 update. Went through yesterday and cleaned out a fair chunk of foliage. I really should have taken a before photo but basically it wasn't possible to see the trunks for how much foliage there was. For some reason i photographed the back of the group instead of the front, ah well.

Basically all i did was remove shoots from dormant buds that i didn't want, reduced shoots to two pairs of leaves, and removed one of each pair of leaves in the outer canopy to let light and air back inside again.There still appears to be a heap of foliage on the trees, which there is, but at least now it's concentrated largely into areas i actually want it to be.

I'm thinking that when i repot it i will push a lot of the trunks closer together than the are now. If feels a bit too sprawling as it is now in my opinion and might make more sense without such huge gaps between the trees, and with the foliage inside the boundary of the pot rather than overhanging it quite so much as it does now. I do have a larger tray than this, but it's a display pot rather than a grow pot so i'll keep working using this pot as the frame of reference.

After cleanout

Nov19.jpg

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Hey TimS,
Trees seem to be powering on & look really healthy so to you.
For this reason I would be tempted to loose a few more of those bigger leaves whilst growth is strong (or cut them in half)...but that of coarse is just

[TimS]

Hey TimS,
Trees seem to be powering on & look really healthy so to you.
For this reason I would be tempted to loose a few more of those bigger leaves whilst growth is strong (or cut them in half)...but that of coarse is just

Thanks for your comment KCAR. You make a good point, there are still many large leaves on the tree that need to be reduced. I'll end up cutting them in half i think rather than fully defoliate, but i'm a conservative person by nature and i really have taken quite a bit off the trees from where they were, so i want to let them recover for a few weeks before i continue work on them.

I have found when i have totally defoliated JM in the past it tends to regrow sporadically and i end up with uneven energy distribution, and often i still have large leaves. In some ways i probably overworked the trees in my haste to get back somewhere near a baseline to start building from, and in response they are throwing out a lot of new shoots to try to compensate for what i took off.

Ah well, it's all knowledge gained.

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Ah well, it's all knowledge gained.

and thankfully shared by good people like yourself!