Japanese Maple rebuild

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TimS
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Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

Time for me to fess up, and admit i made an enormous mistake about two years ago. I decided to take on a Japanese Maple that was in the process of being rebuilt. I saw 15 years into the future instead of 15 minutes, and went home with a tree that was suffering from terribly waterlogged soil that was causing leaf deformities whereby new leaves would turn brown shortly after extension, and the stubs of once beautiful branches only hinted at what i was going to have to regrow over the coming decades. I think pity was taken on me for taking on such a tree, and i was passed on photos of the tree all the way back to it as a seedling in a pot, along with the handwritten notes of the owner(s?) before me. I think these photos and notes more than anything have kept me passionate about caring for this tree and nursing it back to health over the coming decades; the weight of responsibility!

At the time i was forced to do an emergency re-pot in the middle of autumn into a wooden grow box, removing around 80-90% of the old soil, but did no root cutting whatsoever. What i found was lots of dark brown roots rather than healthy ones. In fact one solitary white root on the underside of what looked like wet clay was my only real source of hope at the time. Never the less I'd committed (lost my mind?) and now had to make what little best there was to make of the situation. FYI don't use a coir peat heavy mix, nothing good can come of it.

In my haste to get the old soil out i hadn't allowed for how impossibly heavy the grow box was with soil and tree that i couldn't lift it to move it around the garden, so i got it into the shade of a large garden tree and crossed my fingers that it would make it to winter. That it did, and i wasted no time getting it out of the grow box and into a relatively deep bonsai pot. Despite the new pot being smaller than the original extremely shallow square one it was in, the root system was so poorly that it didn't even trouble the edges of the pot. This was a blessing in disguise, as it meant i could just pop it straight into the pot and not have to cut any roots on a tree that really needed all the help it could get.

Well it leafed out in Spring of 2018 to my immense relief, but there were still issues with the leaves and it copped a diabolical aphid attack right at the start of spring. This time the shoots were at least extending 3-4 nodes before visible deformities occurred; so i sprayed the aphids, crossed
my fingers once more, moved it to a protected position, and started a rotation of plain water, drying back, and a 1/2 strength liquid feed as i didn't want to overwhelm a stressed tree. I didn't touch the growth until late spring/ early summer, when just a few shoots were removed to allow more light and air in to inner buds, and then it was left to carry on.

After a stressful and hot summer here in Melbourne where it was moved indoors on virtually every single day over 30 degrees, and put back outside again overnight, it made it to Autumn, put in a halfhearted display of colour and went dormant again. I tested for movement of the trunk in the pot and, to my immense relief, found it very firmly rooted in the pot. The root system was well on the way to recovery even if the foliage wasn't totally looking clear yet.

Now i head into year 2 with this tree and some really good, healthy shoots finally appearing. Some have been wired tonight to start the beginnings of new primary and secondary branch extensions, and some of it will be allowed to extend freely the whole season to start preparing shoots for thread-grafting the trunk and thick primary branches with new branches in some of the voids that exist this time next year. Hopefully the second year of largely unrestricted growth is enough to really get this tree back on an even keel health wise.

My lesson i took from this tree was; "don't fall in love with the idea of a tree". Just because i know this tree can be amazing in 15 years time, doesn't mean i need to take 15 years off my life stressing over its well-being every day of summer. Would i have been better off leaving this tree behind and taking home a healthy plant instead? 100% i would have been.

Having said that, this tree has become a reminder on my bench that others before me have dedicated themselves to it, and i owe my dedication to it just the same. My decision making regarding trees entering my collection needed the lesson of this tree; and now i have learned the lesson this tree was trying to teach, it will be stay in my very humble collection as long as i am physically able to care for it. Here's to the next decade of development, starting now where i should have started 2 years ago. With a healthy tree.

What it looked like when i got it
large maple18.jpg




Summer 2019
large maple19.jpg




Today
JM819.jpg
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MJL
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by MJL »

Hey Tim. I reckon you have the horticultural knowledge and a developing understanding of bonsai to make this tree something special over time.

On the upside, the trunk has nice movement and taper. The based of the tree looks reasonable too. So...the trunk and nebari seems to provide a reasonable foundation; perhaps you're being harsh on yourself for buying it. To be sure, I have made many, many worse decisions than this this. :whistle: I know that I am a low bar on bonsai knowledge but go easy on yourself. :)

As you note, adding a number of thread grafts will start to balance the tree in appropriate places. I reckon that you'll smile at your work in future and be satisfied that your have developed something worthwhile.

I look forward to watching progress here and learning some stuff from you along the way.

Cheers,

Mark
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

MJL wrote: August 26th, 2019, 9:31 pm Hey Tim. I reckon you have the horticultural knowledge and a developing understanding of bonsai to make this tree something special over time.

On the upside, the trunk has nice movement and taper. The based of the tree looks reasonable too. So...the trunk and nebari seems to provide a reasonable foundation; perhaps you're being harsh on yourself for buying it. To be sure, I have made many, many worse decisions than this this. :whistle: I know that I am a low bar on bonsai knowledge but go easy on yourself. :)

As you note, adding a number of thread grafts will start to balance the tree in appropriate places. I reckon that you'll smile at your work in future and be satisfied that your have developed something worthwhile.

I look forward to watching progress here and learning some stuff from you along the way.

Cheers,

Mark
Thanks for the encouragement Mark. It’s got some good points for sure, it will just be a very long road to bring them out to their potential.

The thread grafts are an absolute must, it needs a few more branches added into the void on the right side of the last photo, and a couple of extended branches with no buds closer to the trunk. Honestly I’ve never thread grafted before, so this will be exciting to learn on. I have a year to research the best techniques and how to get results.

For this year it is straight forward; just let the branches I will use extend, and manage pruning the ones that will form the primary and secondary branches. In winter i’ll inspect the roots after two full growing seasons and see how they look.
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by Matt S »

Cool story, thanks for sharing.

Every tree teaches us something, and I'm sure you have plenty of other trees to reward you while you wait for this one to improve. Plus it has a nice base so it's worth the effort.

Matt.
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

Thanks Matt, i can see where this tree will end up, and i have a hand full of photos that span the best part of this trees' 6 decades to reference as well for the rebuild process.

I found yesterday a bit of good fortune has already come my way with this tree. I have had some adventitious buds pop up on the trunk already, but none in particularly useful locations and i have removed most of them, until i noticed this one below. The red arrow indicates the location on the trunk, which is right in the area of where i was planning one of the thread grafts of the trunk. The yellow arrow is a branch i partially snapped while trying to manipulate it for future use; i put some of the putty used for cuts over it to realign the cambium, and while it did bleed some water it seems to still be doing well 3 days later, so i'm crossing my fingers it heals back up again.

For now I've oriented the tree to direct this bud at the most sunlight to courage it along as it would save me a lot of headache in grafting and losing at least a year of development getting a graft to join properly.
jm bud.jpg


Location of this bud on the trunk and broken branch.
JM819a.jpg
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

Well new spring foliage now being pushed out really well, this is such a great sight to see after the struggles of the past with this tree. I'm not pinching the shoots back as i want one more growing season of unrestricted growth just to build the strength of this tree back up again. FYI this is not the front view, just the quick photo on the way past view

In the past i'd have seen some of the foliage already discoloring or deforming, so this strong spring growth really is a greatly appreciated reward for all the efforts put in over the last 18 months to 2 years. All those days of moving it inside and out again through summer are becoming a distant memory.

Some ahpid spotted on the JM forest nearby and were dealt with quickly. It was not significant enough amount to be a concern at all yet though, i'll just keep checking each afternoon after work and dealing with what i find.

Also keeping a close eye on the wire as well, ready to remove it at a moment's notice!
lmspring19.jpg
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

Well this tree has just taken off, well beyond my expectations given how poor it has been, so i have pinched some of the more vigorous shoots to at least slow the extension of the branches, also cut some long inter-nodes back (literally 2 or 3 1 year old shoots only) and now i will let it grow again. A vague idea of where the future of the tree is headed is visible with all the foliage at the moment.

One of the branches near the apex is annoying me. It is old enough to have bark formation, but it has been let run wild so there are no buds nearer to the trunk. I would like to keep it due to it's age and the bark formation being in keeping with how mature the tree is. It has some interesting movement in it, so i will air layer it in a month or so, and hope that prompts some adventitious buds to shoot nearer the trunk. If not, a new branch has formed next to it over the least year or so anyway, so i can replace it without losing a branch in the area. Just i would prefer to use the older growth.

The bud that has formed on the trunk mentioned in the previous post is looking like breaking soon, so it is angled to face the sun as much as possible, it will be let run to gain energy and ensure it is strong by autumn.

Before
lm11919.jpg
After light prune
lm11919b.jpg
Branch in question
lmbranch.jpg
Red line is where airlayer will occur, Green arrow where i hope new buds to form.
lmbrancha.jpg
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

I moved this tree into a black plastic nursery tray that is all drainage at the bottom to make life a little easier for it this year. I'll have to be on my watering game but i think overall the extra drainage will help as i'm still not seeing the kind of root growth i would like to from this tree. I'll see how it handles it and perhaps move it back into a bonsai pot next year or give it 2 years in the tray if it needs it.

I've put a pelletised combination fertiliser and systemic insecticide for aphid into the tray that lasts around 2-3 months, so hopefully that will see off the usual aphid attack i get in early spring. I can always put a second round of it if they arrive after the first pellets have already broken down.

As mentioned above the tree came with a folder with the hand written notes of the person who grew it (no idea who) and a handful of photos of it dating back to 1963. In the notes it lists 1961 so i'm not sure if that means a seedling or a cutting in 1961 but either way i fished it out last night as i added my own notes from what i did this season to the file.

Nice to have this record and look back on it, and hopefully i'll be able to bring it back to looking a bit more like 1991/ 2003 eventually.
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by MJL »

60 years on and being rebuilt - isn’t it amazing, this hobby that we all practice! Consider that for a minute - 60 years old - the tree is older than me and now being rebuilt.

Forgetting the form - how cool
that a tree in a pot - that effectively requires watering every day - sometimes twice a day - it’s been watered by a human around 18,000 times.

And I guess in terms of really old bonsai - perhaps it’s still young.

Along with admiring Tim’s fortitude to rebuild - it makes me appreciate even more - those trees of a similar age that also have great form and structure and ramification.....

Amazing to consider.


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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

Amazing to consider what we are willing to do and sacrifice for these little or not so little trees isn't it! I hadn't actually considered how many times this had been watered by a human before to keep it going
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

This tree just goes from strength to strength and has even set seed this year which i will propagate if the birds don't get them first.

It seems to be very happy with the black plastic nursery tray as a home, and has been quite vigorous in growth to the point that i have been pinching the shoots where i was expecting to leave them again this year. I'm seeing what i would consider normal shoot extension for JM of 30cm plus, which obviously doesn't serve me much good for a final tree, so i've cut back the new extensions and pinched the second flush as it has appeared. I don't want to go too much wider without getting ramification so thats the plan from here on out. I've put some fertiliser bags on as you can see, i'm hoping to keep the feed up to it to keep it growing strongly this year, and i'll be on top of my game directing the energy into the areas i want it.

I think having so much drainage at the bottom combined with having it raised up on some 2-3 inch tall wood blocks to allow air movement underneath has aided it significantly. I'm thinking that it will actually stay in some version of a grow box from here on out for health, and if it does eventually become show-able i can put it into a pot for the show then back into a grow box.

I have set an air layer on the branch noted in one of the earlier posts above, so hopefully that works and i can have a new little tree to play with as well. I've set a few different JM layers this year including Arakawa, Shishigashira, Kiyohime and this one. As annoying as i have found them to be with susceptibility to pest and disease i just adore them.

The big gap on the left side low down i have left at this stage. I had a shoot growing there but elected to remove it as i could see if i let it swell to the same dimension as the right hand lowest branch it would actually end up looking like a bar branch. I have a shoot coming down off the first left hand branch about halfway up, so i am training it down a little for the moment, and if i get a back bud in a more conducive place on the trunk between the first right and first left branch then i may grow a branch out into that area. I'm also aware that it will look very odd having a quick grown branch the same thickness but without the 60 year old bark right after an original branch. This also puts me off the idea of quick growing an equally thick branch to fill that void.

Despite the photo being under shade cloth due to being able to have a plain background, this tree is in full sun all day and suffering no ill effects whatsoever.
jm2nov20.jpeg
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by juan73870 »

Looks super healthy! Well done! :tu:
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

Little update, I’m starting to see the leaf deformity again and the last bit of old soil near the trunk looks very wet and heavy.

I’m thinking to go through in spring and totally bare root it to finally get all the crappy old soil out. In my head I think it will handle it better now compared to when it appeared to be at death’s door so hopefully it all works out.
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by Ryceman3 »

TimS wrote: March 23rd, 2021, 11:27 am Little update, I’m starting to see the leaf deformity again and the last bit of old soil near the trunk looks very wet and heavy.

I’m thinking to go through in spring and totally bare root it to finally get all the crappy old soil out. In my head I think it will handle it better now compared to when it appeared to be at death’s door so hopefully it all works out.
Leaf deformity is slightly concerning, but just as worrying is the “wet and heavy” soil so assuming the strength of the tree is somewhere near your last pic I can’t see why a total bare root wouldn’t be possible. A myriad of problems start below the surface so if you can get that right you stand to be in a good position I think.
Good luck with it!
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Re: Japanese Maple rebuild

Post by TimS »

It's not terribly bad, just on one new shoot i've noticed, but i'm half tempted to do an autumn bare root without cutting anything just to get the very last bit of the crappy old soil out.

For now the tree is on a table out of the rain so it won't get any soggier than it already is.
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