Maple Bonsai - A Seedling Journey

[sirstiv]

Hello All!

Allow me to start by mentioning that I have been on quite a mission to germinate my own maple bonsai.

Originally my goal was to grow a japanese chishio maple from a seed.

As being relatively new to bonsai (closing in on 2 years) I... just short of a year ago ordered some ebay seeds (chishio)... about 30-40.

During this time I had been trying to germinate them via cold stratification in the fridge.

I tried every combination... and even when winter came this year I tried naturally planting them outside. I was unsuccessful.

In my previous attempt on ebay seeds I was successful in germinating a Pyracantha in my other thread.

SO! The story goes as follows:
I recently visited a botanic garden with my fiancee about 90 days ago. I saw an incredibly tall and beautiful Japanese Maple with it's amazing autumn colours and small articulate leaves.

I picked 3 seeds only. Planted them after soaking them for 24hrs. They remained outside in tiny pots in a perfectly timed and natural winter.

Here is the result... I only needed one. Only one germinated. Satisfaction level? 10/10!

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I thought it may of been a coonara pygmy bonsai... any suggestion may be welcome. I may have to revisit to see if there is an answer to which type of maple.

-Stiv

[Boics]

Cool! Bingo!

Just watch your watering, the soil looks very dry.
As long as your soil is very free draining and open is hard to Overwater. From my experience I've had much more troubles with less than more water....

[reidy320]

nice work!!
its growing and that the main thing,
now to document its life, cut of its limbs, wrap it up in wire, trim its roots and fingers crossed it ends up a good tree, ha ha,
ive got a similar thing going on, I have a heap of trident seeds still on the branches that have been through a natural winter, so I'm just going to stick them in the soil and hope for the best.
good luck with your tree
Scott

[kcpoole]

A bit early in its life for a bonsai pot but hey! who cares I like the enthusiasm.
Actually I disagree with your sucess ratio! you only had 1 from 3 sprout so that is 33.33% ( unless of course you did not plant the other 2)!
One advantage is that the roots will all grow in a radial fashion in the shallow tray.

What you need now is the other 2 to sprout and leave them in a deeper grow pot to develop over a few years.

Ken

[sirstiv]

A bit early in its life for a bonsai pot but hey! who cares I like the enthusiasm.
Actually I disagree with your sucess ratio! you only had 1 from 3 sprout so that is 33.33% ( unless of course you did not plant the other 2)!
One advantage is that the roots will all grow in a radial fashion in the shallow tray.

What you need now is the other 2 to sprout and leave them in a deeper grow pot to develop over a few years.

Ken

In answer to the previous post:

With new seedlings I start off with a water bottle and initially am pouring a few cap-fulls of water in it's desired pot.
As it grows I increase the quantity. I don't want to over water the seedling - and also it's in my room under LED lighting so I don't want mess.

My success ratio is 33.33% with fresh seed only, I doubt the other 2 will germinate... they look dry... but we'll see.

My ebay success with maple was 0% ( 0/40) lol.

Also I planted in a big shallow pot because I don't want to have annoyances later on. Correct that I want the roots to grow out nice and low with it .

[sirstiv]

Hey all!

Been awhile since I've updated... So here we go . It's looking good!

Still under LED lighting... The tree is too lanky for strong winds.

Makes me wonder how they survive naturally ...

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[shibui]

Still under LED lighting... The tree is too lanky for strong winds.
Makes me wonder how they survive naturally ...

Maybe it is the lighting that has caused the problem? All the ones that germinate in my garden and pots are strong enough to survive wind, sun and rain. they only start to die off when it gets really hot and the ground dries out or when the Head Gardener uses the glyphosate.

You'll need to be careful if/when you move these outside - remember the pyracantha

[sirstiv]

The thing i'm seeing though is that the LED lighting is like a natural steroid... they grow at much faster rates... Plant structure is more predictable. It's also a good therapy imo (still to be determined )

Maybe since i'm a bit of a newbie.... I tend to care more lol.

All seedlings will blow like they're playing Twister in the wind though hehe.

My old property had an awfully over-exposed back yard. No shade. Just harsh sun. Only the grass can take it lol.

[Pearcy001]

The thing i'm seeing though is that the LED lighting is like a natural steroid... they grow at much faster rates...

But is it growing at a faster rate because the light is like a natural steroid as you say, or is it because it's trying to reach for more light to survive because the LED isn't strong enough? Seems like the light may be causing long internode because the tree is chasing more?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[sirstiv]

The thing i'm seeing though is that the LED lighting is like a natural steroid... they grow at much faster rates...

But is it growing at a faster rate because the light is like a natural steroid as you say, or is it because it's trying to reach for more light to survive because the LED isn't strong enough? Seems like the light may be causing long internode because the tree is chasing more?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

The lights are extremely bright. It's getting more than enough. The only thing that is missing is the general heat as LEDs operate at luke-warm temps.

I recommend LED therapy to plants that have suffered shock etc.

Regarding the long internode... That's just the maple nature... the leaves are bigger so the tree has to grow taller in between.

My pyracantha had the same upbringing and didn't suffer from this.

[sirstiv]

December update.

Looking beautiful in my opinion!

I also visited the 'tree of origin' ... the tree in which I took the seed from which became this plant .
(Camelia Gardens in NSW)

[sirstiv]

Merry Christmas to all the observers for this thread.

For the past week or so my Maple has been experiencing some odd behavior.

It's decided to droop.... and shrivel some leaves. I've been cutting them off.

I did notice a few white flies in the potting mix... They probably jumped ship from some other bonsai I did re-pot in.

I went down to Bunnings and got some Yates Nature's Way spray (the organic one) and sprayed it on all my bonsai.

I am unsure if the maple droop/shrivel was due to any bugs... but it has been pretty hot indoors in the past week or so in NSW.

It just looks abit sad. Should I be worried? Anything else I should try?

[shibui]

I suspect root problems - either the bugs in the potting mix eating roots or a fungal infection - check the base of the trunk to see if the bark is turning black which indicates a fungal infection that affects Japanese maples mostly.

Both of thos eissues are encouraged by lack of air movement and mix staying damp. These are just some of the problems many people encounter when trying to keep plants inside. You seem committed to your gro light but a great many of us have already found that trees do far better outside where they experience air movement and sunlight.

[sirstiv]

I suspect root problems - either the bugs in the potting mix eating roots or a fungal infection - check the base of the trunk to see if the bark is turning black which indicates a fungal infection that affects Japanese maples mostly.

Both of thos eissues are encouraged by lack of air movement and mix staying damp. These are just some of the problems many people encounter when trying to keep plants inside. You seem committed to your gro light but a great many of us have already found that trees do far better outside where they experience air movement and sunlight.

The base is still green/hints of brown (normal).

I really don't have many options (in terms of plant location). I lost a chinese elm the other week due to excessively hot winds on my balcony. One day i'll have a yard!

Is there anything else I can do to potentially help save this maple? Would be a shame to lose this one.

[Kevin]

Hello sirstiv,

Seasol will help to harden up your plant to a degree.
There has been some interesting threads and links on Seasol recently - worth reading.

Kevin