Acer P. Mame Broom?

[Grant Hamby]

A local landscape nursery gave me a couple JM volunteers for free last spring. One has really nice, small, rigid leaves, so it's been growing out since then. I wanted to play with the other so I immediately chopped it to the first shoots and cut the downward roots and put it in a training pot. Here it is afterward:



I left it alone for the most part until the following spring, when I repotted it into a smaller pot:



It grew fairly well this past growing season, keeping very small leaves!




Then... a freakin squirrel knocked it off the bench and broke the pot. Honestly, I was way more upset about the pot because I ordered it from Mirai. It was not cheap. I regret using it for this silly little tree. After I found it on the ground I immediately made a plastic grow pot out of a nursery container and some mesh. The roots were still wired to the bottom of the broken pot, so I just left it attached and slipped it into the plastic pot. I figured it would be like growing it on a tiny tile



My hopes & dreams for this tree are minimal. I just want a fun little tiny maple for my tiny Bokeno pot

Here is the tree today next to the tiny pot. I want to see what is possible for the nebari of the tree. In the spring I might try constructing an even smaller grow box and see how the Ebihara method works on this scale, haha.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Good start. Don't forget to update...

 

[Grant Hamby]

Good start. Don't forget to update...

Thanks, will do!

 

[aml1014]

Aren't mame fun? Cool little maple!

Aaron

 

[Giga]

Needs grown in the ground, cut back hard, grown, cutback hard, grown ,cutback hard. It's just a stick in a pot with no taper.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Needs grown in the ground, cut back hard, grown, cutback hard, grown ,cutback hard. It's just a stick in a pot with no taper.

I agree that's what it needs, but I don't really want to put this one in the ground. I just want to do little experiments on it, haha. I don't plan on this one ever being a masterpiece, I just wanted to document my experience with it.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Aren't mame fun? Cool little maple!

Aaron

So fun! And so portable! My friends own a coffee shop downtown, so I occasionally bring a tree in and display it on their bar. It's a lot easier with the small trees, and the girls think they're so "cute" haha.

 

[M. Frary]

the girls think they're so "cute" haha.

Get a puppy.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Get a puppy.

Trees don't pee on the carpet and scratch the furniture...

 

[M. Frary]

Trees don't pee on the carpet and scratch the furniture...

But puppies attract more girls.

 

[Grant Hamby]

But puppies attract more girls.

Haha that's probably true... but I recently attracted THE girl, so I need to keep the others at bay!

 

[M. Frary]

Haha that's probably true... but I recently attracted THE girl, so I need to keep the others at bay!

Good for you.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Good for you.

Thanks! Been married a year & a half. She thinks the trees are cute too. Haha.

 

[fredman]

You sure can grow it long term in a small pot. It wont fatten or taper much, but in time it will have tree like character. Not all bonsai needs to be broad based and tapered. I'm playing with the same idea on a few palmatums. Have fun and keep it updated plz...

 

[Grant Hamby]

You sure can grow it long term in a small pot. It wont fatten or taper much, but in time it will have tree like character. Not all bonsai needs to be broad based and tapered. I'm playing with the same idea on a few palmatums. Have fun and keep it updated plz...

Thanks! It was a freebie so it's not like I'm wasting anything, it'll be a fun experiment!

 

[ajm55555]

You sure can grow it long term in a small pot. It wont fatten or taper much, but in time it will have tree like character. Not all bonsai needs to be broad based and tapered. I'm playing with the same idea on a few palmatums. Have fun and keep it updated plz...

I agree. It's just another type of bonsai. After all bonsai means "planted in a container" ;-) and that's where it starts its long journey!

 

[aml1014]

Here's a shohin my teacher started from a cutting about 10 years ago. Studiously maintained inside of that pot it's entire life. It's about 6 inches tall and only has a couple wounds on the trunk from sacrifice branches. It seems to me that taper has developed and bark is beginning to form nicely. Almost ALL of her trees were trained over decades and have a more natural feel then many of the grotesque trees with heavy taper do.
Hope you don't mind me posting this pic
Aaron

 

[Grant Hamby]

Here's a show in my teacher started from a cutting about 10 years ago. Studiously maintained inside of that pot it's entire life. It's about 6 inches tall and only has a couple wounds on the trunk from sacrifice branches. It seems to me that taper has developed and bark is beginning to form nicely. Almost ALL of her trees were trained over decades and have a more natural feel then many of the grotesque trees with heavy taper do.
Hope you don't mind me posting this picView attachment 124638
Aaron

Not at all, thanks for sharing! Very inspiring. Besides, I've got other trees growing out the usual way. It's good to have a few different types of projects so you have real experience with different methods.

 

[Grant Hamby]

Quick update: This one seems to be doing well after the repot into the new container. The new leaves are way small. I wanted to start training the roots outward so I used a pot that was shallow and wide (but still tiny). This one is fun because I'm really trying to use the normal techniques but on an even smaller scale, just for kicks. I wanted to build a tiny "grow box" but this pot was just laying around so I went the easier route lol. My plan is to let it grow and cut it back throughout the season, and hopefully get some good root development, as they were pretty sparse.

 

[Vin]

The new leaves are way small.

Wait a minute, let me read that again.....

Okay, I think one of the objectives in bonsai is to have leaves in proportion to trunk size. Small leaves on a trunk that tiny is a good thing. Try to reduce them even more if you can.