Acer Palmatum Koto No Ito (Japanese Maple Harp String)

[Jordon Bigelow]

Hello,
I am new to bonsai but have been reading quite a lot of information about it. I was wondering if anybody knows much about this species. What are the basic care guidelines for this tree? What kind of conditions should it be in? I live in an apartment with a small deck the faces the west. I get sunlight there (as of this current season) around 12:30 to about 4:30. Is this too much direct sun for a Japanese Maple? As you can see in the picture, it is a little barren. When I got it home, I did some maintenance pruning. I cut off a lot of dead twigs and did some basic pruning to help growth. I am hoping that this was ok to do this early in the season. It is May 30th as of this writing. I am awaiting my tools to be delivered. I purchased a nice set of tools from Tian Bonsai (I believe Chinese made but high quality with good reviews.) So I didn't do any major pruning, and I haven't looked at the roots yet.
One of my main questions is, how can I thicken this trunk without having to plant it in the ground? I live in an apartment so I can't really do that. Does this tree look healthy? I think it is a little scrappy looking but I am hoping to get some new growth closer in since I cleared up a lot of clutter in the branches. Also how big of a bonsai pot should I get? Or should I hold off on that until I am happy with my trunk size? The trunk size right now is around 2-2.5" in diameter. I know I will make mistakes, but I want to try and prevent the major ones from happening that would spell death for my tree. Any general tips for beginning would be appreciated. I have read about sacrificial branches. Do you essentially leave a branch un-pruned and untouched grow down low to thicken the trunk? Sorry I know it is a lot of questions. Any help is welcomed.

Thank you in advance.

 

[makarovnik]

I'm not sure if it's enough sun

Pruning is always good and I wouldn't worry about a bonsai pot yet.

You can repot it early spring next year into a bigger pot and just let it grow, you can let it grow this year. That will thicken the trunk. Yes you can also thicken the trunk with sacrificial branches.

I would chop it next year and pick a new lead, if no new growth I would chop at the first branch and it will become the This will create taper

I would also look into air layering you might be able to make 2 more from it. Look it up and find out when it is the best time.

I'm still new myself but best advice I can give is patience, and research, and then more patience. This is addicting soon your deck will be full of trees.

There are others here than can give better advice.

 

[Cypress187]

Do you have closeups of the trunk? Welcome to the forum!

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Welcome. This is not a typical cultivar for bonsai. Seems grafted, long internodes, no backbudding, strange leaves,... I would consider planting this one in the ground and starting with more suitable material. Have you found pictures of this cultivar as bonsai that you like?

 

[sorce]

I used to Fry less sensitive material on a west porch.
It was more a brick oven.
But even with little sun...
That'll get pretty toasty.

Pretty tree.

Enjoy it for now....
While you run out and get More trees!

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/apartment-bonsai.20159/

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[rockm]

Threadleaf Japanese Maples are not the best choice for bonsai. They are a very poor choice with areas that get a lot of sun. Their leaves tend to get damaged by intense, prolonged sun exposure and are better for open shade. With a Western exposure in Utah, I suspect the leaves on this will be crispy by the end of July.
They are also not as vigorous in responding to bonsai techniques and tend to be grafted (sometimes very badly). Grafts are bad for bonsai because the visual focus of a bonsai is its trunk. Uneven grafts get worse with age.

 

[Jordon Bigelow]

Welcome. This is not a typical cultivar for bonsai. Seems grafted, long internodes, no backbudding, strange leaves,... I would consider planting this one in the ground and starting with more suitable material. Have you found pictures of this cultivar as bonsai that you like?

My profile picture is one I found on the internet. The leaves are a little big, but this as the only one that looked (to me) tho have potential at the nursery. However, I am new and it looks like a lot of people are suggesting a different species.

 

[Jordon Bigelow]

Do you have closeups of the trunk? Welcome to the forum!

I will post some close ups when I get home from work today.

 

[chansen]

rockm is right, western exposure in SLC will fry the thing. There are things you can do to help mitigate the issue, like sphagnum moss on the soil (Orchid Dynasty on roughly 9th and 9th has the good stuff), a white tee shirt over the pot (will help reflect sun and keep the roots cooler) and if you can some kind of shade structure would help. Junipers or a ficus would be happier in that situation, and you'd bring the ficus inside for the winter (I have one I need to get rid of...).

It looks like the graft union is right below the tag. We can most likely work around the inherent issues like long internodes, large leaves, etc. But just remember that you can only do so much to fix those issues. Some tress are just genetically better for bonsai.

We have a pretty active club that meets on the 4th Wednesday of each month. Take a look at the club website for more info (www.bonsaiclubofutah.com).

 

[AlainK]

I have a Koto no Ito, but I won't try it as "bonsai".

For a bonsai, you need a structure, leaf pads, full spaces and empty spaces: this cultivar doesn't right for such a process. what's more, it's very fragile and can lose branches especially when the summer is hot and dry.

Personally, I keep it as an "érable de collection", one of my 31 Japanese maples that make me think thjat the world is not that full of sh*t when I see them in the morning

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Jordon Bigelow
In the photo, the graft looks pretty good for a grafted maple. If your plan is to add another inch diameter to the trunk it may heal well enough for bonsai. Because of the unique leaves, I would plan to "go big", figure 24 to 48 inches tall and wide. In which case trunk diameter should be over 4 inches, up to maybe 6 inches.

So next spring transplant to a larger pot. You can do the trunk thickening in a pot, a 5 gallon nursery pot or a grow box roughly 20 x 20 x 5 inches.

By letting lower branches run and keeping upper branches in check, you can improve taper without a drastic chop. Very doable if you plan to double the diameter of the trunk.

I don't think this cultivar roots from cuttings nor air layers easily, so I would plan to work with what you have.

Utah is tough for JMs, consider hanging shade cloth to protect it from direct sun.

 

[rockm]

My profile picture is one I found on the internet. The leaves are a little big, but this as the only one that looked (to me) tho have potential at the nursery. However, I am new and it looks like a lot of people are suggesting a different species.

It's not a separate species. It is a variety (cultivar) of Acer palmatum --Japanese Maple. There are more than 200 cultivars of Acer Palmatum, including a few that can stand up relatively well to intense heat.

 

[rockm]

@Jordon Bigelow
In the photo, the graft looks pretty good for a grafted maple. If your plan is to add another inch diameter to the trunk it may heal well enough for bonsai. Because of the unique leaves, I would plan to "go big", figure 24 to 48 inches tall and wide. In which case trunk diameter should be over 4 inches, up to maybe 6 inches.

So next spring transplant to a larger pot. You can do the trunk thickening in a pot, a 5 gallon nursery pot or a grow box roughly 20 x 20 x 5 inches.

By letting lower branches run and keeping upper branches in check, you can improve taper without a drastic chop. Very doable if you plan to double the diameter of the trunk.

I don't think this cultivar roots from cuttings nor air layers easily, so I would plan to work with what you have.

Utah is tough for JMs, consider hanging shade cloth to protect it from direct sun.

Hoping the graft will not show as much if a grafted maple is grown out is mostly a pipe dream. The understock is chosen specifically for its vigor, which generally means it will always stay ahead of the tree grafted onto it. Threadleaf maples are a "go-to" landscape tree here in No. Va for some reason. I've seen very old landscape trees, like over 50, with pronounced spectacularly ugly bulging grafts. It doesn't get better for the most part.

 

[AlainK]

There are more than 200 cultivars of Acer Palmatum

Make it about 1,000

(See J.D Vertrees & Peter Gregory , JAPANESE MAPLES, 4th edition, 2009, Timber Press)

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@AlainK thanks for the additional information.

@rockm well the OP already has the tree, and likely will not be planting it in the ground, he lives in an apartment building. So my offering was an attempt to help him get somewhere with the tree. I agree, probably not a good cultivar choice, but it is what he has.

I had a 'Kashima' with a near perfect, nearly invisible graft. Granted it is a better cultivar for bonsai, so the fact of being grafted is not automatically a disqualifier for bonsai. I ended up trading it away, so I didn't get to see how it turned out. I do agree that for most grafted maples, the graft will prevent them from being better than medium grade bonsai at best, and more than half will be really bad. But occasionally one gets lucky.

I do want to encourage the OP.

 

[Shima]

Japanese maples that make me think thjat the world is not that full of sh*t

Good description. They do the same for me...

 

[Jordon Bigelow]

I also have a Ficus Ginseng that I bought from Ikea It is not very pretty in my opinion. I did prune it to shape and it looks decent and is starting some back budding. I also got some other Japanese Maple cuttings (2 of them) from a red maple with somewhat stringy leaves today too. Pictures are below. I have planted a few silver maple seeds just for fun to learn how to grow a tree from seed (I know the leaves are huge and not bonsai material). Then I planted some cuttings from this Koto No Ito, but now I just read that these don't root very well. I just purchased a nice toolset 170$ (chinese made though). I want to put it to use and actually have a bonsai tree to start with. I bought this JM for 50$ and I thought it was a good deal . Reading everybody's concerns about it dying though makes me weary. I bought it from Millcreek Gardens. I tried to find some Juniper nursery stock plants as they are very cheap but they are just a ball of branches and I couldn't really see any trunks or anything. I really want to learn and I find growing plants very interesting, and Bonsai even more so. Somebody mentioned something about a shade cloth or something. Is there something specific or just anything I can find that would shade this?

 

[Jordon Bigelow]

rockm is right, western exposure in SLC will fry the thing. There are things you can do to help mitigate the issue, like sphagnum moss on the soil (Orchid Dynasty on roughly 9th and 9th has the good stuff), a white tee shirt over the pot (will help reflect the sun and keep the roots cooler) and if you can some kind of shade structure would help. Junipers or a Ficus would be happier in that situation, and you'd bring the Ficus inside for the winter (I have one I need to get rid of...).

It looks like the graft union is right below the tag. We can most likely work around the inherent issues like long internodes, large leaves, etc. But just remember that you can only do so much to fix those issues. Some treess are just genetically better for bonsai.

We have a pretty active club that meets on the 4th Wednesday of each month. Take a look at the club website for more info (www.bonsaiclubofutah.com).

What kind of a Ficus do you have? I have a Ginseng right now but it is nowhere near what I had in mind. I really don't know what I can do with such a little thing. Does the club cost money to Join? I would love to meet some people face to face and learn, I don't have a ton of money and I don't want to kill the things I have haha.

 

[Jordon Bigelow]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016ME0QBA/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also here is the Kit that I bought. Originally I was only going to buy the Concave Cutter, The Scissors, and Wire Cutter. But that totalled to 105$ So I figured it would save me money down the road to just buy the kit now.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The tool kit looks like it will be a good start, you won't need to add more for a while, I find wire cutters and the scissors and the diagonal concave cutters are my most frequently used tools. Of course, the guy thing would be to "collect them all", I've used a branch splitter maybe 3 times in 40 years, but when you need one, nothing else will do. Good reason to join a club, so you can borrow those rarely used tools.