I want to go back to the primary question that was asked. I think when most people look at maples like in a nursery setting they are looking mostly at the leaves and branches. In bonsai we generally view the trunk as being of primary importance. This is what the way is drawn to and it is how we judge if it’s a good/bad young/old expensive/cheap tree. We often next look at the nebari or the flair of the trunk, after that comes branches, leaves the type etc.
I would say most serious bonsai growers don’t have grafted trees with the exception of a few which were probably grafted for bonsai intent. Typically with a graft junction at or even below root level. The biggest potential problems with grafted trees are usually related to the difference in bark color, texture and growth vigor. If the root stock is much more vigorous or the other way around the tree will develop a diameter mismatch that only gets worse with time. The same is potentially true for bark texture and color. In general maples are fairly cooperative for air layering. That said I attempted to layer a red leaf Japanese maple off its graft union this summer with zero roots. For some reason many of my air layers did not do so well for me this year but many did fine including hinoki cypress, crab apple, Korean hornbeam and pomegranate. We had a relatively cool early summer in San Francisco where the summers are cool in the first place.
Personally I really enjoy grafting though mostly I have experience grafting pines which I do every year. Personally I think it’s a good skill to have and I encourage everyone interested in bonsai or tree growing to practice grafting skills so if and when you feed to graft you know what your doing. This includes aporoach grafting, root grafting, scion grafting etc,
If you know how to graft then you can obtain the beginnings by simply getting the genetics which I have been able to get from friends, arboretums ordering scion etc. Once you have a branch growing you have the genetics and can begin to develop and propagate. This comes in handy if you ever find a juniper with an amazing trunk but don’t care for the foliage or you want to start some JBP cork bark trees. Both grafting and layering are good skills to have. Good tools for the tool box.
I have one dedicated pine tree for just holding pine genetics. It’s a Frankenstein for sure. It currently has about ten different pine spice species on it. It’s a main scion source when I graft cork barks. It also has things like Pinus sylvestris ‘Beuvronensis’ in case I want to start a few of those some day.
Happy grafting and anti-grafting or air layering.
