Keeping seedlings

[Adamski77]

Have a silly question…

I really suck at propagation so planning this spring to buy some Japanese maple seedlings to do some root grafts on my maples. Obviously timing needs to align with maples starting to grow. Question is if I buy them (and I’ve seen normally they sell them here in China bare root) how long you think I can “store” them and what would be optimal procedure for holding them? Sphagnum moss? Water?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Not a silly question, but a decent ask.

Pretty much indefinitely if cared for properly.

If bare root, just separate the seedlings into 2 1/4” pots and toss these in a sharp growing medium. Say 70/30ish perlite and peat or coco coir. Then bare root again/rinse when needed for the project.

We usually bend these up if not used, then clip and grow the maples for a single tree or other bonsai projects. Extras are really good for clumps, forests

In the case of using to build a forest, create the forest, but grow 3–5-7 (odd number) out in separate containers… up pot these as needed to fatten up and create the variety of sizes needed for a good forest. Then repot the forest in 2-4 years and insert the larger maples in appropriately. This is an awesome time to craft affect - aesthetic into a forest project.

Hope this helps

cheers
DS sends

 

[Shibui]

How long you can store seedlings for grafting depends on where and how you keep them. When the weather starts to warm up they will sprout new leaves. Keeping them in a cooler place will help retard growth. You could even store dormant seedlings in the fridge for a few weeks as they don't need light until they grow leaves.
Usually storage is not an issue as the seedlings will sprout at about the same time as the trees you want to graft onto. If your bonsai maples have leaves it's probably a bit late to do the root grafts so it won't matter if the seedlings are growing leaves then.

 

[Adamski77]

Thank you both… this is very helpful… seems there is both short term and long term solution. They selling them in batches of 50 PCs so looks like I’m going to have a lot of pots soon plus couple of clumps and a forest .
Point about leaves and timing is clear… and that is exactly the reason for my question… want to make sure I have seedlings on hand when my maples will start moving in spring… don’t want to miss opportunity.

 

[Adamski77]

Candidates arrived… looking really good… such short internodes. With my best intentions unfortunately unable to get the cultivar name with my level of Chinese. I only hope this really are Japanese maples. Looks to me like 3 clumps, forest and plenty of root grafts…

… will have some fun tomorrow… perlite ready, coco coir ready, pots ready… I’m ready too…

 

[Shibui]

With my best intentions unfortunately unable to get the cultivar name with my level of Chinese.

These are seedlings. Every seedling is a new and unique individual so none of them can be the same as any named cultivars. The seller may even have thought you were crazy asking.

I only hope this really are Japanese maples.

Everything looks good from here.

 

[Adamski77]

Thank you. More news tomorrow…

 

[Adamski77]

Took a while longer… coco coir unfortunately didn’t arrive so had to postpone it by one week. This morning spent some time to put them in… 80/20 perlite/coco coir… little bit less coco coir than indicated but Shanghai tends to be very humid place. Turned out to be 56 total though last 6 have probably slim chances to make it… roots are kind of tiny. Let’s see.

Regarding the cultivar question… thanks for clarification (@Shibui )… I was working with assumptions these are cuttings so should be coming from “known” tree… but appreciate clarification… in terms of seeds it’s obviously not clear… unless you really control it… don’t think they do.

 

[Shibui]

JM cuttings are not always easy so not often used to propagate JM commercially. There's usually quite obvious differences in root development between seedling and cutting. These have all the characteristics of seedlings IMHO.

Even tightly controlled fertilisation still allows for new genetic combinations in every seedling. Even those seedlings which have some similar characteristics to the parent will still have some other differences due to the random combining of genes in each seed. Some characteristics like leaf size, shape and colour are obvious but things like disease resistance, mature size, cold tolerance, etc are hidden. Any difference from the parent makes the seedling a new cultivar. Seedlings from Japanese maples just become Japanese maples even if the seed came from a named variety.

It takes many generations to breed out the random differences as we have done with domestic livestock and crops.

 

[Adamski77]

Thank you so much for spending time on explaining… honestly, had no idea about all these little intricacies. It’s much more complex than I thought…

 

[Adamski77]

@Shibui … One more thought… maybe crazy… but thank you for putting seedlings and cuttings together. I’m not a native English speaker so for me seedling was a word to describe very young tree derived either from seeds or cuttings.., you kind of open my eyes for the difference betweeen the two. Thank you!