Maple seedling/saplings found in my yard, tips plz

[Myrki]

Hello. I have a couple Japanese maple seedling/saplings (found under my Japanese maple shrub so I’m assuming). I also found a couple others my phone is calling silver maple (neighbor does have a maple that hangs over our fence and I assume these r coming from that).

Anyway, I threw one in a pot but I’m thinking I’ll put them all in a spot in the ground safe from the mower etc and let them grow before potting them. What r your thoughts on timelines and what care should I do? Let them grow wild in the ground or cut them back as they grow?

Thanks

 

[Shibui]

I can't see any pictures of Japanese maple. The first could be trident maple but may also be the same as the other 2 seedlings. It's not clear what species they are from those pics.

How to move forward will depend what you want to achieve with them.
Developing trees in pots usually gives better quality trees and is great for smaller bonsai but will take longer to grow a fat trunk.
Growing in the ground gives much quicker thickening but also large pruning scars. You can achieve a thick trunk quicker but faults and problems with the trees are also magnified when fast growing in the ground.

I don't usually bother to wire and shape maple trunks. Pruning seems to give much better bends and also adds valuable taper to a trunk and it grows.

 

[Myrki]

I can't see any pictures of Japanese maple. The first could be trident maple but may also be the same as the other 2 seedlings. It's not clear what species they are from those pics.

How to move forward will depend what you want to achieve with them.
Developing trees in pots usually gives better quality trees and is great for smaller bonsai but will take longer to grow a fat trunk.
Growing in the ground gives much quicker thickening but also large pruning scars. You can achieve a thick trunk quicker but faults and problems with the trees are also magnified when fast growing in the ground.

I don't usually bother to wire and shape maple trunks. Pruning seems to give much better bends and also adds valuable taper to a trunk and it grows.

Thank you for your insight. I have some extra pots laying around, maybe I’ll throw them all in small pots for the remainder of the year and see if they survive.

As to the maple type, the tall one in the pot my phone says “silver maple”. I know how the app can be off, but that’s what it says. The smaller one I shared is right under my Japanese maple shrub, so I was just assuming that’s what it is.

 

[Myrki]

After looking at other Japanese maple seedling photos I see mine aren’t that. I thought maybe when real young it could look like what I found but I guess not. Well, in any case I’ll try to get them growing

 

[Myrki]

maybe I’ll make a little forest out of them

 

[Myrki]

I put them in this pot for now.


Hmmm, photo not uploading