Matrix for growing up Japanese Maples in pots

[caerolle]

What Shibui says is right on the money. If you have large pots, the soil isn't so important. But also, your root system won't be very good, which isn't great for bonsai. I think that the point of growing maples from seedlings or seed is that you can have great nebari, taper, branching, etc. right from the start. To do that, it helps to use good bonsai soil. Boon mix is good for developing maples, and if you are super concerned with cost, your best bet is pure pumice. I've got some Japanese maples that I've grown in pots only, and I used bonsai soil with great results. Just use sacrifice branches to add lots of growth. Bonsai nurseries here in Oregon use pure pumice with outstanding results.

If you want larger trees, up-potting until you have a big pot in regular potting soil should work fine. Don't start them in big pots though. But if you want kifu or shohin sized trees, I would use small terracotta pots and bonsai soil, then getting the tree into a small pot will be easy, with the added bonus of great nebari.

Thanks! Some of the advice and suggestion have been really helpful!

I kind of have to laugh about the pumice, though. Rightly or wrongly, I am getting the idea that bonsai is really something best practiced on the West Coast. Sure, out there you can get truckloads of pumice, cheap it seems. Small lava rock blends, too. You cannot buy those here. You can easily get large lava rock, pumice is unheard of. I did finally manage to buy a bag from a hydroponics place and sift it into some usable stuff, but in the end probably no better cost-wise than paying $10/gallon online. Small pine nuggets, likewise. I can get ReptiBark and sift that and get something pretty economical, but pine fines, much less '3/8 and below' or any of that are not here. I am almost thinking at this point of just staying in 1-2 gallon pots with bonsai mix, which I can actually get pretty reasonably here, and not repotting for 2-3 years. And never getting beyond about 2 gallons. About $300 worth of mix would do that. I will be root limited, I think, so limiting the growth, but I just like the little maples anyhow. I am getting in this far too late in life to ever get to a decent finish, anyhow. I was just trying to speed up trunk development, and was going to work on branches in smaller pots and with bonsai mix later, but I guess I can just do it all once.

The case for trees is similar to the situation for volcanic materials. Apparently almost noone in this area grows A. palmatum, they don't want to bother with the trouble. Too easy to kill, too hard to overwinter. Amur and Trident are available, but I am not a big fan of those. There is not a nursery anywhere close to here where you can just go and shop for trees like there sees to be on the West Coast. They seem to be hard to find online, too. I think I got started too late in the season, almost everything was sold out everywhere. I found a place with a good variety of little trees, though, and that is where I have been getting them. I like having different cultivars, and this lets me do that. I dunno, rethinking it all, I probably should have bought one $300 tree instead of ten $30 trees? I shied away from that because I worried I would mess it up or even kill it. And, I love to grow stuff and wanted more plants. In the end, knowing what i know now I probably would not have gotten into all this, but I do love my little trees, I love messing with soil mixes, and I love taking care of the trees, so I will push ahead one way or another.

 

[Bonds Guy]

I think that the point of growing maples from seedlings or seed is that you can have great nebari, taper, branching, etc.

Based on the blogs of professional artist and what I observed in my trees, I don’t think that’s true (expect nebari). Taper and branching can be achieved by cutting back the leader. I’m pretty sure seedlings are grown, because they can be styled more easily

 

[sorce]

its all good, the fact that he didnt @ me says volumes.
If I can get him to allow the kids on his lawn and use his knowledge to help someone else out, than I’ve done my job.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorry bout that!

Sorce

 

[Orion_metalhead]

A good, cheap beginner mix you can use is 1:1 composted bark and perlite with the fines sifted out. If you are in a hot climate, and watering is a concern, you can replace the perlite with napa 8822 diatomaceous earth (still sifted), but any soil mix heavy on organic matter will retain water. I know plenty of people have their reservations on using the 8822 for many valid reasons, but I use it with little to no issues and it develops good root growth. It does hold water, but that could be a good thing if you have seedlings in small pots in hot climates or you can't water your trees mid day in dry hoy weather.

 

[erich_raudebaugh]

Thanks! Some of the advice and suggestion have been really helpful!

I kind of have to laugh about the pumice, though. Rightly or wrongly, I am getting the idea that bonsai is really something best practiced on the West Coast. Sure, out there you can get truckloads of pumice, cheap it seems. Small lava rock blends, too. You cannot buy those here. You can easily get large lava rock, pumice is unheard of. I did finally manage to buy a bag from a hydroponics place and sift it into some usable stuff, but in the end probably no better cost-wise than paying $10/gallon online. Small pine nuggets, likewise. I can get ReptiBark and sift that and get something pretty economical, but pine fines, much less '3/8 and below' or any of that are not here. I am almost thinking at this point of just staying in 1-2 gallon pots with bonsai mix, which I can actually get pretty reasonably here, and not repotting for 2-3 years. And never getting beyond about 2 gallons. About $300 worth of mix would do that. I will be root limited, I think, so limiting the growth, but I just like the little maples anyhow. I am getting in this far too late in life to ever get to a decent finish, anyhow. I was just trying to speed up trunk development, and was going to work on branches in smaller pots and with bonsai mix later, but I guess I can just do it all once.

The case for trees is similar to the situation for volcanic materials. Apparently almost noone in this area grows A. palmatum, they don't want to bother with the trouble. Too easy to kill, too hard to overwinter. Amur and Trident are available, but I am not a big fan of those. There is not a nursery anywhere close to here where you can just go and shop for trees like there sees to be on the West Coast. They seem to be hard to find online, too. I think I got started too late in the season, almost everything was sold out everywhere. I found a place with a good variety of little trees, though, and that is where I have been getting them. I like having different cultivars, and this lets me do that. I dunno, rethinking it all, I probably should have bought one $300 tree instead of ten $30 trees? I shied away from that because I worried I would mess it up or even kill it. And, I love to grow stuff and wanted more plants. In the end, knowing what i know now I probably would not have gotten into all this, but I do love my little trees, I love messing with soil mixes, and I love taking care of the trees, so I will push ahead one way or another.

Sorry, I'm on mobile and I'm not sure where you live. Your local club, if one exists, will have local sources for soil substrates. Perlite works too, it just washes out easily. I like growing trees from seedlings too, it's a different challenge and the methods are different if you use pots, or the ground, or boxes, but if you look at Bill Valavanis' trees, or there's a guy in my club named Dennis Vojtilla, and both of them develop amazing deciduous trees (plus a few conifers) in pots over decades.
I've tried organic soil for development of maples and it doesn't seem to work as well, at least not for me. But I'm using small pots too.

 

[Mr.Dr.K]

It is pretty common in the nursery trade in Oregon to grow out maples in 100% Douglas fir bark. It doesn’t decompose enough to cause problems over the 3 years or less that the trees are in the pots at the nursery.

They use fairly high amounts of a coated complete slow release type fertilizer “ozmocote” mixed into the bark and topdressed yearly, to supply needed nutrients.

I'm South of Lane County and have a JM I purchased as Nursery stock last spring. I repotted then, I'd like to change my mix up potentially this spring. Are you seeing the commercially avaliable fir bark marketed as mulch as potting media, or a more consistent, specially marketed bark mix?