Progression of Acer macrophyllum B

[parhamr]

April 2012

Seedlings collected in Portland, OR

June 2014

Potted in pumice, perlite, and composted bark.

July 2014



March 2015

The tree received osmocote, humic acid, and granulated azomite.

January 2016


I repotted this tree into a 7-gallon grow bag with diatomaceous gravel and pumice. For aesthetic purposes I trimmed away some smaller surface roots that were crossing over other roots I inoculated the roots with endo mycorrhizae and gave it Osmocote 14-14-14.

Updates will come as relevant. I’m planning to grow this into a clump style.

 

[sorce]

January 2016

Got roots?

Holy S !!! Nice!

Sorce

 

[JudyB]

Nice progression.

 

[0soyoung]

It would be interesting to see your clump contrasted against the size of a mother tree leaf.

 

[parhamr]

@0soyoung ooh, now I’m curious! I’ve added that to my notes about this tree so that I might remember to collect some leaves… if I can find any low enough to reach.

 

[Arcto]

Would a guess that the July 2014 leaves are 4-5" be accurate?

 

[parhamr]

@Arcto yes, that is a reasonable guess. Here are additional photos that show the range of foliage.

June 2015 foliage

 

[Arcto]

It will be fun to see how these progress for you. I always bypassed them due to the large leaf size. Otherwise, they are a robust species that sizes up quickly. Glad to see someone carrying the torch with these. Can you ground grow any where you are?

 

[Scaryface]

April 2012
View attachment 93101
Seedlings collected in Portland, OR

Was there any scarification done to the seedlings?

 

[parhamr]

@Arcto no, I cannot ground grow because I live on a huge pile of gravel.

@Scaryface my ~10 seedlings were all urban yamadori and many of them had been eaten by lawn mowers and weed whackers

 

[thumblessprimate1]

I dug some nice crape myrtles out of gravel recently

 

[parhamr]

@thumblessprimate1 but I have clay surrounding the gravel and the rock sizes vary from 1/2" to 5" in diameter

…this is all from literally the largest floods in the known history of the world

 

[0soyoung]

…this is all from literally the largest floods in the known history of the world

Good ole Lake Bonneville, ... gone!

 

[GroveKeeper]

Good ole Lake Bonneville, ... gone!

R.I.P.

 

[sdavis]

Good ole Lake Bonneville, ... gone!

Not Bonneville Floods...
Try Missoula/Bretz/Spokane floods.

 

[parhamr]

Here's my latest photo for showing the leaf reduction success. At top is a young tree established in a training pot. The below leaf came from a tree allowed to grow without restriction.

 

[don b]

Awesome progress! And WOW to the leaf comparison!

 

[parhamr]

I can’t say I *love* it, but the tree is coming along…

 

[parhamr]

After three years growing in that box I decided to be bold.


Like my other trees grown in this method, there were tons of nice, fibrous feeder roots throughout the coarse, free draining soil. By going all the way up into the nebari and underside of the trunk, I was able to remove a lot of the original organic field soil.

I’ll probably put this tree into a shallow box in 2022 to continue fine twig ramification.

 

[parhamr]

This tree had decent progress last year but still pushes with a bit of a coarse growth. I’m trying to really get the roots fixed up on the way to an improved canopy. I did aggressive root work again this year on the tree and improved the planting position.


I think it’ll be ready for another round of heavy structural work in a year.