Q's on Red Maple collections (large swamp-growns stock), especially Re initial rootplate structure (FL / 9a/b zone)

[SU2]

Would LOVE to hear this "Relative to BC's"!! The time is nearly here, I'll be wading through 1-->3'+ swamps, feeling-around for possible candidates for "good trunk-base stock" Maples, BC's and Nyssa's (any others that may be found in cent.FL that I may be overlooking, in terms of "standing water" trees? Let's withhold Conocarpus suggestions, I've sadly been unable to find **ONE** example of the specie in my area tampa bay by the water, mangroves (white/red/black mangroves) are everywhere, but have never ever found one, I still look for the irregular, instead of symmetrical, leaf patterning that distinguishes them from mangroves but have yet to see one here in Pinellas county!)

How aggressive can/should you be to the rootplate of the Red Maple you just collected?

Relative-to BC would be more useful for me, for me I collect them at same time (would you guys do the collection of one before the other? They both bud during same window and I collect them during same window), but with BC's I'm basically doing the trunk-chop up top and, for the roots, almost a "roots/nebari chop", ie sometimes hardly a single 'thin' root is left and it's just the cut-edges of all the thick, cut surface roots/nebari that then throws tons of roots from the perimeters of the cuts....BC's are amazing in this way, allowing lower/shallower containers, but I've never known Re Maples so I err'd to more of a 'traditional' rootplate upon collection, roughly the amount of roots I'd wanna be bringing-home with a collected Crape Myrtle or Ligustrum/Privet or Ilex......but IF I could get away with the "BC-level aggressive" root-chop on my Red Maples I'd be psyched to know

Thanks for any insight!! I have 3 of these guys, two were from the winter-before-last, other is from last winter....the 2 older ones, grown out quickly here in FL, are really just growing on me more & more each season so, this year, am determined to find at least 1-2(goal is 3) new specimen/stock to collect, one of these will be an especially large tree (relative of course but I mean trunking like nearly 1' w/o counting the nebari) and it's of especially high value to me if I can get-away with a much shallower rootmass than I'd been keeping at collection time!

 

[SU2]

Re the "Do you collect BC's, or Red Maples, first?" question I'd asked, if anyone is opting to do one specie before the other, I'd be eager & thankful to hear any tips or info on just how you evaluate "ripe-ness" for collection on Maples! On BC's, I'm keeping an eye on all my local groves, I see thousands of them daily, the *day* I see some green - the first tree amongst a grove starting to pop-buds - I consider it game-on (I prepare in advance, for instance I've already gotten/mixed/prepped most of my substrate for this year's collections, still figuring out if I'm gonna be "containerizing" them using bundled-shadecloth (like, loose grow-bag style ) or actually buying grow-bags, if anyone's got reco's for cheap grow-bags that are large I'd love to hear but otherwise will just keep using shadecloth it's working really well with everything else, just looks AWFUL lol, true growbags would be a genuine aesthetic improvement and that is a problem ROFL

Would love hearing what you guys use as signs "Maples are ready / optimal to collect"? Bud-breakage? With the BC's, it's not really so much "bud breaking", I feel like they set their buds then break them, whereas with the Maples they've already got buds (mine are swollen with buds now, and have been all winter...foliage turned color on one of mine in fall, and they're still on & are gorgeous, the other two basically stayed full green but just stopped growing through the past few months...


PS- The news says SE, well FL at least , will be having a warmer-than-usual Feb this year, so I may be going as early as like 3wks gah the anxiety & eagerness of anticipating the "final collection" of new trunks begins

 

[Arlithrien]

I'm also in Pinellas. Where are you going to collect trees around here? And what is your protocol for exploring for collection without fear of looking like a weirdo or up to no good? I've never gone collecting around here, at best I'll pull over, snip a cutting from a roadside tree and hope it roots back home.

I'm always keeping an eye out for red maple specimen when driving. Seen plenty on wetland and plenty on dry. Never seen one submerged directly in water.

 

[SU2]

How long have you been looking? Also do you know anyone in construction or commercial realty? Having 'won't get arrested if caught on this site' owner-permission for sites being cleared has been the best-ever option I've seen.

If you were gonna james bond it you could really pluck BC's & Maples from the side of the road in my area, I mean illegally obviously as much of that would be public land (even on private land, if being 100% kosher, I think it's only alright when the land is cleared for developing although sometimes this land just sits and sits...)

Re how you put it though, you could certainly just 'go collecting' on public lands (illegally of course) without "looking like a weirdo" if you went north just to bottom of Pasco county, if you go down Trinity BLVD there are just miles of groves on groves of BC's, imagine you may also get shot by a farm owner or something LOL am just conveying how prevalent they are (and it's odd because there's probably more BC groves on trinity blvd than in all of pinellas, from what i've seen, and trinity is just barely over the line IIRC!)

Re the maples-in-water, most certainly in my area, although "seasonal inundation" and whatnot maybe sometimes it's out-of-water? One time I went for a Maple, only to find it wasn't its own tree, but rather a branch on a huuuge maple that'd fallen years-prior, am quite sure that area was 100% submerged at all times!!

 

[Crawforde]

The only maples I have collected were collected from standing water near a cypress dome. They were tiny, but had nice movement from trying to grow through a fallen cypress.

 

[Trenthany]

@SU2 i don’t think recommending illegal collecting is the best option.

In regards to collecting I treat Florida maples just like any other maple and with my research I collected some a couple weeks ago when it was cold with full permission from property manager. I saw buds looked ready to burst and it was still cold so went for it as I saw the stand and was only there for 15 minutes so I stayed an extra 1/2 hour to grab 1/2 dozen saplings that popped out easy and dug one 2-3” trunk.

Your best bet is to contact property owners of wooded lots. Typically you won’t be bothered just looking so if you find a tree look up the owner via the property appraiser website and ask permission to dig up a tree from their vacant lot. Sayings it’s for your yard is a lot easier than explaining it’s for bonsai and is as close to dinhonesty as I get when collecting. Forestry lands have collecting permits you can get but I haven’t pursued that yet.