Self grown Field Maple

[Paulpash]

I planted this maybe 15 ish years ago when it was about the size of a pencil in my grow beds and dug it up last season and put it into a big pond basket. It went into a bonsai pot (42cm x 10cm) by Pravovslav Dorda this year and should look lovely when the leaves turn buttter yellow in Autumn.

Will be a fair few seasons til it gets a complete branch structure. The base is about 38cm wide and is plated. It was grown to 15ft plus 3 times in it's life and then cut back down. The giant sacrifice I used to build the base has now healed over but can still be seen as a circular area down low and to the right. I'm going to try Walter's hedge method this year and keep a lot of surplus branches on as I go to soak up the big internodes, especially in Spring.

On the bench


Pics of the base & bark




Pot


In leaf




I chopped off large roots with a reciprocating saw to get it into a training pot which fell into the growing bed. In early April last year I saw some green - apparently it didn't want to die. Son of bigfoot is now planted in the grow beds ....

 

[Paulpash]

Oh and I thought I'd throw in a pic of one of my stock trees I take air layers from - it's very pretty now

 

[cmeg1]

Very nice field maple.I always like to see them.Gotta love that taper and Nebari.

 

[Jacos]

Fabulous work on the field maple Marie, love it.

 

[ColinFraser]

Great taper. Great base. Great species. I love it!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Jolly good show @Marie1uk . Thanks for the pix.

 

[MACH5]

And that's how it's done! Good work Marie! Gotta get me one of those hedge maples. Your stock maple is beautiful too.

 

[Smoke]

Nice taper and base. Good size too. Hate those large trees. The internode space looks pretty large, can this reduce?

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

congrats, like those maples. Great work

 

[sorce]

Wow! And I thought the potentilla towered over that guy!

Damn!

Nice! X2

Sorce

 

[Paulpash]

Nice taper and base. Good size too. Hate those large trees. The internode space looks pretty large, can this reduce?

Field maple internode management is based on leaving on many more branches than will be needed in the final image & then reducing them as ramification spread increases. I'd say it's on a par with trident maple growth rates in the UK plus it's much tougher in terms of cold hardiness. It's an easy one to graft so in the rare case I need a specific branch I can use this technique. Partial defoliation can reduce vigour & internode length in apical areas & encourage budding further back in the canopy.

I've deliberately done no Winter pruning / bud rubbing in order to keep the strong Spring push & associated internode length down.

 

[LanceMac10]

Great looking hedge maple with excellent character!
Well done, considerate growing!!
Cheers!!!

 

[coh]

Nice work! Did you plant this on a board or tile, or do periodic root pruning while it was in the ground?

 

[markyscott]

Very nice work, Marie1uk. It's a beautiful trunk with great, well proportioned taper. You've done a great job with it. I'll second coh's questions - can you describe some of the techniques you used to produce the nice, spreading nebari?

 

[Paulpash]

Nice work! Did you plant this on a board or tile, or do periodic root pruning while it was in the ground?

It's been on both in its time, more recently a board. I secured many screws round the edge and either wedged them at the side or in the earlier stages used jute string to move & secure roots. The jute would rot so it didn't bite into the roots.

 

[Tieball]

Really like the Field Maple. Nice Nabari. How severe were you able to prune the roots? Do you have....can you post.... any photos of the roots pruned?

 

[Paulpash]

I don't have any pics of the roots but I used a reciprocating saw to chop them initially as I got it out of the grow bed. I made sure each chop was to a side root & that these side roots had fibrous on them. I then shoe horned it into the smallest pond basket I could for the roots & left it for a season. I didn't do any pruning up top so that the foliage could power root recovery / production. The following season I had enough fibrous roots close to the trunk to further reduce the thick anchor roots and get it into a pot.

 

[Giga]

The back and trunk are really great, love the pot too! Great job on this one

 

[thumblessprimate1]

It's been on both in its time, more recently a board. I secured many screws round the edge and either wedged them at the side or in the earlier stages used jute string to move & secure roots. The jute would rot so it didn't bite into the roots.

Could you give more detail on what you mean by wedge? I have a hunch, but would rather hear from you.

 

[Tieball]

I don't have any pics of the roots but I used a reciprocating saw to chop them initially as I got it out of the grow bed. I made sure each chop was to a side root & that these side roots had fibrous on them. I then shoe horned it into the smallest pond basket I could for the roots & left it for a season. I didn't do any pruning up top so that the foliage could power root recovery / production. The following season I had enough fibrous roots close to the trunk to further reduce the thick anchor roots and get it into a pot.

Thanks for the reply.
I have a field maple, acre campestre, that...well....I'm inspired by the looks of your tree...and I need to move it to a better growing situation. The trunk needs more...everything. Because my tree is not quite ready yet (I don't have a photo right now)....and growing where I believe it's in the wrong place. I'm thinking the best path is to keep as much root as possible in the move at this time...and save the severe root cutting for a few years out. The tree is currently in a sandy soil, often shaded slightly, and I'm thinking about moving it to a sunny growing ground with better, more coarse, soil composition. Any comments from your growing experience are helpful.