Ininaatigoons
Chumono
I've seen better looking airlayer plastic work! LOL The important thing is that it's working.
Wulfskaar's Shishigashira Maple (Lion's Head)
- Thread starter Wulfskaar
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- lions head shishigashira
Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
Problems with growing JM in SoCal:
(1) Low humidity - sometimes accompanied by strong wind
(2) Hard, alkaline irrigation water with almost no rainfall to offset
(3) Intense sun
If you have a shadehouse and use softened or reverse osmosis water, you can probably keep them alive. But as far as JM in your landscape or a rock garden... forget about it. Every spring the local Costcos would get in Japanese maples... and I assumed they were headed straight to the green waste dump.
Wulfskaar
Masterpiece
To be fair, I've kept mine alive for almost 4 years on tap water and under dappled shade. My in-laws also have a large landscape JM in direct sun. I've been growing a JM from seed from that tree for 3 years. I also know a business that has several in-ground trees in front of the store.
I am in a sweet spot < 10 miles from the ocean, so it's a bit cooler than the valleys.
On the other hand, by the time autumn rolls around, the leaves are generally too crispy to show beautiful coloring that you guys get. I plan to protect them better during the hot, dry wind events, so we'll see.
Wulfskaar
Masterpiece
Absolutely. My first time was much better. This one definitely got away from me, and I'm glad I got lucky enough to see some roots.
Vince Sartain
Sapling
Where did this myth get started that you can't grow JM's in Southern California? I am in the IE and have had both landscape as well as bonsai JM's for decades with no real problems at all and with tap water to boot. Yes the bonsai do better with a little shade during the peak temps in summer but so do all my other species.
Wulfskaar
Masterpiece
I think it's more that if you were ranking trees that grow best in SoCal, JM wouldn't be near the top. Mine require a bit more extra care than many of the other species I have. They aren't impossible, but they aren't the best either.
Comparing my JM growth to someone in Oregon or Washington, they win easily.
Wulfskaar
Masterpiece
J. Maple experts...
Is it too late to separate an air layer on my shishigashira? The roots are growing and it's getting awful late in the year.
*No frost expected ever.
*Still green. No sign of color change yet.
Is it too late to separate an air layer on my shishigashira? The roots are growing and it's getting awful late in the year.
*No frost expected ever.
*Still green. No sign of color change yet.
Hack Yeah!
Omono
I'd guess it would depend on your aftercare, if you can keep it out of the sun and wind with some decent humidity it should be fine.
Wulfskaar
Masterpiece
Thanks Hack! Humidity will be the hard part, once the dry winds roll in. It did rain last night and it's very humid right now, which is a big surprise since I didn't expect rain for another 2 months. I will keep that at the forefront of my mind.
The next week of weather looks good, so I think I'll be going for it this weekend.
Wulfskaar
Masterpiece
I'll most likely be separating this weekend.
I have pumice and akadama, and will probably add some bark. Hopefully that's fine. Should I go ahead and get some lava, or is this going to be fine?
I have pumice and akadama, and will probably add some bark. Hopefully that's fine. Should I go ahead and get some lava, or is this going to be fine?
pandacular
Masterpiece
Borrowing some credibility from my teacher, I wouldn’t be in a rush to add lava. This blog post shows an air layer that we separated this spring (with me in the action shot of the tie down) and potted in his usual deciduous mix of pumice and akadama. We also separated a maple air layer that we used the same mix for (and a third that went into all pumice as an experiment)
