Japanese Maples

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well stuff is opening up at the E ~ yard finally it's been one cold windy spring here............. my tall Palmate types are still in opening the leaves but the Dissectums are good to go slowly filling in width and length on their leaves, it's time to prune out the dead and open them up to show off their curvy jagged limb structure. Looks like a ton of seeds again by the numerous flowers clusters right at the moment, another 1-3 nights of frost and those will be dried out and fallen to the ground.

ok guys how are yours looking at the moment ????

E ~ needing a 3 week break from reality
 
Just about all my JM's are open. I was really worried about Wou Nishiki, but
it has opened. It was grafted in July, and should have opened long before
this. I'll have to take a nice morning and take some pic's for you guys. I'm
pretty sure that spring is here, no more frost.

Charles
 
Charles I have some deformed leaves on 2 varieties, the wind has been heavy 65 % humidity today for some time wind and 77F right now at my small spot on the earth suppose to get back down to the 40's with rain/snow last I heard for thursday/friday so we may get frost again before may arrives, anything is actually possible right up into June including over 100F

back to subject matter, yes some strange things have happened this year, have 1 red palmatum that is undergoing some psychological stress due to the large neighboring Silver maple being removed, the bark split in too many places due to sunburn and borers have gotten in, the tops are dying out which jerks my chain and all I can do is reform the tree from the bottom up with pruning - lightly - and light coats of fertilizer

I'll take some pics in another 2 weeks when things have fully opened and developed

and Dan spray them with organic soap solution I have had many aphids over the years and some caterpillars and J. maples leaves being very thin are super sensitive to chemical applications. Most of the "chewing" will be done at night when the predators like birds have hit the nest for Zzzzzzzzzz so spray when calm and cool
 
Erich: Guess I live in the right spot on this planet. I don't ever remember
having any kind of bug, caterpiller or insects messing with my JM's. I do have
a squirrel problem, they want to plant things in my pots, or they want to dig
in my pots looking for something they may have planted. I'm nursing a pecan
tree (about 6" high) that a squirrel planted in one of my pots, right now. I did
lose 88 less that a year old seedlings, over the winter.

If you garner any seeds off your JM's, please label them when you bag them.
None of mine are old enough to produce seeds. Mainly interested in Bloodgood, Crimson Queen or any green variety. We don't usually get any
seeds around here to Sept or Oct.

Hope your injuries are on the mend.

Charles
 
I have green, red palmate forms, dissectums both red and green all from seeds that I have to pull out and dump - pretty stupid but I do not have the time or room to Bonsai as I once did, if you saw the size of my place you would see why.

I'll collect seeds for you this fall if you would like, if you do not have the red variety Suminigashi then you are in for a real treat, the tree is gorgeous, mine is about 20 years old now over hanging a nice specimen of Virdis dissectum and then over to the south of it is the old dude of the neighborhood sitting at 40 years plus old, Beni-shidare dissectum at not quite over 20 feet wide and at least 7-8 feet tall at the moment.

in my area the weather causes Suminigashit to turn black-red at this time of year the flower bracts are hanging from nearly every branchlet and of course these will turn to bright red seeds
 
Eric: You are aware that a seed from a JM will NOT produce a JM from
whence the seed came. They revert to the rootstock, with certain
qualities of the parent tree. I use seed grown JM's for rootstock for my
grafts.... plus I give some of the older ones away. Also, before you can
plant a seed, there is a process called "stratification". This is required
before the seed can be planted.

Charles
 
Charles I used to believe that 15 years ago but I have picked numerous Dissectum seedlings from Beni Shidare since I first moved to my house in 1978 as well as Virdis, they have remained true to form as I have left some of them for some 5-7 years before I pulled them and gave them away, I need to take pics to show you 3 Suminigashi trees trimmed down to less than 3 feet high, these are not from the roots from the mother plant but from established dropped seeds, one of them I cut out 3 years ago, 3 still form a cute little forest and then there is the bizarre big boy at 6 feet high in the cut edged leaf but is green/red. there is no rootstock look a like here nor for the dissectums. I discussed the matter with Vertrees years ago and he said as you but also revertification that indeed some of the best seeds in the best conditions will form true forms.

some years back and interesting development formed and it has been only in 1 year though sadly, due to whatever conditions present 3-4 linear-form thread dissectums popped up but too delicate it seemed to be moved as they all dies when I tried to transplant these little things

I dabbled in root stock transformation with grafts of wax and rubber bands some 15 years ago when we were also budding Cherries in our area.

anything is possible and will happen here in the Platonic sphere, and it's the truth, again I need to take some clear pics so you can understand fully whats happening here on the west side
 
Les go back to the last page.......read my post ~ (safer sap) some of the organic soaps have a light insecticide base that is safe to be around and death on crawlies, ask your local nursery, they may say something as stupid like go out with a flashlight and pick them off yourself but who knows. every nursery is different, I already have aphids on a large green palmatum in my backyard and fortunately the local warbler migrants have been coming in a gleefully picking them off. sometimes there will be elongated gaps or holes and this is actually frost, and climate problems-disease that attacks and next day gone, have seen that on my maples yearly.

funny I was going to write up a book some 15/20 years ago on these trees but .............yeah everyone knows how that goes, too much in the way.
 
FYI, ladybugs will eat their weight in aphids per minute. Whenever I find
a ladybug I will put it in the greenhouse. I usually have aphids in there
because of the heat. Aphids thrive on heat. For some reason, they don't
like cactus !

Charles
 
aphids like high humidity levels when the temps get to 100F consistantly the hot air will actually dry them out along with spider mites and other insects

because of our wet warm/cool springs aphids and other sucking insects are readily available to devour anything in their path, another indicator is ants of all sizes and varieties "milking" the aphids. if you see ant trails going up and down trees you can bet either aphids or scale crawlers on the branches

My trade is actually as an arborist/entomoligist for over 25/30 years besides a host of other retarded jobs.

Ladybugs are here and there they come for about a month and move on, as you Charles are keenly aware grab em and place em and let them go nutz over your young trees/plants. In the natural setting ladybugs will only stay as time permits, they are an insect and easily seen and tasty food by birds..

mowed off the backyard and checked over the backyard maples, the leaves are unfolding but slow to put on size, it's early yet, by mid-May they are full flung open, have got some major pruning of dead on one red variety and some major repotting on 2 next year

my 2 cents
 
Just about all my JM's are open. I will have to get the camera working
and snap some of this beauty. Grafting will start about the last week of
July, so I have to clean up the garage. I put the new grafts in there on
a heated sand-box til I know for sure if ther're going to take. I don't have
too much dead to trim out.

Charles
 
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