I have 30+ bags of seeds that I stratified, first at about 20° for about 40 days for the japonicum, shirasawanum, etc, and in the fridge from Jan. 6th for the others. 4 days ago, I checked the bags and saw nothing sprouting. I decided to put them all outside, where temperatures went down to -3.7° C and up to 14° C in the afternoon, thinking low temeratures at night (they should be slightly above 0° C in the coming 2 weeks) and warmer temps in the afternoon would reproduce the natural process of seeds going out of dormancy. I just went out to check the bags and found these two are waking up:
Pretty good germination already here, one was so early (A. monspessulanum) that I got to the bag late, and the poor things have damped off. Waiting for some secondaries from that batch, hope to get a few. Do have granatense, pauciflorum, pentaphyllum, sinense all up otherwise. Some Dasyanthus too. Got a cold frame this year, hope it will help with these earlies!
All these, except the one in the top-left corner which is 2 or 3 years-old, are from a 'Palmatum dissectum atropurpureum' :
Wow, those are nice! Now you just have to not kill them. I am very talented at killing dissectum seedlings. Here are some of my 2021 seedlings, taken mid Sept. The individual pics are Acers: metcalfii, pictum var ambiguum, pauciflorum, granatense, micranthum, sinense, diabolicum, and pentaphyllum.
I don't want to put you down, but I have nothing to learn from you on that matter, Sir. <LOL> Actually, I even "tempted the devil" as we say in French, "j'ai tenté le diable" : I repotted them about 3 weeks ago. I added some fertilizer with a high proportion of K, which I think is good for the roots. Je croise les doigts (fingers crossed) : apparently they didn't suffer from this untimely repot. No leaf has fallen. Some of them were already burned on the sides, but they look just like they were before, even the very tiny one with green leaves with a red margin (3rd from the left in the top row). I have just collected a couple of seeds from 'Hana matoi' : I promissed I will send some to a friend, but I'm impatient to see how the ones I'll sow look - if they germinate.
LOL. I don't have any issues with repotting now, though I do find fertilizing a good way to kill _even more_ dissectum babies. Wait, this is getting too macabre. (staggers off, muttering).
Well, so far, so good. and mind you, I didn't add so much fertilizer, just the right pinch of it. Anyway, as you mentioned before, it's hard to keep dissectum from seed over the second year, so what do I have to lose ? Perhaps the "unusual way" is the best ? I'll keep you updated ;°) But I bet you at least 8 out of 12 will survive ! On verra bien, mais j'ai confiance. ;-)
Last pic from this year's seedlings. Getting ready for dormancy, some of the A. pictum v. ambiguum are showing pretty color. A little yellow red on the metcalfii (left) and yellow as expected on the granatense (right).
I went to collect seeds at the local japanese garden in the weekend. 50% of them I put into bags in the fridge at about 0-2 °C. I'll probably sow them somewhere around Feb. 50% others I sowed in the greenhouse. Any tips are welcome.
One of our successful members wrote up an article for the MS FAQ. Although the faq is sadly incomplete, the article is very helpful. Japanese Maple FAQ - Maple Society and click on "Growing Japanese Maples from Seed"
I think this thread needs to get bumped, so here's an update on some of the 2021 seedlings. Some of these will get potted upwards in the next month. On the table, from back-to-front and left-to right are: A. aff granatense x2; A. diabolicum x2, A. micranthum x2; A. pentaphylum x2, A. sinense (prob x sinense) x2, A. pictum var ambiguum; A. forestii, A. pauciflorum x2, unknoown Sec Macrantha, A. metcalfii. The individual pics that follow are: forestii, interesting pauciflorum mutation (there are others like this, some that look like hybrids, some that look very much like the parent), unknown, diabolicums, micranthum, aff. granatense, sinense, and pictum var. ambiguum. The "granatense" are a bit confounding. These seeds came in 3 lots from our forum friend @zfrittz , who obtained one batch (dewinged!) from the National Park of Andalusia, picked on lot that he *thought* was granatense, and another he was certain of. Unfortunately this last lot didn't germinate either last or this year. The seeds from the park, and the second lot, both germinated well, and are one of each in the picture here. The issue is: they all (including a separate, older tree that was sold to me as granatense) have the white latex sap associated with Section Platanoidea, whereas as far as I can tell granatense, most closely related to opalus, is in Section Acer Series Monspessulana, and shouldn't have the latex. That would make all of these seedlings, well, A. campestre, still interesting as from the southern part of the range, but not granatense. I am in the process of verifying the sap issue.
These are all from seeds sown autumn 2019 - autumn 2021. All the 9cm pots still need potting up. The 1l pots were potted up earlier in the year and the 2-3l pots were potted end of last year, they've gone absolutely mad this year! It's hard to see but there's 50 or so there, then the same again in the 1l pots. Plan is probably to use them all for attempts at grafting. I've picked out a dozen or so of the more interesting ones, there's a few nice dissected leaf etc. Most of the Nomura seedlings are interesting, I think I've already posted the tray of those somewhere else.
I have at least half a dozen 'Ryusen' seedlings that seem to show some characteristics of the parent plant, with (apparently) a weeping habit, like this one but it will take a coule of years to see how much of these characteristics the seedlings keep : This other one looks promissing : the twigs are all arching downwards :
One of the 'Ryu sei' seedling that I found unique. It's really slow growing compared to it's other 2 year old siblings.
Fabric geow bags. I'm starting to love them. Great for root growth! You have to stay on top of watering. I started repotting about a week or two ago and Im seeing great root growth.
That is 100% true @AlainK. I've had my fingers crossed the whole time. But they are doing fine! They are just about in full shade.
Ha, this is when I do all my repotting. Will probably start today. So @LoverOfMaples , D this is really interesting to me, thinking about moving in this direction and hoping you can teach me on the subject. So maybe I can ask you lots of questions lol. - are you using biodegradable or reusable? - how long do they last? - are they able to stand upright by themselves, or do you need to keep them in a high-walled tray? - are they ok if direct sun hits the bag? - do you overwinter outside? - are you using only small size? What size is that in the pic? - any substrate changes required to use them? and maybe most important: - what brand(s) are you using? I may have more questions haha. Cheers, -E
Here are the surviving pentaphyllums from 2021, the larger ones are a bit older and were grown by @AlainK (thanks!!). I had at least 50% losses in the pentas, really no idea why. They all looked like well grown seedlings with good roots. Maybe they froze in the spring, I can't remember when I put them out. If anyone likes oaks, the first pic has some interesting seedlings: Quercus glauca, acuta, phllyreoides, spinosa, alnifolia, canbyi. All from 2019, mostly ready to pot up.
I have some 2022 seeds, but these are 2021, collected in 2020 from an 'Atro dissectum'. When they leafed out, they were all red, or reddish, but most of the 11 I have left turned dark green later. I gave them some liquid fertilizer (6-6-6) some weeks ago, and now... One I particularly find amusing is the one that had leaves that looked a bit like amoenum (the 3rd from the left), but the second flush is so different : One that is a year older, and looks a lot like the parent-tree :