After I think 4 years of wait list I yesterday received a nice little A. pictum Usugumo. What a great and unexpected surprise. It's been so long I didn't even guess what it was when I saw that the box was from Esveld! I guess this is a 1 year graft. The graft is well healed but maybe not that strong yet, there seems to be a bud below the union. Upper leaves look healthy. I wonder about planting out. Is the consensus that it would be better to pot it up for a few years before attempting the added rigors (extra wind mostly) of the garden? My instinct says to pot it and hover over it, but I do intend to grow it in the earth eventually. A palmatum at this stage I would not plant out. -E
A large slatted box with screen covering the open areas will grow it out fastest (next to being in the ground), as long as the soil has very good drainage (lots of grit). Is there no place in the garden with wind protection and light shade? If not, what about an unheated porch? Don't baby it now, because it won't do well later on if you suddenly put it in the ground.
Hi Rima, Do you mean a box with openings along the sides? What's the advantage over a pot? I actually don't baby too much, putting it in a pot just lets me a) keep it out of the worst wind, and b) bring it into an unheated room if it's -10C or there's ice or hail. Otherwise my pots sit outside all winter. Do you mean to say you think it will be less fragile than a delicate palmatum cultivar? I could potentially put it in a fairly well protected (and shaded) garden bed for a couple of years, but it would have to come out before too long. Would you personally prefer planting out and moving over potting for a couple of years? We live of a crest, depending on the weather the wind can come from several different directions, which makes it tricky. -E
Hi Emery, Waiting for my plane connection to Toulouse (coming from th Maple Society meeting) I kill time reading the forum. I normally do like you, I keep tender one year grafts in their nursery pot until they show good growth and I keep them outdoors. However growers do babysit them by keeping them protected to increase growth season, exposing them to just the minimum cold to make them go dormant late November/December. This makes sense to me and may try it with the really fragile looking ones. Gomero
Emery, I have had this plant a year now, getting a small, well-healed one year graft dormant in the winter of 05-06'. This sounds similar to your situation. The gentleman I got the graft from here in Oregon got wood from Esveld and took a vacation there and to Villa Tartanto a couple years back. The Usugumo at Esveld is quite large, but the one At Villa Taranto is HUGE. The plant had been his quest for a long while and he never thought that he would see a tree as large as the one he saw given its reputation to be slow growing and tender. I don't baby things much here, so the one gallon pot I got wintered outside and even froze, but temps here rarely drop below 20F. Once was in-leaf I protected it from the hottest sun but gave it heavy exposure. It did defoliate and then pushed a full new set of leaves with the overall increase in size due to new shoot growth being just a couple of inches this year. It seems like a pretty tough tree as I would say it actually fared better than many palmatums I have. I am guessing the plant is grafted on Acer mono rootstock as the barks seems very similar and match up well. As a general rule, I never plant out maples that small and try to have a good 5-7gallon size regardless of the variety. With the bark on the young Usugumo I have noticed a little void or peeling near the soil line in one area and it seems a bit suseptible to moisture in that area. I would say it was due to freezing but it came to me that way and I wonder if it was not too wet for a while in the hands of the grower. I would plant so the crown in above the soil line and give the excellent care to drainage that you would with very tender palmatums. Other than that it does not seem that much more difficult to grow than any other maple. Of course its leaf type dictates that you will have to protect it from hot sun and wind if it is in excess of what the plant can handle in your climate, but it seems hardy and resilliant. I am glad you finally got one! Congrats! As a bonus, here are a couple shots of the "little guy" as he came out of dormancy a month or so after I had received him. In the second photo you can see a little bit of yellow grafting rubber and a bud on the right at the graft union. That bud was fine and typical of the variety. Keep an eye on the bud you have below the union, but this plant buds differently than palmatum so I am still getting used to it. Bark, wood, buds....the whole plant is a bit of a different animal.
Gomero, thanks for the comment. I think I will do exactly that, except I'll put it in a clay pot to offer the roots just that little more protection. So, the ground will have to wait a couple of years. Galt, thanks for the great post! I think my plant is also on mono (pictum) rootstock but I will have to go out and verify. The Hoshi Yadori I have from the same source is certainly on the species rootstock. Very interesting to hear about the defoliating. Sounds as though really just light shade is what's needed here. As I mentioned in the email the Esveld plant, the parent of both of ours, is growing in a lot sun. This august the leaves were quite sunburnt but overall the plant seemed very healthy. I appreciate seeing the pictures of yours. I think my graft is less well healed, which will probably add some to the fragility, but it still looks pretty good. Your plant is a bit more ripened than mine. Hopefully I wont have an issue of dieback with green wood. The budding leaves in the pictures really look exactly like Hoshi Yadori! Thanks again, -E
With spring around the corner, I am worrying about one of my most precious acers, mono 'Usugumo' (although I think it's officially picta now?) I received a small plant in fall of 05. I had it in a pot in 06 and it did okay, didn't grow much. I noticed that the pot always seemed heavier than the other acers in pots I have because in spring of 06 I started using a bark mixture after reading the comments on the maple forum. I didn't repot the Usugumo, just because I was afraid to touch it. However, I am concerned that the mix is too heavy, especially after reading the previous postings. Should I be brave and move it to a lighter mix this year? If so, when would be the best time to do this? Right before the buds break or while still dormant? (or some other time). I'm not sure I could determine what rootstock was used. I'll look at it and see, but don't know if I have enough experience with that. I'm thinking the Oregon grower mentioned in the above posting is the same one I received mine from, so it's probably mono rootstock. I really, really want to do what's best for Usugumo and since I'm in zone 5, I don't know if I'll ever be brave enough to try it in the ground, so the condition of the soil is going to have to be as good as I can make it. Any help you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks. Kay Dye
Kay dye If you think it is necessary I would do it now before buds break. Concerning soil requirements for A. Pictum, I guess everybody is assuming they are the same as for A. palmatum, but, is it true?, I believe growers use the same mix for all maples. Here is a pic of the Villa Taranto's Usugumo, outstanding! (Note: the date in the picture is false, pic was taken May 2006) Gomero
That's what I was told by Cor Van Gelderen: a very low percentage of grafts actually take. If you guys are interested, I know a grafter in Northern France who seems to be pretty good at it with more than 80% success rate. I bought from him a 3-year old graft that is pretty healthy. Gomero
Hi Gomero, I'd be very happy to have a second one, for insurance as it were. Is this the fellow near Lille that you mentioned off-line? I did speak with him, actually, by telephone. He seemed to think a visit was the way to go. -E
