Stephen, can you see the graft union on the first two sets? Are the extra stems coming from above or below the graft? Can you post photos that show this more clearly? I will hold off on any pruning suggestions until we know more.

IMO, all of these little guys are too small to leave outdoors all winter unattended. Do you have a garden shed or garage or somewhere you could store them for winter (not in the house - needs to be unheated)?

Thanks for that Gardengal..Will post additional photographs later today

Hi Gardengal.

Here are the additional photographs you require so you can ascertain the Young Treelets easier.Removed from Pots and washed off Root Systems.With regards to you mentioning about the Garage or Shed Storage will they be alright constantly in those locations during the Winter months without exposure to the outside elements.(Say 1st Oct through to the end of February).Both the Garage and the Shed have adequate Light Shining in.Will the seedlings that were mentioned on the original Comment need any slight watering or support whilst under cover during the Winter months.Also will the Seedlings need to covered at all in the Shed/Garage or will they be ok left exposed as in the earlier photographs of this post

Thank you

Stephen,Cheshire.UK

Great photos, Stephen - very helpful!

First, I see no evidence of a graft. That means these little trees are either seedlings or grown from cuttings. And since growing JM's from cuttings is notoriously difficult (near on impossible), I am leaning towards seedlings. And that means regardless of how the plants appear or how they are labeled, they are just generic Acer plamatums with no cultivar name assigned.

Another factor that leads me to believe that these are seedlings is the development of the multiple basal stems. This is not something one normally sees from a grafted plant, which typically will have a clear expanse of rootstock stem visible before the graft union and whatever branching system the young scionwood produces. Might also explain the bargain pricing as seedlings are relatively cheap to produce compared to a grafted plant, which takes time and effort and a few dollars to develop to a salable state.

As to any pruning that may be required, that is certainly up to you :-) Low branching or multi-stemmed JM's have an appeal all of their own so you may want to experiment by leaving at least one as is. Regardless, these are all too young to be concerned with any pruning right now. Give them a couple more seasons of growth before you do anything very drastic.

Wait until these little guys have entered dormancy - lost all their leaves - before you put them in a protected location. Light is not a concern through the dormant period but protection from excessive cold is. Temps should remain cold but at or above freezing. And check for the need to water - soil should remain just barely moist to the touch; not wet but do not allow to dry completely. Bring them back out of protection when all chances of freezing weather has passed.

Very nice, healthy root systems, btw ;-)

Hi there Stephen,firstly my dear Gardengal,I'm glad to say,at last you are seeing the cutting grown maples we get a lot of over here but I know are virtually unheard of in US.They all come from Holland originally and is big business,you should see the size of their growhouses!

Stephen,these will be harder to keep going,and need a bit more TLC as they're less vigorous than grafts.I wouldn't get carried away with pruning until they've grown a bit more.Just remember not to take unnessecary risks with them ie leaving them in lots of strong sun/wind if expected and be careful with watering.However with TLC they can continue to become good plants in time.

I feel that often the foliage is superior to grafted plants,especially variegated..more colourful but the down side is that strong stems and branching are harder to achieve and are a lot easier to kill.

Good luck :)

Houzi,Thanks for your wise words and advice as always...

Just wanted to ask about a selection of "Bloodgood" Seeds I have recently required...

Can you confirm the Compost & Perlite ratios please in the Mix..

Am going to plant them in the Cells as you suggested.Will these Cells need covering to avoid direct rainfall going on them..I believe you mentioned for the seeds to be just below the surface with the wing pointing skyward

I understand a 24 hour soak in Cold water is also advisable prior to the planting process

Best wishes and thank you......

Stephen,Cheshire,UK

Houzi, thanks for that interesting bit of info on EU JM cuttings. They are virtually unheard of here as they are extremely hard to strike (with the exception of some very vigorous cultivars) and they tend not to develop a good enough root system to support long term growth so failure in the long term (if not in the short term) is pretty much inevitable. I know a few hobby growers that have had some luck attempting but you certainly don't find any commercial production of JM's from cuttings on this side of the pond.

I wonder what the Dutch secret is........they do some amazing plant things in Holland so who knows what special techniques they have developed to achieve a better success rate. And do you have any info on the long term survivability of these cutting grown trees? Are there any that are flourishing after 5-10 years or more? The root systems on Stephen's little plants are impressive.

And Stephen, if these are indeed rooted cuttings, then they are exact clones of the parent plant and entitled to carry that name.

Hi Stephen,just make the mix nice and free draining...50/50 would do.Yes just below soil pointing up just so you can see they're still there ha.Just plant them and forget about them 'til next year,no need to soak,nature will do that,leave them out in the cold and rain and whatever weather uncovered....so simple there's nought to worry about :)

Houzi,Thank you very much for that.Will try my best with these fellas and you will be first to know next year the results of the Yield.

Am trying Seeds in a few in different places

This is cheap and lots of fun experimenting..

Found some underneath a Lovely Maple in my Local Church....

Best wishes

Thanks,Stephen,Cheshire.UK

Hi Garden gal,I know what you mean,apart from generic green&red seedlings,I have no luck striking cuttings,though I've not really tried too hard ha.
Interestingly,I've seldom seen the maples considered to be easy(eg Bloodgood)coming in from Holland,many of them are more delicate...infact AP 'Taylor' and 'Marlo' I used to only see in clonal form.
What's their secret?....well the only way most amateur gardeners can obtain the humidity required for success is by putting them in an enclosed space,probably with added heat.Trouble is this tends to encourage fungis.The Holland grow houses are vast and they usually don't just grow maples.They have overhead misting systems a bit like fire sprinklers only finer.This enables them to just apply a little moisture whenever required,probably on a timer for a very short duration.Some of these buildings are several football pitches in size so there is plenty of fresh air in there,not stagnant and hence no fungi....I think that's the secret but could be more?
I do know some people who have kept these going and are very pleased with them.I've only got one left now,a rarely seen 'Seiryu' but they can be difficult when young.Interestingly just this year I've seen larger 6ft clonal maples arriving here,must have a few years under their belt.Hopefully there's a photo of some Orange Dreams and Katsuras below,on their own roots.They weren't cheap but the fresh green stems down to the soil did look nice and they were very full and healthy looking.
Some people who've been into maples since way back before they became popular,say that in Japan they consider them to be much tougher on their own roots and far outlive their grafted counterparts.Also some cultivars are a lot more stable,less likely to revert.
I think we could be missing out on a lot regarding these plants,but it can take a lot of patience and time to achieve success.

Stephen,go back to the churchyard in a couple of months,seems a bit early to be this years seeds on the ground...freshest are best :)

Here GG,might be of interest widely available supplier

Houzi

Thx yet again for the message

I'm still struggling a little with the timing to Launch the Seed Planting

I do want to Maximise the Chances of some success in the Seeds taking.Hopefully I will have a 1000 Acres worth of "BLOODGOOD" Maple Trees....Only Kidding,aiming for 999.

Well i'm armed with "BLOODGOOD" seeds purchased off the Bay,(see below) a Bag of potting compost and the Perlite...

Been told to let them soak for 24 hours prior to planting into the cells which i'm ready to do.

Will this be the ideal time to do them or do I need to wait longer.(5th September)

You mentioned about waiting longer for the Churchyard Maple Seeds.Do the best and Freshest seeds coincide with the shedding of the trees Leaves.The Green Leafed Maple in the Churchyard looks around 60 years old

Well there's no urgency to put them out right this minute,you can if you like,as long as they're out there come autumn.
Yes,the best&freshest seeds will drop off the tree with the leaves in autumn.Some people choose to pluck them off the tree a bit prior to this for convenience.When the wings start turning brown,they know they are ready.It'll be a few more weeks here before they are ripe.

Here's a few of this year's Bloodgood seedlings.As you can see,none of them really resemble the parent at this stage....and perhaps they never will :)

Gardengal ~ Houzi

Thank you both for your wise words.

I respect these will be Generic Acer Palmatums and may look a varied Family of infants if they take as in the Picture here kindly posted by Houzi..

From what I have seen it does seem a variety of Trees grown from Seedlings occasionally lack a consistency in Leaf Colour.The Leaves can appear to be multi toned.

At this moment in time I am enjoying the Whole Japanese Maple Scene and am having lots of fun with my Gardeners Experimental Hat on..

The Advice & Expertise from all who post helpful Guidelines is of enormous help to beginners like myself...

Houzi

Can you please confirm the age of the Seedlings in your recent picture

When did you plant them and how long did they take to sprout

Thanks..

I'm from The Netherlands and live about 20 miles from van Son & Koot. They are one of the leading Japanese maple propagators over here. An innovative company with a good reputation. It propagates many of its Japanese maples through cuttings as this is much cheaper than grafting (labour is expensive over here). How they exactly propagate JM from cuttings I do not know but my guess is that a misting system, additional bottom heat and a rooting hormone are required.

I've seen Acer palmatum Atropurpureum, Katsura and Wilson's Pink Dwarf from cuttings and they do very well. In one season they grew from 1 foot to 3 to 4 feet with very good branching.

Propagation of Japanese Maples Through Seed

-- collect fresh seed in the fall as samara's go from green to brown

-- I prefer sowing JM outside for natural stratification and not via the artificial method (putting seeds with slightly moist sowing compost in a zip lock bag in the fridge) as I experienced seeds germinating in January/February in the zip lock bag in the fridge and having trouble growing them on.

-- cover the sowing with grit to prevent weeds and mosses like liverwort. Cover the pot with chicken wire or something like it to prevent animals or birds from having a go at your seeds (mice like JM seeds).

-- Put outside in a somewhat protected spot but where the weather elements can reach it (probably incorrect English but I hope you understand what I mean!)

-- Just wait.

-- More waiting ...

-- In (early) spring with rising temperatures a big amounts of the seeds will germinate. Don't expect that all the seeds will germinate because this does not happen in nature either. Some seeds will germinate in the second year after sowing. If you got 'old' seeds (i.e. not from the current season) more seeds will germinate in their second year than in the first year (but you can be lucky of course)

This is one I did earlier:

Japanese maple seeds that started to germinate in the zip lock bag in the fridge:

Sorry Stephen,can't be precise about the timings,would have been planted in October/November straight from the tree and all I can say is they surfaced somewhere between Feb&April.
Garden Prince,you must be spoilt for choice with all the nurseries in your country,especially around Boskoop though that may be further away from you.Yes that Son&Koot website is mind blowing,I've never seen so many maples in one place,quite an operation! I sent Jim Koot a message on facebook asking him for advice wrt cuttings but (perhaps unsurprisingly)never got a reply ha ha,though I realise he must be a busy man.
I'd say that the vast majority of maples in our garden centres(well at least up to 5l size) come from Netherlands as we've got very few propagators here.Interestingly they often have both grafted and own root maples from Van S.K.but they charge the same price for both ha ha.