Seeds are preferable to cuttings....by a large margin, especially for the beginner.

Mike

Seeds for most of the big maples around here are what, an early summer thing? Collect a few dozen, bury them shallow like in a couple pots with different types of well draining soil and mulch. Place in varying amount of sun and rain and see what pops up.

The big three, red, silver and sugar maples seed prolifically. You can usually find volunteers growing in flower beds or even gutters near the mama tree

I'd go with seeds as well - maples are notoriously difficult to propagate by cuttings. Try to find out what kind of maple you are dealing with as well, as different type of maples may require some different approaches to seed germination. Not all maples species will germinate easily or with similar degrees of seed viability.

Once I find out what kind it is ill let you all know. Ill try to have that picture today

Germination is quicker if seeds are planted when still soft, rather than hard and brown.

Here is the picture sorry about the glare it's dark and rainy. When ,where, and how do I get seeds? It's not letting me post pictures right now ill add them to my page if you don't mind takin a peek thanks!

My first guess is it isnone of the 1010101 cultivars of Acer palmatum, Japanese maple. Lemme guess, maybe 20 foot tall max, about as wide and branches low? Those I have had more trouble with.

Also assuming my ID is correct, most of those are grafted clones of a particular tree with striking features. Seedlings may be similar or not. I have had attractive "generic, Japanese maple trees btw.

Definitely a Japanese maple, Acer palmatum. Relatively easily grown from seed although seedlings may or may not bear any resemblance to the parent tree(s). Seeds, if any, are ripe in fall and can be left to germinate in situ or collected and grown on in containers. There are many previous threads on this forum outlining that process.

JM's can be sporadic in seed production. Some years there may be a heavy seed load and others years not so much. And some cultivars are just not inclined to much flowering/seed production at all.

It's just a bit late in the season for seeds.....usually early to mid October is the ideal collection time. But you may still find a few attached to the tree or fallen below (IF the tree produced any seed at all). If not, I'd suggest waiting until spring when the tree leafs out and keep a close eye on its flowering. Then track those flowers through the season as they develop into the winged seeds (samaras) and collect in early fall.

What do you mean may not look like patent tree? What else would it look like? Thank you guys so much all this helps so much. I will be keeping a close eye once spring comes around. Thanks again so much guys!

That's parent tree - you may get some seedlings with somewhat different characteristics.

October is probably not in fact the ideal time as by then seeds may have hardened. The ideal time with maples is as soon as seeds are fully formed, but not yet hard and dry. Once they turn hard dormancy sets in and it may be a long time before they sprout.

Actually, early October IS when seeds of Acer palmatum are considered ripe and suited for planting. Feel free to verify with any number of sources.

Named forms of Japanese maples are only propagated asexually, typically by grafting. That is the only way one is assured of obtaining a clonal duplicate of the named form. Seed grown trees can never be named forms but only generic species seedlings and these seedlings can be extremely variable in appearance. Some may look very similar to the parent (provided there is only one parent tree) but others may look quite distinct. And if more than one JM was involved in pollen transfer, there is really no way to predict what may generate from the seeds. However, even seedling species JM's can produce very attractive trees.

Let me try an over the top explanation.

We have been cloning Japanese maples and many fruit trees for centuries. We take a part of a plant we like and graft it onto a "generic" set of roots of the same species. If it take you have a plant identical to the parent.

For eons humans have been reproducing sexually. My woman and I get together and pollinate a "seed" inside her. What pops out is a mix of the both of us. Take two short red headed ppl and you'll probably get a short kid with red hair. Not always though.

There are limitations and expectations though. No matter how you try you won't get a 12 foot tall human. That Japanese maple will not give birth to a sixty foot tall tree either.

Maple seeds are known to germinate more readily when planted before becoming ripe as in firm and brown. This is a fact. Once they become hard then they enter dormancy, take sometimes much longer to come up.

"Fruits (samaras, the winged fruits of maples) should be harvested in September or October, depending on weather". van Gelderen, Maples for Gardens.

"At Maplewood, seed collected in fairly early fall germinated at a rate of 75-90%. The best collecting period in Oregon was early autumn (September)". Vertrees, Japanese Maples: The Complete Guide to Selection and Cultivation.

"Japanese Maple seed is ripe when the tip of the samara is slightly dry, usually indicated
by a brown necrotic look. They typically reach this stage sometime in October". Brad Elmore, UBC Maple Forum, Fujiyama Japanese Garden.

Vertrees excerpt appears to refer to what I am talking about - seeds picked earlier having come up more readily. Otherwise you can find all kinds of dogma online saying they won't come up unless you wait until they are hard and brown. Same sources then go to describe in detail a whole bunch of rigamarole you have to go through to overcome the fact that they were left to become hard and brown before planting.

Research conducted during 1991-3 determined that autumn-ripening maples have inner seed coat dormancy that has to be defeated in addition to outer seed coat dormancy, with sprouting being greatly expedited by removal of outer seed coats and poking or partial slicing etc. of inner seed coats. A problem is trying to find a way to do this with any efficiency, and without damaging the embryos in the process.

About this time or earlier the improved results from earlier harvesting thing was being mentioned, for instance Maples for Gardens (1994 Timber Press):

Seed collected green in early September typically germinates better the following spring

I first heard about better results from planting of still soft maple seeds from a specialist tree and shrub nurseryman. If you combine what became known about maple seed coat dormancy with recommendations to gather seed before it becomes hard, plant it right away the implication is there is a window in late summer when the seeds are mature enough to germinate but seed coat dormancy has not yet kicked in.

How this all relates to the original subject is that it might be just as well to wait for next year's crop instead of using hard and brown, fully dormant seeds from this year. However, a few of these coming up next spring may be possible, if they have been subjected to cold this whole time - as in lying around on the ground beneath the tree (preferably protected by fallen leaves). If getting only one or two seedlings within a year or two is enough it might still be worth planting some of those.