A Gardener’s Guide to Growing an Awesome Japanese Maple Bonsai – Part II
In my previous article we dealt with the correct fertilizing, watering, sunlight, and humidity requirements for the Japanese maple bonsai. This Part II will deal with pruning your japanese maple, re-potting your japanese maple, root pruning, and also the winter care of your Japanese maple.
Pruning
The Japanese maple bonsai is formed, partly, through careful and thought out pruning. You can prune leaves, branches and roots with additional internode pinching. Autumn is definitely the optimal time of year to prune a Japanese maple due to the fact you'll find it easier to observe the form of the tree when there are no leaves, but more significantly because the plants bleed heavily if pruned at the begining of spring. Your tree won't bleed as badly if you should also prune it's roots, if undertaken in advance. All wounds resulting from pruning the tree's branches need to be covered with a wound dressing sold at your neighborhood garden store or nursery. If you're going to prune the tree's roots and carry out some branch pruning the best time of year will be to do both in the fall.
Fine, delicate branches would definitely be a feature of superior Japanese maple bonsai examples. When you prune your tree to avoid long internodes the effect should be delicate branches. An internode is the space on a branch in between one pair of leaves and the next pair of leaves. To shorten the internode you have to regularly pinch back all the new growth during the growing season. You must pinch back new shoots by pruning them back to just two sets of leaves (internodes). When you pinch off new shoots it results in a shorter internode on the next shoot, and when the internodes are shorter the foliage is always denser.
Leaf Pruning , also called defoliating, is carried out to cause that tree create smaller leaves. It is best to only do this once every couple of years. Leaf pruning results in all of the tree's leaves being removed, but being very careful to leave the leaf's stem attached to the branch. This tricks the tree into a "false autumn" and leads to an additional set of leaves being produced that are smaller than the first set of leaves that the tree created. Defoliating really should only be carried out every two years, and you should not defoliate your plant during the same year that the tree has been repotted.
When to Re-Pot Your Japanese Maple
To maintain health and vigor bonsai trees really should be re-potted about once every couple of years. After two years of growth the roots begin to get somewhat overcrowded. An excellent time to re-pot is in the fall, but it can certainly be done in the spring. The primary grounds for re-potting is to give you a chance to prune the trees roots. The effect of root pruning is going to be to stimulate healthy new growth. After removing the tree from its pot the roots ought to be washed with water to make re-potting easier. To avoid future root rot you should be very careful to remove all of the dead and/or injured roots. One of the best potting mixture consists of loam, peat, and coarse sand in a 1:1:1 ratio. For all styles except a cascading style, you need to use a shallow pot. This will compel the roots to spread out which enables it to create a stable root base.
Root Pruning
If at all possible attempt to plan the pruning of your maple's roots and branches to be done at the same time. That will lessen the strain to the root system in attempting to supply water to the plant's branches and leaves.
As trees grow older they only need to have their roots pruned about every 2-3 years.
Pruning your trees roots will cause the tree to lose some of its ability to move food and water throughout the rest of the tree. For this reason fall is the best time for you to prune the roots because the tree is slowing down it's systems of moving water and nutrients through the tree anyway. The least stressful times of the year for this to take place is either in the late fall or in the early spring.
By late fall, the Japanese maple has quit providing it's leaves with water and temperatures are cooling. Although there is no visible activity in the top portions of the tree, the roots continue to be very active, and will remain so so long as the temperatures stay above 55F in the daytime. If you prune the roots prior to the temperature dropping below 55 degrees the roots will have a chance for some new growth.
Caring for Your Japanese Maple During the Winter
Water the tree completely as the last few leaves drop off in the fall. Move your tree to an area where it will be sheltered from severe winter winds. If not sheltered, the dry winter winds can cause extensive injury to your Japanese maple. The reason is the wind will very quickly dry out the soil in the bonsai pot. Your Japanese maple bonsai doesn't need to be watered as often through the winter, but that does not mean you don't need to check on it now and again. When it looks almost totally dry then give it a splash of water, once every week or two. Bonsai plants, since they grow in small pots, can suffer from root freeze very easily. Keep the tree in a cold frame to help keep the soil from freezing and also to protect it from frosts.
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About the Author:
Bonsai is fascinating, affordable, and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Click this link to learn more about growing your own amazing Japanese maple bonsai. Sign up for your FREE 7-part mini-course on how to grow all kinds of miniature bonsai trees. To get started growing your own bonsai trees right away check out the essential "how-to" bonsai book, "Beautiful Bonsai Secrets". Peace.
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