AusBonsai

Hi these are some maples at a house that will be demolished. I will go dig them up if im told they areok. Ive never worked with maples and know nothing about them,so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Are these suitable for bonsai?

Sorry not very clear photos.

If it was me I would be using it.

I would air layer parts off it first if possible.

Thx, not possible unfortunately. Where would you cut? (There are 2 diffrent trees)

go for it--I would have zero hesitation --would only cut back the upper branches to near the trunk- and get the biggest root ball you can handle and pot up -leave in cool spot--fingers crossed

Awsome thx.

Sven, they look like regular Acer palmatum, as Guy mentioned leave some foliage, i have had previous bad experiences doing big trunk chops on them ,i'm pretty sure they don't like it too much. Little by little good luck

OK cool, im a bit confused. SHould i cut all top branches and leave some lower ones with leaves? or leave it still quite high with leaves?

you should be able to take off some branches, but just don't dig it out and trunk chop it down low with out leaving some shoots.

ok i see.

I'm no expert with Maples, matter of fact I kow nothing about them, but if it were me I would be digging the trees out, taking as big a root ball as I could and then planting back into the ground at home. Give a bit of an all over prune and leave the trees until next spring before doing any real work on them. But then, thats just me and as I said, I know nothing about Maples.

When you dig the trees, wrap the root ball securely in a bag or sheet of plastic to cause as little damge to the roots as possible. After planting back into the ground water them well and give them a good shot of Seasol, or Superthrive if you have it.

Graeme wrote:I'm no expert with Maples, matter of fact I kow nothing about them, but if it were me I would be digging the trees out, taking as big a root ball as I could and then planting back into the ground at home. Give a bit of an all over prune and leave the trees until next spring before doing any real work on them. But then, thats just me and as I said, I know nothing about Maples.

When you dig the trees, wrap the root ball securely in a bag or sheet of plastic to cause as little damge to the roots as possible. After planting back into the ground water them well and give them a good shot of Seasol, or Superthrive if you have it.

Very sound advice. I have successfully dug up several of these maples. But I had the luxury of times. And I have never dug up anything this time of year before.

But as you have said, you will have to anyway. So go for it.

The only thing I would like to add is shelter them from strong the winds and the heat. Feed them diluted Seasol after transplanted. And possibly every second week.

Good luck and please keep us posted of the progress.

Instant stock with a good size trunk if you get that going mate

In case you don’t have room for two just give us a call just joking!

Good luck!

I'd also try for that indian hawthorn on the right of pic 5---and anything else that's there

Yea, there are quite a few other trees there, Im not sure which would be good or not. Id love to grab em all.

japanese maple are suitable for bonsai

regarding trunk chop. maple dont back bud on places where there's no bud

japanese maple has primary bud, secondary bud and Tertiary bud.

if u have those. then it is ok to cut on top of them