Japanese Maple

@Apey

We have some similar Japanese Maples in my town. I visited them yesterday and I looked on the ground hoping to find some helicopter seeds. It turns out that they remain attached to the tree and they are very small. I removed 50 or so.

I will dampen some vermiculite and cover the planted seeds with cellophane and store them in my refrigerator over the winter. I will put them out next spring and they should sprout. :smiley:

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It’s my understanding that the seeds may take several seasons before reaching that height.

They do much better in latitudes below 35 degrees. From 35 to about 38 they will usually do well if they have some kind of shelter on the north, but above that they are pretty challenged.

I love them; they’re beautiful. But they aren’t any more cold hardy than southern magnolias, which are also beautiful.

This is one of very few species that’s been imported that has no apparent OOPSIE as a downside. They don’t mess anything else up, IOW.

Ima going to use growth hormone. :grin:

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When I first moved into my house there was an American Chestnut growing on my property; it had a trunk diameter of about 5 inches…then it got the blight. It kept sending up shoots for about 5 years but that was it. Sad.

I wonder if some sort of gene splicing or such would help. I know that work is being done. The American Chestnut used to make up about 25% of US forest trees.

I don’t care for the horse chestnut due to its odor at certain seasons. We used to have scads of them here along with the oaks and elms, but the Dutch elm blight killed most of the elms off. Our sycamores are still glorious, probably because they don’t get timbered off since their lumber isn’t prized.

Coincidentally, I started two sycamore trees from seed about 40 years ago and they are still growing. I planted them east of a couple of houses which was a great spot to plant them although this was simply by accident. :slightly_smiling_face:

The same is true for the Chinese Chestnut although they have tasty seeds.

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I put the seeds in a plastic sandwich bag in my refrigerator and I then promptly forgot about them. :rofl: I think they are still viable and I will try again next spring. I will add some vermiculite as well.

I read that if you plant from seed the colors of the seedlings will not necessarily be the same as the parent tree. With root hormone(about $8) you get the exact same color as the parent tree. You could do that with your local tree as well. You would only need a few inches of twig, you would end up with an identical tree as the parent. You would be doing this for the future of course. :slightly_smiling_face:

Japanese maples are one of my favorite trees. So lovely.

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Agreed.

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