Rooting japanese red maple cuttings

Has anyone tried to root japanese red maple cuttings? If so could you share how you did it?
vicki

Vicki, I have not actually rooted Japanese Maples, but have been given instructions from an Aunt. She downloaded them from the internet so we are both trying it. Hopefully someone else will pipe up and give us some personal experience.... nothing beats experience... but this is better than nothing.

I really have to wonder if just planting them outside in the fall and letting nature do it's thing would actually be better, but my aunt gave me a bag of seeds already in peat moss with instructions and dates prepared for me so I'll go that route.


Propagating Japanese Maples

Japanese Maple seeds are ready to be picked when they turn brown and start falling from the tree. Collect the seeds and clean them by breaking off the wing attached to the seeds. Place the cleaned seeds in a cup, and fill the cup with hot tap water and let them soak for 24 hours. This will soften the outer coating of the seed so moisture can penetrate and germination can begin.

After soaking the seeds place them in a plastic bag in moist peat moss. Make sure the peat is moist but not too wet; you don't want the seeds to rot. The bag should be closed but not completely airtight. Poke a few holes in the bag. Store this bag at room temperature, but not in direct sunlight for a period of 90 days, and then move them to the refrigerator for a period of 70 days. During the cold stratification period check your seeds once a week to see if any of them have begun to sprout. If 10% or more have sprouted, plant them outside right away.

To plant them, just prepare a raised bed of topsoil and sprinkle the seeds on top of the soil. Cover the seeds with approximately 1/8" of topsoil. Make sure you don't plant them too deep, and keep them watered but not too wet. Once they begin to grow, provide them with about 50% shade. That's all there is to it.

You want to time this process so the seeds are ready to be planted outside in the spring, after the danger of frost has passed. To do this, pick the date on your calendar when you think the danger of frost should be past, and count backwards the total number of days the seeds will be in both cold, and warm storage. Start stratifying the seeds on that day. The seeds can be stored dry in the fall until you are ready to use them. Make sure they are dry and place them in a paper bag and keep the bag in a cool dry place until it is time to start stratifying them.

Wow thanks,I just winter sowed over 200 seeds of 4 kinds of jap. maples, I should try it this way also.Experiment.LOL.Jody

vwetzel;

You might check this article on rooting j maples from bonsaichat.org:
http://www.bonsaichat.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31

The gentelman who wrote this article, Ryan, was able to root a laceleaf maple with this method.

Good luck!

Maureen