Rooting Jap. Maple cuttings

Hello everyone.
I got onna roll this week taking cuttings of all kinds of plants using "Rapid Rooter's" as my medium. Has anyone rooted Jap. Maple cuts before? If so, any tips you could pass on? I've rooted ficus tree's and many other plants with these rapid rooters so I'm hoping I'll have similar luck with my "Acer"(I think).
If anyone has any tips for me, I'm all ears. If this works out well for me, I'll be sure to let you all know and post pics too.
Thanks, JD

OH BTW, if you haven't seen Rapid rooter's before...Here is a link describing them and why I think they work so well.
http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/rapidrooter2.html

The vast majority are grafted but some of the really dwarf types can be rooted from cuttings, such as Sharp's Pygmy.

Thanks Todd, I have some learning to do with these little tree's. Are the majority of these maples grafted on to existing root stock to ensure what kind of plant you get like most other tree's?
I was shocked to learn most of my hardwood tree's(Ash and Red Oak) were all grafted to some other rootball so we would be certain to get the desired traits in those tree's.
Do you think my Acer Jap. Maple was more than likely done this way too? Other than the name Acer, I'm not sure what else it may be named. It has the reddish leaves that tend to turn greener in late summer. It's the very common jap. Male you see at most every nursery for about 150-300$ depending on the size. I've had this 1 in the ground for several years and it's still less than 4 foot tall. I'll take pictures to help me ID it further.
I'm very anxious to root some of these, I'm going to try air layering on a couple bigger branches I want to prune off anyhow. It will be a learning experience if nothing else.
The cuttings I've already taken look good so far but they're only a little over a week into it.
Thanks so much for your info and I hope you can provide a little more.
JD

JD ...your rooting plugs work??...huh.... they don't contain any rooting hormones from what I can tell...supposedly there are two main types of hormone rooting compounds (maybe more but i've read of just two main ones) I have never had much luck rooting stuff...but may give it a try again, but probably not on JM's. Let us know your success or failure. Here's a link on grafting JMs. There's alot of free stuff to be googled also but these folks have put out a dvd...I have it but haven't watched it will review in future... They supposedly will also have root stock and scions available ???

http://www.laceleafnursery.com/

Oh man I can't say enough about Rapid Rooter cubes. They don't have a rooting hormone but they do make use of naturally occuring beneficial microbes that can make a huge differences in the long run once the uts initially begin to root. 99% of my experience with them is with passiflora's and hibiscus tree/bushes both hardy and tropical. I've used them on ficus tree's too and they all took. I still use "Clonex" rooting gel hormone but I know many people that don't oddly enough., I've always had pretty good luck when it comes to rooting cuttings of most anything but these cubes gave me 100% success on my 1st 2 trays of 50 cuttings per tray and that beats my past records. I used to use oasis cubes with what I thought was really good luck, but never 100%.
Here is a link in vines and climbers where you can see a few pictures and descriptions of cuttings I took at various stages. Somewhere in that same forum, I have a much better documented thread with more and better pictures of my 1st tray of these rapid rooters. I sure wished I could find that thread now darnit. I have another tray going now I can take pics of if you'd like to see more of the rooting and rooted. Hopefully I'll have a few rooted Jap. Maples in the next 2 weeks! I started 5 in the last week and they look good so far. I'll try to remember to take more pictures of this particular tray to document them on Jap. Maples. I figure if I was able to root 10 for 10 tiny verigated ficus tree cuttings, surely these maples will root too. The ficus tree cuts were just an experiment when I was trying to find the limits of these cubes. I was shocked to see that everything rooted, including the ficus, hardy and tropical hibiscus tree's. The ficus tree cuts were less than 6 inches long and 1/2 the diameter of a toothpic! LOL I was shocked
I'll keep you posted.
JD

Trees or shrubs that are difficult if not impossible to root from cuttings are grafted in order to make the plant available. A named JP will not come true from seed, and since they are difficult to root, then you would never be able to get the cultivar if it could not be grafted. They are grafted on JP rootstock, but just on the 'wild' form.

Yeah I learned that lesson the hard way when trying to grow many plants from seed. In order to get plants to breed true, there is a process called "cubing". They will take many seedlings with the growth triats they desire and back cross them with the parents over a series of atleast 4 generations, i'm leaving out much of the detail as I don't completely understand the exact technique. All the effort needed to stabilize a new hybrid from seed requires so much isolation to make sure there is no cross or accidental pollenation and so on.
That's why I've focussed so hard to try to make "cloning"/rooting cuts from a proven parent easier and more stream lined. My wife gets so disapointed every spring when she starts her hibiscus seeds picked from the parent plants growing in the yard only to find the seedlings are never or rarely close to the traits wanted from the parent plants.
I bet I'll be able to get a few of these cuttings to root but I can't imagine how many years it will take before I get a plant of any sze that will be able to survibve a winter. I'm using the same cubes to try air layering on a few bigger Jap. Maple branchesso I'll hopefully have a much bigger plant started.
I don't expect any miracles, I'm just trying to see what if any limitations these rapid rooter cubes have when it comes to rooting cuttings or cloning plants. So far, everything I've tried to root in them has rooted, knock on wood. Many other small tree's have rooted in these and I couldn't get them to root in oasis or rockwhool cubes. The key is the living micro organisms that are found in good soil and being able to innoculate your rooting medium with the same "bugs". I've found my plants are much more healthy and able to fight off pests or disease unlike plants in sterile/non living soil. I've been using different kinds of liquid innoculants and it has made a huge difference not only with the plants but it also helps create healthier/richer soil. I have areas in my yard that used to be mostly clay and with a little compost and these bugs, the soil is now rich and full of earth worms.
Well once again I've gotten way off topic, I'll quit rambling now;)
JD

For all those novices here is the best article I'ce found on cuttings...hope this helps ...David Myers

http://www.rooting-hormones.com/hudson.htm