This is my first Jap. Maple what kind do I have...?

....AND ...am I don't anything wrong already? I got this little guy at a market in town in March. The seller said that it was 5 years old and was about 1 1/2 feet high at the time it was all red. Now it is not bigger but does have more leaves and is mostly green with some red leaves still and some that are both. From looking around I think it looks most like the Orangea variety is that what it is (or do I need to wait a full year to see all it's colors?) It gets an hour or two of afternoon sun now but was getting a few green leaves even before I put it in the ground.

I'm also not sure how she propogated it...grafted, or a cutting whatever...but here is the base of the plant maybe someone can tell me.

and finally here is a close up of one of the single leaves that are both red and green...I haven't noticed if they are going from red to green or vice versa or if that is the color they started as but the dual color leaves definitely weren't there 2 weeks ago. It was only solid red or green.

It could be an orangeola leaf shape is similar but it may be something else ..it llooks grafted to me ...but 18" in five years..sounds a bit odd ...though the seller may be exagerating age and i can't tell the calipwer of trunk but an 18 " orangeola would be at least 2 ft with probabable larger than that spread and thats a minimum figure...It should be MUCH bigger than yours in 5 years if in fact it is a orangeola. Of course a potted unfertilized or poorly care for plant could cause lack of growth...David

The trunk diameter is about 3/4 in to a little under 1 in. It was in a 1 gal. pot when I got it lots of bark in the mix and it looked more like top soil than potting soil.

that is a pretty good diameter and it could be that old ...one gal pot for a five year old ...hummm well i am not into bonzai but could be that...if not those roots prob hadn't been trimmed and were a total mess..I hope you trimmed 'em and spread 'em out a bit ...if they were OK then definitly bonzai which I guess can be done with many cultivars although i hadn't heard of orangeola as one ..but then I'm not a bonzai guy. The soil sounds like a typical soiless bark mix standard in the jm industry ... ...david

Could it just be a dwarf variety?

Laura

I am not certain it fits any dwarfs I know of but even a 5 year old dwarf should NOT be in a one gal container and still would have large root systems and compressed in a one gal pot well.... ...remember if grafted they are on standard root stock...Bonzai enthusiasts have a plethora of expensive tools to keep the roots controlled so they will survive and stay small AND HEALTHY in small pots.And if not properly root pruned I don't think it would do well ...my guess it was a bonzai and I'd bet mini will report back that the root system seemed fine. My guess someone tried it and the branching structure wasn't good for bonzai ...but just a guess ... I am NOT an expert on this but these remarks seem logical ...David

Yeah I was actually surprised when I pulled it out of the container that it wasn't very rootbound. So the bonzai theory sounds plausible. I wasn't very impressed with the soil though, lots of pine bark and sand if that makes a difference.

Most Jm "experts don't like sand in their mix it is TOO fine and does not help proper drainage... pine bark though is preferred... most used pine bark fines but around here ya can't find that so as long as the bark is not in gigantic chunks it works ...there is no "bible" on this...there are as many recepiets for potting mediums as there are jm cultivars...and soiless is a must especially to avoid disease and over fertile medium that jm's don't need ...many Jm's also don't like peat ...it compacts , drys out too fast, doesn't drain well and is basically not great although i use a bit of pro mix peat based medium in mine. the whole idea is to have a medium to promote root growth without disease and one that doesn't need constant watering and that has proper drainage> As I have posted before many use small granite or turface ...I use chicken and turkey grit ..its super cheap and promotes proper dranage and root growth...plus there is something about using it that cracks me up and brings back memories of raising chickens ( in a city) as a kid ...boy those suckers do crow at day break but neighbors never complained ...go figure??? ;>) David