Up-potting small Sango Kaku

last month

I have some Sango Kaku JM’s I’ve grown up from seeds and had in pots for some time due to moving house. I will eventually plant some out in the yard starting the with the largest ones, because for me these aren’t best container JM’s, ( I’ve already missed best tree-planting time here, due to Life happening , so may only plant one out in the easiest to water area) but smaller ones I just want to upsize for better health & growth .

They are in “regular” potting soil of some sort, but now I’m able to do 5:1:1. Is it better to re- pot with least root disturbances, other than any girdling, or best to go to bareroot and spread out in the new mix so as to get benefits of new soil mix ? I suspect the latter, but just checking!

Trees have already started leafing out, but would I prune any large roots out or just do least trauma since actively growing now?

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marmiegard_z7b
Original Author
last month
Was trying to post in Maples but HOUZZ somehow gave only limited options.
marmiegard_z7b
Original Author
last month
Bumping.
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Two more pictures at the URLs below- I don't see the way to post more than one through Gardenweb in the same thread. http://pic10.picturetrail.com/VOL343/1802724/3609338/120496492.jpg http://pic10.picturetrail.com/VOL343/1802724/3609338/120496491.jpg
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I'm going to disagree on the coloring of Sango Kaku - even very mature trees will have very pronounced red coloring on the outer branches and stems and this feature is intensified in cold weather. It is only the oldest wood that loses color, beginning from the ground up, so that the trunk and then the largest scaffold branches fade and take on a green-brown color from the inside out. With a well-developed canopy, this loss of color on the oldest wood is hardly noticeable and the branching appears uniformly red. My 15+ y.o. SK fairly glows in winter and is highly visible from a good distance. I'd also agree that the fall color of the tree in the photo is quite a bit more intense than the color SK typically develops - especially that pinky-orange on the outside leaves. But the color reproduced in most amateur photographs is seldom totally accurate. A golden yellow with some peachy-apricot overtones is more usual, but fall color can be influenced by a number of factors and IS variable so it's possible. In my climate, which normally produces great fall color on JM's, the yellow gold for SK is typical. And yes, there are scores of JM cultivars that will produce orange-gold fall coloring.
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Sango Kaku is an enormously popular cultivar and much like 'Bloodgood', suffers a bit from overproduction as well in that it is often grafted from inferior stock. It is also more vulnerable to some common J. maple diseases as well. But having said that, if yours is from quality stock, the reddest stems will be the newest growth but that is sometimes not very apparent during the growing season -- colder weather seems to bring out the best coloring and winter is the time these trees really glow. Older growth and especially the trunk will fade to a more greenish brown in time but the upper stems and smaller branches should be a bright coral red. The foliage tends to be a grassy, almost chartreuse green during the season but then takes on a peachy golden color in fall. Depending on your specific location, SK can take a lot of sun as well. In my area it grows happily in full sun (with adequate summer watering) and that exposure also seems to intensify the coloring. Since it is still in a container, you might want to try it out in a variety of sitings before planting it permanently to see what works best for the stem coloring.
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marmiegard_z7b
Original Author
last month
I did just find Al’s thread on potting up vs re- potting- very helpful maybe that’s most of the answer. Perhaps if any major encircling roots these would be untangled mainly to allow potting medium to fill in. But may not matter as much since those would not be major feeders.
I think I am partly asking, if it does not do much good to pot up, is if not even worth the time, and I should just try to get the smaller pots to survive through this year until early next spring.
I had thought that potting up would provide more growing medium for watering & make the small trees a bit more resilient during the hot summer, but that was when assumed the roots would automatically be “ happier “ when potted up.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last month
Sorry I missed this discussion earlier and I'm not sure if I am really answering your question but I grow ALL my JM's in containers and when I buy a new one - almost always in leaf - I just pot up. No bare rooting, no root pruning. But I buy small, JM's here are most often grown in a very barky planting media anyway and I have yet to find one that had root issues serious enough to warrant bare rooting and correcting before planting up. And I do use a mix very similar to the 5-1-1, so again, very barky.

But I have not grown any from seed intentionally so I can't address how that approach may be different or the impact that may have on the root system compared to store bought trees growing a very durable growers' mix :-)

I should also tell you that seed grown Japanese maples can never be referred to by a cultivar name. Reproduction of all the attributes of a named cultivar, in this case Sango Kaku, can ONLY be achieved by asexual propagation - grafting or cuttings. Seed grown trees are just considered the straight species of Acer palmatum regardless of their source and may or may not resemble the parent tree very closely once they mature. So what you are growing may look like Sango Kaku but technically it is not. It could also grow up to look nothing like SK.
marmiegard_z7b
Original Author
last month
Thanks. gardengal, that is helpful. I will just pot up a few into 5:1:1 without messing with the roots really.
I do realize these are not “ true” SK’s. I had potted up the seedlings with the best fall colors & have grown some in pots for over 5 years now, so a few are 3-4 feet tall, what I know is that they’re green in summer, yellow in fall & do have red stems of new growth and a generally vase shape, but don’t know what would happen in the ground over many years. So mainly I’d be cautious about how big they might get or about giving them a prime location where I need a predictable size or shape. I have some areas of yard that are like woods’ edge but I can still reach with hose for watering in so I’m thinking about just , plant, live or die.
They came from trees I planted on another property 20 years ago, where I also had a lovely Viridis and container JM’s also, ( here I have a Full Moon, Crimson Queen , and Shishigashira in containers, but not in 5:1:1 yet), so there’s also that sentimental clinging to plants related to a former garden, and growing “ my babies”. And I have planted a number of things I managed to bring over.
But also I am finding that after a couple of years in the new neighborhood, different soil & topography, I’m becoming more pragmatic about doing a new thing, not trying to re- create the old where it might not fit.

Up-potting small Sango Kaku

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Up-potting small Sango Kaku

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