Bonsaify | Make Radiant Radial Nebari for Japanese Maple Bonsai

Eric shares his techniques for developing stunning nebari on young Japanese Maples grown from seed. Learn how to get your nebari growing in the right direction!
00:00:25 Dispelling the myth that Japanese Maples can't be grown from seed. Eric believes seed-grown maples have a good variety of useful and interesting characteristics.
00:01:42 Using 2-year-old plants to demonstrate trimming roots back to a cone shape.
00:02:30 Why removing circling roots is important.
00:03:31 How to decide which roots to remove from the trunk.
00:04:20 Normalizing roots to create a radial dispersion for the nebari.
00:04:54 How to avoid lopsided nebari.
00:05:46 Why fine roots should be trimmed into the shape you want the nebari to be.
00:07:04 Using a 4-year-old maple, Eric shares an additional procedure for larger plants with more roots circling.
00:08:53 For this older tree growing out in gallon can, Eric uses relatively the same process for roots.
00:09:35 Removing a large root and a hard cutback on another root.
00:11:18 Anchoring and repotting into an Anderson flat.
00:11:35 Repotting the three smaller trees into mesh-sided grow bags.
00:12:45 Eric uses top wires to stabilize the trees in the bags.
00:13:43 Establishing trunk line and sacrifice branches using a technique commonly used in Japan to grow maple trunks.
Have you tried to grow maples from seed? Share your experiences in the comments below! Thank you for watching; please give this video a like and share it with your bonsai friends, and subscribe to our channel.

[@treeaddict]

Lots of good info/techniques for a 15 minutes vid. Thanks

[@Serentropic]

The hole punch is clever, I'll have to keep that in mind! I enjoy collecting random Japanese maple seedlings. There's hundreds of adults around the neighborhood here, so it's fun to see what hybrids I get. How do you feel about the washer technique for maples?

[@brianparnell2256]

Great timing on this video. With Spring coming in the UK I’ve got about 50 one year old Maples I’ve grown from seed. This gives me instruction on the next process in their development. Thanks.

[@acer_p_bonsai]

Nice demo of early development work on Japanese maples. I love my cultivars, but it’s also really rewarding to collect seedlings and see what unique leaves and growth habits they will give you. One of my favorites is a semi-Bloodgood that throws an amazing purple leaf color. 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁

[@XaviersBonsaiRetreat]

Another fantastic easy to understand demonstration of developing maples. I'm just about to dig into my maples this week. Looks like our warm winter /spring is going to hang around for at least a few more weeks :)

[@iPheek]

Im always excited to watch your videos!!

[@BenCreehan]

Thanks for the great video. I've been following your advice and growing technique for the last 4yrs. I owe my growing success to you. I now have 5 raised beds full of about 100 trees. So thank you for helping everyone build quality material.

[@phillipwaterman5721]

Lots of good information about acers great video thanks Eric

[@kirliyapag1641]

I love how you keep your amateur spirit up. Good video!

[@BONSAIenCORTO]

Great video talking about different materials, depending time. Never saw this kind of pot.... Thanks!!!!!

[@BlueJayBonsai]

Great root work! 👍

[@givetanks]

Great info - I like the use of fabric basket

[@BillsBayou]

Great video!

[@sueb1317]

Great info! Looking forward to trying these techniques with my other deciduous trees so see how they respond. I noticed that the tops of your trees were left unpruned. Do you find that the new leaves wilt a lot, or do the roots recover and keep up with the water demand?

[@9daywonda]

Nice one as ever ERIC.

[@backbudbonsai]

Great insight! Thank you for sharing

[@tylerjamesnewton1422]

Sometimes I just come and like your video when I don’t have time to watch. Just bc you rock. But also, I may get my first Japanese maple 🍁 this year to do bonsai work on. Cheers

[@TheBonsaiCreator]

Lots of good information for a bonsai grower like me. New subscriber here

[@JasperThz]

Hey Eric, tnx for the video! Would you mind sharing the Soil mix that you are using? I never worked with perlite, but you seem to be growing very nice roots in your soil. Grz Jasper

[@Bonsaify]

These are in 80% perlite (coarse) and 20% coco coir. More recently I've been using fir bark also. The perlite maintains the structure while the coco / bark retains nutrients. It's not perfect but it's cheap and a fast mix for growing.

[@Chris-oq6kn]

​@@Bonsaifyhey eric would it be ok to use something like scotts potting soil in place of the coco coir iv been putting my maples in like a 3gal pot with scotts and some bonsai substrate added ,Or should i use the coco?

[@jeffreyhutchings561]

I have some maple seedlings that sprouted last year in Spring. I have them in 3-4” pots. When would be a good time to add some wire to give them movement? I’ll wait until next March to repot them.

[@amyr3285]

I am just starting to grow a few from seeds I got from England. They are a rare red maple, according to the description. I began by soaking the seeds with moderately warm water. What kind of soil is best to use for them afterwards when I eventually put them in soil? Thank you!

[@ronnorton6590]

Just moved to South Carolina and maple trees are just sprouting around our house. Just pulled them up and potted them up. Don't know the variety. Their doing well. Have you had success doing this?

[@Chris-oq6kn]

Would it be ok to replace say the coco coir with a scotts potting soil or just go with ur mix ? I bought six of ur kishus and they were very nice!

[@Bonsaify]

Yes, coco coir and peat moss are very similar. I wouldn't think you'd see much difference.

[@paulm.shurak3747]

Great video I need to get a tray like the one you use. What's it called ? please

[@acer_p_bonsai]

Are you talking about the Anderson flat (black growing container)? Or do you mean the potting tray?

[@Bonsaify]

The green potting tray is a HydroFarm 16" saucer - made to put under house plants etc. But it makes a great shallow soil catcher for repotting. amzn.to/3wmmunJ The black square flats are 17" Anderson Deep Propagation flats.

[@paulm.shurak3747]

Thank you

[@paulm.shurak3747]

@@acer_p_bonsaithank you

[@dracokaiser]

I’m in Bloomington Indiana. Do you think it’s ok to repot seedlings right now?

[@Bonsaify]

Wait until you see the leaves just peaking out of the buds. The tree will tell you when - then be sure to protect from any late season freezing after you repot.

[@harlem_nerd5191]

Is it cool to sift and reuse the old soil when repotting?

[@Bonsaify]

My reply to a similar question: I was always told to use fresh soil by my teacher. But in a nursery setting I reuse soil. There are a few caveats - I don't reuse soil where I see any evidence of root rot or root insects. I discard any soil like that. I also re-sift used soil to remove broken down particles. The obvious danger is that any pathogens that are in the soil can infect new trees. But one of the things I often do is re-use the soil from a healthy tree on that same tree. Fungal pathogens are going to travel no matter what you do...so rather than worrying about soil re-use as a vector I focus on inoculating the soil with beneficial biologicals and treating plants where I see symptoms of problems. All that said - I DO NOT reuse soil for specimen trees. The way I see it is there is no risk worth taking for a tree that is 100 years old. Only the best will do. Obviously opinions vary on this topic, so take this as a data point...

[@viktorsbonsai]

”Radiant radial” hehe nice play on words

[@garymccarthy4994]

At what stage in their development do you switch from the coco coir & perlite soil mixture to more of a "bonsai" soil?

[@Bonsaify]

The coir/perlite mix is "fast" so I'm using it when doing development work. When I want to slow things down and do refinement I switch and pot down to a bonsai container. So essentially I switch at the point when most people acquire material - the trunk and primary branches are mostly set.

[@garymccarthy4994]

Great, thanks Eric!

[@tototest4157]

Thank you for this video. I would appreciate a few words on feeding. I guess there is no nutrients in your coco perlite mix

[@Bonsaify]

Young trees - after the first year when you are setting up the nodes in the lower trunk - can be heavily fertilized, but AP's are sensitive to salt-based fertilizers like MiracleGro - so use those sparingly and add some organic fertilizer like fish emulsion or pellets. I don't use organics much in the nursery because it causes lots of extra cleanup work and encourages weeds, but I use them on my older bonsai. Many organic fertilizers can attract rodents - I find that rabbit/chicken manure based fertilizers are fine and cheap. www.groworganic.com/products/nutri-rich-4-3-2-organic-pellets-50-lb

[@brucedeacon28]

👍👌🙂

[@jameswalker3416]

Im lost as to what you mean at the end of the video. Trunk chops are ugly? Any scars are ugly. I would love to hear more about this. Is it just bigger scars, and you are kinda spreading the scares around so they close faster?

[@Bonsaify]

The first time I grew a medium size Japanese maple I trunk-chopped - it's not the scars that are the problem - they heal with the right technique. It's that it alters the shape of the trunk and makes it less ideal. If you manage to avoid reverse taper from trunk chopping and you heal the wound you still get this effect. So instead I've been using the technique that Mr. Ebihara used - spaced out sacrifice branching. (people reference his root work a lot, but that wasn't all he was good at doing.) You still have to heal wounds but you get the smooth elegant trunk and taper that you want without trunk chopping. I discussed it as it applies to one of my projects in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/enTZhKagZa2ZppI I'll likely revisit that tree in the next year or so for another video, at which point I can discuss this in more detail or perhaps demonstrate it better.

[@jameswalker3416]

@Bonsaify I would love that. I've heard of Mr. Ebihara. Mainly his root work, but I've seen him use grafting in ways I never thought about. I can't find much from him, at least in english.

[@DavidScheltema]

Single hole punch for the win!!! 🍁 🪴🕳️ 🥊 11:49