If you look around in various gardening forums, many hobby gardeners complain about a lack of success when trying to propagate cuttings or seeds of the Japanese maple. In fact, Acer palmatum is sometimes a bit complicated in both vegetative and seed propagation, but with the right tricks the project can succeed here too. Incidentally, red Japanese maple is considered to be particularly difficult to propagate - we will show you how it can still succeed.

Older Japanese maples form seeds after flowering

Propagation by seeds

Older Japanese maples bloom between May and June every year. From these often red flower clusters, the winged nutlets containing seeds develop in autumn. Of course, these can also be used to propagate the ornamental plant, although they must be stratified - after all, the Japanese maple is a cold germ. Patience is also required, because propagation via seeds can take a year or two to germinate. It is therefore easiest to sow the seeds directly outdoors in autumn and wait.

Alternatively, you can also proceed as follows:

  • Pack the seeds in a bag with damp sand,
  • which you put in the vegetable compartment of your refrigerator for six weeks.
  • Then let the seeds soak in a glass of water for about a day or two.
  • Now sand them down a bit with fine sandpaper.
  • Now plant them in a pot with potting soil.
  • And put it in a bright place.
  • Keep the substrate evenly moist.

Purchased seeds are usually already stratified.

Vegetative ways of propagation

Since with vegetative propagation you are essentially making clones of the mother plant, it should be as vigorous and healthy as possible - her offspring will inherit all of her positive and negative traits.

propagation by cuttings

You can propagate Japanese maple using cuttings in the following way:

  • Cut some shoots that are no longer quite soft between the end of May and the end of June.
  • The cut surface should run as diagonally as possible.
  • The cuttings should have several pairs of leaves.
  • Remove the bottom pair of leaves, but leave the stem stubs.
  • Halve or third the other leaves.
  • Dip the cuttings in a rooting powder
  • and plant them in seed pots with fine lava granules.(13.99€)
  • Now place the pots in a plastic greenhouse
  • if possible in a bright and warm place without direct sun.

moss

Mossing is often done by experienced lovers of Japanese bonsai art for propagation, but it requires a lot of instinct and experience, especially for the sensitive Japanese Japanese maples. The so-called ring technique - in which the widest possible strip of bark is removed - has proven to be the best.

tips

Instead of rooting powder, Japanese maple cuttings are also very helpful with self-made willow water.

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Trees