Greatings everyone!
I thought I would share my grafting technique with you all. For many years we owned and operated a small Japanese maple tree nursery In Chilliwack BC ( Canada). All the trees were strictly container grown for the patio gardener and we did all the grafting. I have created a youtube channel with a dedicated playlist of 4 video's to show you how to graft your own Japanese maples. We also have created 9 videos on how to prune and re-pot your cherished trees as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channe...

Lovely specimens, Otto.

thanks Peggy!

I do not know, but hi and welcome! Your trees are beautiful! I look forward to seeing more.

thank you Tiffany!

and a few more photo's of our cultivators including first, Sangu Kaku, then Ijyama sunago and last, Seiryu. These are all considered dwarf varieties. All of these have been grafted by myself and container grown their entire life. The seiryu is over 40 years old now, Sangu Kaku and Ijyama Sunago both approx. 25 years old. I do go into great detail on my youtube channel about all the varieties.

Magnificent!

And here is the link to my youtube channel. Lots of japanese maple info here! pruning, container growing, re potting, and a whole series on grafting!

https://www.youtube.com/channe...

I've watched a few of your vids. Very informative!

I will have to watch these videos! I have a 3 year old Grafted Japanese Maple that almost died because the rootstock started taking over.

Now I let the Japanese maple graft take off but the new branches look really lanky and thin.

thanks for watching the vid's Tiffany and Gigi

and regarding the root stock taking over, that is common with young grafts. Always stay on top of that and cut off anything growing below the graft. Your graft should recover as the nutrients will feed back up into the grafted region rather then feeding the root stock stems now.

I enjoyed watching your videos!

Now I understand why these things are so expensive. The smallest ones I've seen are still budget busters. Can any other kind of maple be used as the rootstock? If you covered that in the vid and it didn't stick with me, please excuse me. ...Any tips on convincing strangers to let me "trim" their JM?

purpleinopp said:Now I understand why these things are so expensive. The smallest ones I've seen are still budget busters. Can any other kind of maple be used as the rootstock? If you covered that in the vid and it didn't stick with me, please excuse me. ...Any tips on convincing strangers to let me "trim" their JM?

Basically the short answer is no regarding other types of root stock. The acer palmatum root stock is used for pretty much all japanese maple grafting. Another japanese maple root stock that is sometimes used is acer japonicum but it is not as hardy and not suited to most of the japanese maple varieties.

Regarding cuttings from another tree for grafting? well selective pruning leads to a beautiful cultivator so take that approach if you see a tree that needs pruning and has scion wood ready for grafting.

And yes the trees can get pricey. All of our trees were grown at least two years after the graft before we would start selling. Some we would hold 7-10 years so that we could accommodate all the happy customers that wanted instant gratification

Thank you very much! I'm pretty sure the sprouts in my area are something else. But I suppose I could use them for practice.

The three amigo's..
Other then a 4 week old puppy, these young Japanese maples are pretty high on the cute scale!
From left to right: Seiryu, Pixie, Atrolineare

My Japanese maple graft is starting to come after I chopped down the growth on the rootstock. These are these year's growth. Now I am regretting cutting the rootstock so I could have grafted more on the bigger rootstock.

The rootstock is coming back again, should I let it grow bigger then graft more Japanese maple cuttings next spring? Or should I just cut the rootstock growthd and let the Japanese maple graft take off?

We always cut the root stock down to the graft the following spring after grafting the previous year.
And yes, you don't want any of the root stock coming up again as that will diminish your growth of the new graft.
A rule of thumb, always remove any root stock growth when it can still be nipped away with just your fingers before it gets a chance to take off.

I will cut off the rootstock growth today.