Bonsai or Landscape Potential: Green-leaf Japanese Maple 1 (Acer palmatum) in 3 L Air-Pot Container

Family: Sapindaceae (includes maples, lychee, and horse chestnut)
Genus: Acer (the maples)

Botanical/Binomial Name: Acer palmatum
Meaning of Name:
Acer, from Latin acer (‘maple tree’); and
palmatum, from Latin palmātum (neuter singular of palmātus, ‘hand-shaped’, ‘palm-leaf shaped’)

Common Names: Japanese Maple

Botanical Characteristics: Woody | Perennial | Deciduous | Frost hardy
Propagation: Seed | Air layering | Grafting

Item Description:
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This plant is from a seed sown in 2020, in a 4.1 L Air-Pot small seed tray, then transplanted in 2021 into this current 3 L Air-Pot container.

(This other Japanese maple was sown at the same time in the same seed tray.)

Dimensions of the 3 L Air-Pot:
Inside diameter: 160 mm
Outside diameter: 195 mm
Height: 215 mm

The top two rows of cones are closed and act as a water reservoir.

Plant Description:
This green-leaf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) is of excellent form and has potential as either bonsai or as a stunning landscape tree.
This tree is about 750 mm excluding the Air-Pot it is in, and about 900 mm including the Air-Pot.
Grown from seed sown in 2020.

Air-Pot containers create dense fibrous root balls as in the photos — these are of this exact tree’s roots. (The last of these is of the roots from the bottom.) This means that when planted in the ground, that root ball gives the tree every advantage to take off and put on more growth more quickly than similarly aged trees in traditional pots.

Also making itself at home on the surface is the delightful Selaginella, a pretty little groundcover which loves it cool, moist and shady.

This tree has been repotted owing to it having sunk into the container as the medium sank. (This is why the root ball is half the height of the pot.) Now with plenty of new, fertilised medium in which to spread its roots deeper.

Growing Information:
Japanese maples grow well in a pot or the ground, and can handle from full sun to shade, though their native habitat is as understorey trees in shady woodland.

These trees grow well all over Australia, including more dry regions providing they have enough water. They are frost hardy temperate trees, and will survive winters colder than is typical of most places in Australia. I would not recommened these for tropical regions as they would not get strong enough signals to trigger winter dormancy.

Acer palmatum makes both a stunning bonsai as well as a striking landscape tree. The autumn colours of its leaves are stunning as it prepares to enter winter dormancy.