Lighting: | Unlike most maples, the field maple responds well to direct sunlight. |
Temperature: | Hardy in zones 5-8. Small bonsai should be frost protected in winter. |
Watering: | Moderate, although if kept in full sun, care must be taken to insure that the soil never dries out completely. Reduce watering in winter, but keep soil evenly moist. |
Feeding: | Every two weeks in summer, using a standard bonsai food or half-strength plant food. Time-released pellets are also an option. |
Repotting: | The field maple is a fast growing tree, and should be repotted at least every two years. Repot in spring, before bud burst, in basic bonsai soil. |
Styling: | The field maple is easy to style by judicious pruning, as the scars heal quickly and well. It is necessary to prune often to avoid long internodes. Buds back excellently. Wiring should be done on newly hardened branches, as older, thicker branches tend to become stiff. The field maple responds well to a yearly leaf pruning in June, and responds best to wiring if done directly after leaf pruning. With diligent pruning, the leaves can be reduced to below an inch. For medium to large bonsai, this tree can be field grown to reach trunk diameters of two inches or larger. |
Propagation: | From seed, after a three month cold treatment, and also from softwood cuttings or air-layering. |
Information request - I have a Japanese Red Maple, I believe it to be an Acer Palmatum. Repotted last summer and wintered indoors. This spring, it bloomed in nice red leaves and steady new growth but for some reason has been stunted in the last two or three weeks. Leaves are curling, reverted to green with white spots and as the leaves curl, they are turning brown and dying. This is a special tree and I can't think of what could be doing this. I've fertilized with Osmacote 20-20-20 and watered about every other day. The tree is on my back porch in afternoon sun. Climate is steady in the Atlanta area. If anyone has suggestions, I'd appreciate them. I believe that this may be a mineral deficiency. Thanx, B
Acer campestre In my experience these are excellent bonsai material but require special handling to make them work. The major asset is the ability to reduce the leaf size by root containment and defoliation. I have got the leaves down to less than an inch in training pots and further reduction is possible, I'm sure. They are fast growing and can make good small trees but probably are better as medium to larger trees with 2+ inch trunks. Field growing, or in large containers will give you this in 4 years. It is not necessary or even desireable to grow final branches early in the development since a major problem is that the branches will become inordinately thick in a short time. The have excellent breaking back of buds, even to low on the trunk, one of the reasons they make good hedge material. Full sun even in hot dry areas. They are more tolerant of dry conditions than other maples. Seed is easy to germinate after a 3 month cold moist pretreatment. The tree of choice is A. campestre 'Compacta'. A dwarf cultivar that may grow to 5 or 6 feet and makes a beautiful rounded shrubby tree if left unpruned. Grafts are problematic, creating a bottle neck at the union. They are easy to grow from cuttings from semi hardwood in late spring, early summer. Hormone is .8% IBA. The added attraction of cuttings is that the first roots are very thick and fleshy and if managed properly so they don't coil, they will become the crown of the tree and flare into an excellent nebari. The leaves are half the size of the species and probably can be reduced to 1/2 inch. Before I am flooded with requests for 'Compacta', my cuttings won't be ready until Fall. I'll try to add more later, time to go to work now. Brent Evergreen Gardenworks bonsai@pacific.net
Return to the top of the page.
Return to the species care page.