Home » Planting bare root trees – Japanese Red Maples – Bloodgood -Acer palmatum

Planting bare root trees – Japanese Red Maple – Bloodgood – Acer palmatum

Planting bare root trees from bare root stock is very straightforward including Japanese Red Maples. When you are starting a backyard plant nursery you will either be buying bare root or rooting your own cuttings. Our choice is primarily to buy well rooted, bare root plant stock and plant them by the hundreds. Yet we are also getting better and better at rooting our own cuttings. Today we will start and finish potting up 50 Japanese Red Maple trees, this will only take about 2 to 3 hours.

We have ordered in 50 bare root Japanese red maple trees and they have arrived, looking as shown in the pictures. The trees are bundled, boxed, and their roots are packed with shredded wet, newspaper or paper. This is very typically the way you would receive almost all bare root plants.

Receiving bare root plant stock for planting

As soon as you receive plants, you should make sure the roots are being kept moist. You should open the box and check that the roots are wrapped and are moist. You can generally add a little bit of water to the roots by pouring in water from above the plastic wrapping.

Planting Bare Root Trees Japanese Red Maples

Keep the roots of the bare root Japanese Red Maples, moist until you are ready to plant them. You should try to plant any bare root plants within 1 to 5 days of receiving them. If you cannot plant them that quickly, you should remove the plants from the wrapping and quickly heal them in using something like peat moss to cover the roots so you can keep them moist. Once temporarily planted in peat moss you can keep the plants safely this way for up to a couple weeks. Keep them outside and make sure to plant them while they are still dormant.

We like to open up bare root plants and put them in a wheelbarrow filled with water just prior to planting. This is much better than having them sitting on our planting table and potentially drying out.  As soon as the plants are put in soil, we are also going to water them really well again as keeping the roots moist is absolutely essential. You may also want to water newly potted plants periodically if you are not getting enough natural rain. Don’t let them dry out!

Getting ready for planting your bare root trees

Always get everything you will need together before you begin potting up plants. We have gathered potting soil, containers, potting, soil, scoop, slow, release, fertilizer, and a pre-emergent such as Preen Weed Preventer. Also have ready your watering hose, a pair of clippers, and you were ready for work

Potting up the bare root trees – Japanese Red Maples.

This may of course seem simple or obvious, but there are a few good procedures to follow. We start by removing 2 to 5 bare root plants from the wheelbarrow filled with water. Hold these together and give the roots a very slight root pruning. In the same way that pruning the top of a plant encourages branching the same is true of roots. Just take a small amount off of a few of the longer root.

Potting Bare Root Japanese Red Maple TreesThe next step is to take a container and put a scoop of dirt or potting soil in the bottom. You may need more than one scoop to start depending on how large a container you are using. Then hold the plant just above the roots so you can keep track of where you want the plants to end up in the pot. You want to hold the plant right where its roots begin to be about 1 inch below the top rim of the container. Roots should be completely covered, but being careful not to plants too deep or too high in the pot. Do not bury the stem or trunk of the tree.

Always heap your soil and then tap your container to settle the potting soil around the roots. Then lightly pack down the potting soil to support the plant and to make sure there are no air gaps in the soil. Add a little soil as needed. The plan for these trees is to grow them out to about 32″ to 36″ tall so we are using a trade 3 gallon pot. This requires a fair amount of potting soil but leaves a lot of room for the roots to grow.

Final touches for planting bare root trees

Fertilized and planted tree

 

Before we put the plants out to grow, we will add about a tablespoon of slow release fertilizer to the top surface of the potting soil. Just sprinkle it around to even it out and even work it into the soil a little bit. Next, it’s a great idea to add a pre-emergent weed preventer to the top surface of the potting soil as well. Nobody likes weeds, they are a lot of work to pull.  Pre-emergent, weed preventer does help. We apply pre-emergent weed preventer to all of our plant containers every spring.

It’s time to prune when planting bare root trees

Pruning Bare Root Trees

 

In order for trees, like the Japanese red maple to properly branch out and become a nice full tree some pruning is needed. Bare root plants are dormant when you are receiving them and potting them. This is also a good time to prune the bare root plants to encourage branching.

On a 2 to 3 foot tall bare root Japanese Red Maple we are going to prune 6 to 12 inches off the top of the basically straight twigs that we receive. Your plants may have already branches such as 2 or more stems. Prune these stems back just a little. The Japanese Red Maple we have been receiving mostly have just one stem so they must be pruned so they will branch.

Now let’s try to root what we pruned off the tree

Pruning Rooting Bare Root Trees

Since these Japanese red maple trees are still dormant, and we’re going to remove part of the tree by pruning, why not try to root this material? It is a little late for hardwood cuttings to root, however, why not try? In this batch of 50 bare root plants we were able to harvest about 60 nice looking cuttings. A note: Next year prune your growing trees each year in Jan or Feb so they will branch and attempt to root all those cuttings!

 

Cuttings taken for rooting

 

Pruning cuts should be made just above a pair of leaf buds.  From the stem you just cut off, the cuttings you want to root should be cut at a 45° angle just below a pair of leaf buds. Thus you are going to throw away a little material between the sets of leaf buds. With your clippers or a knife, slice off the leaf buds on the lower end of the cutting you intend to root. Dip the cuttings in a rooting hormone, and stick them in a bed of sand or perilite. If some of them root you are way ahead. Since we are paying $6-7.00 for bare root Japanese Red Maples, getting even 10 to root is worthwhile.

Your bare root Japanese red maples are now planted.

Right after giving the plants a good watering, we will take them out to our growing area and watch them grow. In a few weeks the leaf buds on the bare root plants will open up and you will have some nice but small Japanese red maple trees.  Each year while the plants are dormant you should prune them again. Hopefully, two branches will have grown , from the first pruning you did. Pruning these two stems back should get you to four branches by the third year. You must continue to prune about once per year to maximize branching. In 2 to 3 years you will have some very nice and full trees.

In total we spent about $9.00 per tree for the bare root plants, containers, potting soil, and all else. The expectation is to sell these in 3 years for $50.00 and up. With a better than 5 times increase in value, high desirability and a 2 to 3 year growing time we find Japanese Red Maples a great plant to grow and a great Retirement Investment. Growing just 100 per year could give you an extra $4,000 in income on just one plant alone.

We will follow up with some pictures as these bare root Japanese Maples grow to a size that we can sell. So, check back.

Here they are all 50 planted up and ready to grow.

50 Planted bare root trees

 

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