A forest of Japanese Maples ended up at my place

Hello!

I recently inherited a small forest of Japanese Maples about 20. Most are little more than seedlings about 5 of them are large enough to be material.

I have some experience with redwoods, plumbs, elms, and a few other trees. But I have never worked with Japanese maples. My question is where do I start? I don’t really have a notion of the schedule that these trees keep. When to prune, repot (some of them had to be repotted and I have done so) fertilize etc. and so on.

I’ve been through the library here and, unless I missed it, there isn’t really a definitive beginner video. “These are the basics you need to know about Japanese Maples” sort of thing.

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Have you watched the following? https://live.bonsaimirai.com/library/video/japanese-maple
Building structure and a good nebari are important. To make attractive radial roots need to be done from the beginning. The following is an example of one technique to encourage radial roots and to reduce fine surface roots. It is in Japanese but you can see the use of a kama and a root rake as well as shears to make radial roots and reduce the fine surface roots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2auh0xTK8WQ
I have had no success with maples because I keep my trees outside and maples do not tolerate the winds, sun and winters in my yard.
Good luck and watch this video by William Valavanis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUg1Tm_Wi-M&t=9s