Japanese Maple trunk broke

Horticulture
1

I broke my Japanese maple trunk off below the graft. I tried to regraft it but the top died in a couple days so I just chopped the trunk to clean it up and applied cut past.

There is only about an inch left from the root base of the trunk with no branches and Im not sure what the rootstock is but could it survive and sprout from the roots or will it most likely die?

1 Like
2

Hi @ErikSalmon,
Looks like you are about to find out!
We are all experimenting with our trees. Usually these experiments rely more on gut feeling than science, but the only bad experiment is the the one you learn nothing from.

3 Likes
3

in principle i could. i had a maple which i tried a stupid circular bend on and subsequently the trunk died back all the way to the base / very short above the soil line. This year plenty new shoots emerging.

1 Like
4

I think most grafted japanese maples use standard Acer Palmatum as root stock.

I had one die back from a disease in the vascular system last year. I cut it off below the graft line as there was no sign of infection and it sprouted 3 new leaders from the base and grew with vigour. Then each of the leaders started showing signs of the original disease so I burnt it.

Hopefully yours should grow as well.

1 Like
5

Thanks everyone for your response. These are all the things I was thinking but not sure of. I am going to play the wait and see game. In the meantime I ordered another Mikawa yatsubusa from Mr. Maple which is what was grafted on this tree.

I did manage to take a cutting and that is still alive so maybe I will get a nice little ungrafted Mikawa yatsubusa.

I guess next time I will use rafia and be a bit more gentle when trying to ben the trunk LOL

6

How close the graft were you attempting to make the bend? In the recent grafted pine styling stream Ryan said that the graft will always be a weak point - even decades after the graft. He suggested the bend should be at least 2 cm away from the graft site on the pine. With maple being being a harder and more brittle wood I would thick bends would need to be further away. Just some food for thought.