Hello there!
I’ve been practicing bonsai for three years now, and I simply cannot get maples to thrive in my environment. My most recent adventure has been the slow decline of two shishigashiras that either came from the nursery with, or developed pseudomonas in my care. Even treating with zerotol, the worse of the two has been cut back to a stump in effort to outrun the spread of the black from this stupid disease. The other is more vigorous, but I’m still losing tips regularly.
One of the guys at the local club said, essentially, that Japanese maples just don’t do well as bonsai in NE Wisconsin. And that his experience was that they’d grow well for a season or two, then just fail in the spring.
Is he onto something, or do I just have bad luck with maples?
Trees have been wintered in an unheated garage.
1 Like
Michael Hagedorn wrote this article on his blog some years back
I believe if you can provide your maples an ideal environment all year you shouldn’t have a problem cultivating them.
What temperature is your unheated garage in the winter? Is it holding a temperature above 28° F
Good luck with your trees 
1 Like
I believe it is, I’ll be monitoring temperature closely this winter just to confirm.
I’ve read that article several times, just getting my head around the primary issue. I think late winter treatment might be key (I didn’t do it this year, and the worst of the two almost didn’t wake up at all). I think I’m just discouraged by the lack of progress. I vacillate from adding more to figure it out to swearing them off for all eternity.
2 Likes