Grafting Japanese Maple on Box Elder - Acer Palmatum on Acer Negundo

[Trav]

So this is actually my second time trying this, first results are still unknown! Maybe there’s a surprise Japanese Maple waiting for that 10" box elder trunk to be removed so it can skyrocket the following spring?

I believe the green Japanese maple variety is:
Acer palmatum, Dissectum Viridis
And the Red Japanese:
Acer palmatum, Dissectum Inaba Shidare

So Box Elder seems to be the invasive plague of the entire northern hemisphere now, and I’ve diversified my hacking and uprooting with some grafting.

This time I’ve grafted both red and green-leafed Japanese Maple onto Box Elder Manitoba Maple, aka Ash-Leafed Maple and many other names, which is good for nothing but maple syrup, firewood, and maybe fake burl wood.

I’ve made 7 grafts on 4 trees outside, one a whip and tounge on a cut stump with large young shoots, two trees topworked with bark grafts, and a whip and tongue on a lower shoot of a leaning 4" tree.

Inside I’ve got 10 seedlings or so, that I pulled out and grafted, some chip buds, some T-buds, and some whip and tongue, some of the grafts are weird because I didn’t have ideal grafting material.

I also would like to try a typical red leafed Maple like Norway Maple, sugar maple, or a varigated Maple, perhaps a large maple would surpress the suckering habits of box elder. Also I would like to try a Tartarian Maple just because they’re so beautiful, and they grow a bit slowly.
Hopefully no one messes with them they’re in very obvious places by the sidewalk at the edge of a park in Moscow, hopefully my labels will help, even though I misspelled Maple (in Russian) on the first couple tags.

The Japanese Maple is slow growing, old and hard, and this is a thick piece, about a half inch, so it’s not cut so well, many people online will often say that a whip and tongue with this much space will not survive, but the lower shoot is very green and can be squeezed to fit, I think it will be fine, but leaving the tape for a few months is important.

[Trav]

These were just pulled out of the ground, put in a wet bag, brought home after walking to the supermarket, and now I’m going to pot them all up together and see what survives, maybe I’ll have a Japanese maple to give my friends.

Especially being in box elder, I will recommend burying the graft union, but maybe I’m wrong, box elder suckers like crazy, but sometimes that because the original tree produces almost no leader hormone. If the grafted variety produces a lot (nearly all popular varieties produce above average amounts, especially weeping varieties) then it may surpress all the suckers, as it did with my Callery pear Frankentree where the original tree practically isn’t even pushing buds, I wonder if the apples or Asians pears are the dominant ones? We’ll see soon with my outdoor Japanese maple grafts, hopefully.

This one had tiny leaves out of a bud already and in the end I decided to save one and wrap it under a stretched later of Parafilm because it’s just a chip bud and seemed too easy to dry out, hopefully it doesn’t rot.

[a_Vivaldi]

Is Japanese maple hardy in Moscow?

[Trav]

So by USDA zones Moscow is in a zone 4, but since gas is cheap and people demand that homes and businesses be truly warm (not like in England, Italy, or cold parts of most warm countries, even homes in New York State are uncomfortably cold without cheap heat from wood stoves). Moscow is pumping out so much heat that it’s a zone 5 anywhere actually inside the city, and there are Japanese maples like the Little Princess that are that cold Hardy, to -29C/-20F. Maybe this is the green variety that I grafted.

I mistook a silver maple for a tall Japanese maple the other day, I will see if I can find one to graft as well, I’d like to find something that can surpress the suckering, that would be one of the most effective ways to stop box elder’s spread, especially where people want trees, a grafted one will replace the old tree much faster.

[a_Vivaldi]

Fair point, urban heat island effect makes sense, especially with Moscow.

I didn’t know box elder was so well established over there. Makes sense though, it’s crazy how adaptable and successful that tree is. IIRC it has the widest natural distribution of any tree in North America.

[Phlogopite]

It was truly surreal being in the AZ desert and getting to 8000’ and finding Box elders like it was back east

[a_Vivaldi]

Just wait till you go hiking in the cloud forests of Guatemala!

Agaves, bromeliads, aboral orchids, black cherry, monstera vines, sweetgum, tree ferns, box elder, coffee bushes, southern yellow pines, palms, podocarps, bananas. It’s the most bizarre mix.

[Trav]

Good news on the Japanese Maples on Box Elder grafts!
They’re sprouting, and the whip and tongue is forming leaves and seems to be the fastest healing and growing. Of course there are no guarantees yet, but I decided to also try grafting Red-leafed Norway Maple and silver maple because I love the look of the leaves, and I’m hoping that one of these 3 species will surpress the suckering habit of the Box Elder. Let’s see!

Questions:
Is delayed graft failure likely?
Is it possible the Japanese maple will be flooded by all the sap flow in spring? Box Elder is a maple syrup producing species along with Norway maple and, I think, silver maple too.

These are 2 of the new red leafed Norway Maple grafts, I did a couple patch grafts with silver maple and normal bark grafts with both as well.

These are bark grafts with a strap graft, I broke the wood out and thinking about that I regret it a little bit, hopefully they won’t dry out too fast, but the big benefit if the strap survives is that it will heal over the cut stump much much faster!

[Trav]

So good news! (Aside from the evidence that grafting is a sexy hobby)

The Japanese Maples on Box Elder are doing great even though it’s the middle of summer and they were grafted two weeks ago!

Unfortunately my best one got literally ripped off by some hooligan or moron, so this is as almost far as it got:

And to end on a nice note, here’s another Red Leafed Norway maple with an interesting bark graft with a strap to heal it over the exposed wood faster so this will be interesting to see how it goes.

[Fishsauce]

Wow, I didn’t realize box elder and Japanese maples are in the same genus. JM on JM is difficult enough for me. It would be amazing if your JM-on-BE grafts survive long term.

[Trav]

I’m sad to report I was overly confident in the invincibility of box elder and I believe I killed many of them by bark grafting too late, my best graft, and earliest take was a whip and tongue broken off by let’s say hooligans, so the experiment is inconclusive but promising.
I will try to repeat it in the spring, but who knows.
The one survivor is Silver Maple on Box Elder, and despite doing everything wrong again, it did survive, but it’s a smaller diameter tree, so that makes a difference I’m sure, the red leafed Norway maple with it died, and I killed another graft unwrapping it by breaking off the only viable bud after it leafed out

Silver Maple on Box Elder/Manitoba Maple Acer Negundo

[Trav]

So I’m back at experimenting on box elder! I just need to make a short trip to check on my Silver Maple on box elder from late last summer. I haven’t found any Japanese maple scions yet this year but I’m that sure I will soon. So far I’ve grafted 10 grafts on 5 established box elders of varying sizes:

Red-leafed Norway Maple
Variegated Norway Maple
Sycamore-leafed Maple
…all onto Box Elder/Manitoba Maple/Ash-leafed Maple(Acer nigudo).

[Fishsauce]

That’s a pretty cool Z graft. I’d be interesting in seeing the result of that.

[Trav]

@Fishsauce It’s hard to name my grafts now! I just do crazy grafts!

I’d say it’s a side veneer graft with bark straps.

I think it will aid in healing over the exposed wood quickly. And it was pretty fast.

[Trav]

So this is a bit of a departure from my original intention here, but improving the trees is the goal, so if anyone has a box elder and wants to be 100% sure they can graft something to it, just look at how pretty this variegated box elder is!

PLEASE DO NOT PLANT ONE OF THESE UNLESS THE AREA IS ALREADY INFESTED WITH BOX ELDERS.

[Trav]

So there are two kinds of “Japanese” Maple that can survive outside in Moscow, Painted Maple-Acer Mono, and I saw the Acer Palmetum that’s outside in the Japanese garden here, perhaps they wrap it or something in the winter though, but it definitely looks like Dissectum Inabashidarde…I guess the big fluffy name insulates it in the cold winter months.

(Although this tag is actually off a potted tree that was outside until maybe December)

[a_Vivaldi]

That’s cool!

[Trav]

Testing new maple grafts on Box Elder!

Unfortunately no Japanese maple in theis batch, but there are new maple varieties not yet tested:

Red Maple

Tartarian Maple

Sycamore-leafed Maple

And more Red-leafed Norway Maple and Variegated Norway Maple.

Soon I’ll also go check my Silver Maple and some other grafts from last year that might have possibly survived the cityots, the ice, snow, and low temperatures.

[Trav]

@a_Vivaldi

Here’s a wonderful list of maples with two Zone 4 hardy Japanese maples listed, and a few other incredibly decorative Zone 4 maple cultivars.

The Most Beautiful Maple Trees - Sugar Maple, Red Maple and More (With Pictures)

[Trav]

I’m excited about this!

Here’s a sugar maple that has nearly Japanese maple like leaves: Acer Saccharum ‘Sweet Shadow’ and it’s cold Hardy down to zone 3! And many people are disappointed at the small size of Japanese Maples too. So if you was a cold hardy or giant Japanese maple, try this! Also sugar maple is ideal for timber, maple syrup, and super green summer foliage, yeah, I’d still prefer Red-leafed trees, but with amazing fall colors, which you don’t get with red leafed trees.

And of course, fitting with the theme of this thread, it’s an ideal candidate to graft onto Box Elder, both being maple-syrup producers.

Acer saccharum 'Sweet Shadow' | Landscape Plants | Oregon State University