Hi again!

This week I had a Japanese Maple/Bonsai specialist out to my gardens for the day. (Saved all winter for this splurge!) Owen Reich. Patient man!

We spent the day looking at my 100s of maples, teaching me what to look for pruning-wise, diseases (oh, man), pests (oh, worse man) and potting. Pots, soil mixes, best raised gardening scenario, etc.

All in all, a really great day.

I do, however, evidently need to get my small maples out of their small pots and into bigger ones. I'd always understood you go up an inch or so when repotting, and the plant would put out growth when the roots were getting bound.

Not so with JMs. Even the smallest, 2-year grafts can use a nice big pot in which to grow a nice, strong root system.

Owen kindly and emphatically suggested I get larger pots, 5 to 7 gallon ones, not matter what the maple size, and repot in the spring, right before the buds pop. Late March here in my Upper Marlboro/Bowie, MD area.

The mix is 1/3 Grow Stone (recycled glass!) and a light soil mix cut with pine fines, sand, pearlite (not his favorite) and a couple things that escape me.

He also mentioned if I were to increase the pot size, better soil, and consider fertilizing, m trees would probably double in size. Fertilizer? Who knew!? He recommended a kelp or fishy type fertilizer used for hydroponics.

(Do we have a character limit on posts!?!)

Continued, I guess!