Can you get your hands on any JM seeds or seedlings? They reproduce prolifically in my area and most established trees will have a miniature forest of seedling JM's growing underneath unless weeded out conscientiously. That can at least give you a start on the rootstock.

For scion wood, you will have to find someone growing a lot of cultivars that you can take cuttings from. But you will need to have the rootstock growing and up to size before you do that.

This is a long term prospect so don't expect things to happen overnight. You are looking at 5-10 years down the road before you have a salable inventory.

Heritage Seedlings is just about the best commercial source of understock I know of. Of course the preferred u/s is what you grow yourself.

they are either out or not shipping right now. Of course, that's because we are in the middle of propagating season and growers are concentrating on that. In the case of HS, shipping ends in mid April which is pretty standard. Also minimum order is $750.

The source of grafting wood for most growers is their own production stock

Tell us more about your Japanese maple farm. Tell us about your prop facility, when do you plan to graft?

how many do you currently have in your collection??? ... seems like this would be the starting point for scion ...

find the JM society ... and hope there is a local club within travel distance .. make new friends with collections ...

ken

Thanks to everyone for ideas, we have 10ac here in Alabama and right now are starting out with a 5-10 year outlook. You are all correct that buying plants to graft from without rootstock is pointless. So my plan is to plant seeds and buy and plant rootstock now ... then buy 5-10 plants to obtain scions from. Always open to shortcuts and ideas. Also planting Bamboo along a spring.