Gardening Literature and Sick Plants

This is a rant.
The Otho professional garden problem solver, one of the largest books (and most comprehensive) for solving plant problems, suggests this as a remedy for juniper root rot.
"When replanting area, use plants which are resistant to root rot."
When one is talking about their 20yr juniper that was grown from seed, this answer is utterly useless.
Another fellow, on the internet, discussed a maple disease he called tight bark syndrome. He claims that it is not a well know disease, because people who have infected plants tend to discard them. He argues that as long as people consider maples cheap and easy to replace, then maple diseases will remain common.
These are problems the plant health professionals are not interested in because common tree buyers don't love their plants - they love things about the plants.
We love our plants.

Japanese Maple Seedling and Wire

I wired a two year old Japanese Maple seedling before bud break, back in February. Just a large piece of wire on the trunk, in a sort of S shape. Today I noticed a smidgen of wire biting, so I removed the wire. Where the wire touched the tree, the bark was grey. The tree also sprung back, or didn't take, about 35% of the bend.

Largest Spring Spike in 3 Days

Over the Hillside Mall Bonsai Show weekend, I came home to find a laburnum (gloden chain tree) had grown 12 inches (30 cm) and a sugar maple had grown 10 inches (25 cm). Nothing else had grown larger then 4 inches (10 cm).

Japanese Maple Fall Color

If one's japanese maple is well fed and properly watered - you will not get showy fall colors.
The japanese maple requires a little stress to show both its fall colors and its variegation/leaf shape. A healthy japanese maple looks more like a green leaf palmatum then whatever else it usually is - though this effect may be very slight.

Maples and Steer Manure

The manager of The Hillside Cannor Nurser told me that maples top dressed with steer manure are less likely to develop several maple blights. The most frequent maple blight averted is whatever causes twigs to blacken and die back.
I was thinking of screening some dried steer manure and replacing a portion of the bark in my soil mix with this. It may not be worth it, if I take proper care of my bonsai.
However, my garden stock could benefit from this - and it certainly wouldn't hurt them.

Works on big maples...

My local nurseryperson told me that topdressing maples with steer manure will help prevent various fungi from harming the maple, like those that cause branch blackening and dieback. This is due to bacteria in the steer manure. Chicken manure will do the same for roses.
I wish steer manure came in 2 to 5 mm particles...

One of the Reasons for Bonsai

Over the past week I have been appreciating my bonsai. The last few days have been really hectic. I have spent some time each day in my garden looking at the bark on my middle aged hedge maple trees - a nonhectic activity. I really like the bark at this stage, about 3 or 4 years old.
I like having bonsai.

Hardwood Cuttings

I took about 60 japanese maple cuttings. I bought a rather large Shojo maple, with red bark and leaves. The trunk is grafted, but it is very close to the soil line, and it has barked up so the green base color is masked. The root spread is marvellous and there is a good movement and taper to the trunk. However, I cut about 6 feet off the top. I cut the branches into 6 to 8 inch (15-20cm) sticks, keeping care to know which tip was the growing tip and which was the rooting tip. I soaked these in a bucket of water over lunch, about an hour. I coated the growing tips with rooting gel, which I allowed to dry on, sealing the cuts. Then I planted the cuttings in a bundle in a pail of lava rock, on about a 30 degree angle to facilitate drainage and bury the cuttings deeper.
1) Take cuttings now. In the dormant season the plant barely lives or dies. It will spend the cold season trying to survive the cuts made. The cuttings will undergo the same process, healing. If the cutting succeeds in healing its base cut by the warm season, then it will quickly throw out roots and survive to grow. If the hardwood cutting is taken in spring, the plant will heal through the spring growth and have trouble putting out enough roots to survive summer.
2) Though the species is grafted, I think the non-grafted cuttings will be healthy and vigorous. Grafting provides increased growth and improved hardiness. In Victoria, hardiness is not necessary. The increased growth primarily helps nurseries which sell product based on size. Speedy growth means more profit. The small amount of decreased vitality makes no difference to the bonsai artist. Also, it is not too serious a decrease.