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.

How much time can you put into one bonsai?

What I mean is how much time can you spend refining a tree?
It takes alot of time to apply wire to every branch!
Before today I did not think it was worth it. However, I needed a small juniper branch to cover a very specific area on the tree. There were 15 branchlettes. I wired the branch to heck, and it did what I wanted it too.

Now I wonder how much more I can do with branches that don't need to be wired to the nines, but could be anyway.

Plant's Personality

Trees are individuals, just like people. And sometimes there are thousands of the same individual, for plants. This is not in reference to a tree's shape, or the history.
From a handful of japanese maples seeds I have maples with red bark and with green bark. I have leaves with very pronounced lobes, some like Canadian flag, others have 3 lobes instead of 5.
From another batch of seedlings, I have one tree which is very sensitive to dryness compared to its siblings. It will droop at the slightest provocation, though its growing conditions were identical (until I learned it was different). By the way - it is not more thirsty, it just wilts faster.

I am wondering how to incorprate such details into my bonsai.

Insects!

Just to let everyone know to keep an eye out for caterpillars. I found one today curled up in some maple leaves. They had already stuck them all together with its silk. I know this stunts the branch that the caterpillar does this on.

The darn aphids are out in numbers too. I have tries squishing, spraying with a hose, Tabasco and water. This year I am using pesticide. Just whatever Canadian Tire sells.

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...

No more pencils, no more books..

In the books they say that in winter one should spend lots of time studying bonsai. This is because the trees are dormant and therefore we do not work on many of them.

Well now it is spring and I have hit the point where I am ignoring my book studies. Buying soil, ordering seedlings, potting, wiring; and most of all enjoying!

My nicest maple is half leaf right now. The leaves are very odd, when half formed.