7 Gifts and possibly diseased ??

Hi All

I received these 7 maples from a friend that was moving. I am not sure what this is on the trees only 2 of them seem to be ok, if anyone could please give me any advice as to what this is and how I may or if I can do anything to help them.






Thank You !

Leah

is it the white on the trunks you are worried about??

if so its part of the ageing process of the bark its normal

What kind of maples are they? They appear to be Japanese maples, Acer palmatum, which is a good bonsai subject. However, the suspicious symptoms you are concerned about seem to be graft unions. In order to turn them into bonsai, you will have to air-layer them or otherwise eliminate the graft joints. I suggest you grow them on for the coming year until you learn more about them and more about bonsai.
Iris

That's pretty normal. While you can see the graft union on a couple of the closeups, one or two others seem to have pretty decent trunks.

Nice haul.

Sorry to leave out the information about what my concerns were. I was mostly conerned about the ball at the base of the trunks and also the whiteness, thank you Tim, Iris and Jim for your insight and as always your wealth of knowledge is always appreciated. As for layering I will continue to read up more on it and give it another year as you suggested Iris TY!!

These are All AP:

Saoshika
Tsuma Beni
Kamagata
Beni Otake
Ki Hachijo and the last one did not have a tag on it so I am not really sure what that one is.

Very nice JM's

I'm officially jealous..

Shaoshika



Tsuma Beni



Kamagata



Beni Otake



Ki Hachijo

Diamondlea wrote:
I was mostly conerned about the ball at the base of the trunks and also the whiteness,

As you know now, the swelling at the base of the trunk is a graft union. Since you are in southern California, the white deposit is undoubtedly excess salt from hard water. If you are to do much bonsai growing, you may need to invest in a reverse osmosis unit.

Diamondlea wrote:
These are All AP:

Saoshika
Tsuma Beni
Kamagata
Beni Otake
Ki Hachijo and the last one did not have a tag on it so I am not really sure what that one is.

Run, do not walk, to the nearest library and get Vertrees' Japanese Maples, or Maples of the World. You should be able to get information on these cultivars.
If you don't have indigestion yet, see if you can get hold of Peter Adams' Bonsai with Japanese Maples.
Have fun,
Iris

I agree that most of the white and the swelling at the graft union is normal. The one in the second photo has an infestation of wooly scale though. The small rounded pyramid shaped things with wooly edges should be squashed, or they will multiply rapidly and weaken the tree by sucking sap.

Iris, I dont agree. I see no salt or lime build up here. I see the natural ageing of the bark at the base.

Kev do you mean these ?