How to Propagate Japanese Maple Seeds

Grow Japanese maple from seed.

Japanese Maples are an extensive family of maple tree with cultivars that may grow from only a few feet high up to 20 feet high. The tree has distinctive leaves that are green in shade or in the tree's undercanopy, and red in sunlight for most cultivars. Most growers propagate Japanese Maples from cuttings. Since many Japanese maples are hybrids, this is an ideal means for growing an exact replica of your existing maple. You can grow a Japanese maple from seed, though the seed may not resemble the parent cultivar.

Things You'll Need

• Japanese maple keys
• Peat moss
• Glass jar
• Rototiller
• Compost

Instructions

1. Collect Japanese maple seeds when they drop from the tree. These seeds resemble full-sized maple seeds and are known as keys, spinners or helicopters.

2. Mix the seed with 1 cup of slightly damp compost. The compost should be just as damp as a wrung-out sponge. Place the seed and compost in a glass jar and seal the lid. Put the jar in a refrigerator set to between 34 and 37 degrees. Leave the seeds in the refrigerator for 120 days to stratify.

3. Break up your soil in a planting bed to a depth of 12 inches with a rototiller. Spread 3 cubic yards of peat moss and compost over the bed per 1,000 square feet of soil. Mix the soil amendments into the soil with a rototiller. Seedlings grown in a prepared bed instead of a container will grow larger and have a stronger root system.

4. Open planting holes that are between 3 and 6 feet apart. These holes should be three times as deep as the seed at it's widest part. Do not measure the papery wing part of the seed in this measurement. Place a seed within each hole and cover with soil. Water the seed once every 7 to 10 days with the equivalent of 1 inch of rainfall. Use a rain gauge and a hose end sprinkler to measure this.

5. Pull up any undesirable trees that sprout, such as green-leafed Japanese maples. Some seedlings will sprout immediately, while others may remain dormant through the growing season and sprout the next year. Seeds that do not sprout may require a warm period in addition to their initial chilling period. They may also have required a second chilling period that will occur naturally through the winter. The chilling and warming period requirements differ among seed.

Tips & Warnings

• Hybrid species of Japanese maple such as Bloodgood may only be produced from cuttings. Seed of these trees will revert back to the parent plant type.

References

• Sooner Plant Farm: Japanese Maple Tree Care, Facts and Growing Tips
• Clemson Cooperative Extension: Maple
• North Dakota State Univeristy: Questions on: Maple

Resources

• North Dakota State Univeristy: Questions on: Red Maples