On 13 May, 15:30, Emery Davis wrote:
On Fri, 11 May 2007 23:06:54 +0100
Gill Matthews Try the wrote:





In article .com, says...
Perhaps someone could help, i adore the Japanese Acers/maples, i
believe they have to have
ericaceous compost , i have a 12 yr old one in the front garden which
is beautiful, gets better every year but
apart from the compost in the pot we bought it in when we planted it
in the garden we only put an extra handful in and its in clay soil so
surely the rain would have washed all the ericaceous compost away over
the years, should i top dress around the tree or as its doing so well
just leave it?

AFAIK Japanese acers do not need acid conditions/ericaceous compost
at all. Mine grow quite hapily in slightly chalky clay. I do water well
and mulch with ordinary soil improver, but that is to improve water
retention

That's right. In fact they resent soil that is too acid. The acid compost
myth is refuted by every maple book.

They don't like very alkaline soil, but since yours is in good shape leave it be.
If your soil is very chalky you could top dress with peat.

-E
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Emery Davis
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I agree with the above posts. In my experience, as long as they are
in fairly well-drained soil with adequate humus, they will be happy.
I have heavy soil that is alkaline as a result of mountains of
builders' rubble having been buried in the garden (most of which we've
removed). I've since planted out four Japanese maples - admittedly
not in the really heavy clay parts of the garden - and a couple of
years later all seem to be thriving. Before I planted the first one I
amended the soil with lots of composted bark and also some sulphur
chips (these will lower the pH, but apparently they should be dug in
rather than sprinkled on the top of the soil). When the first one
didn't croak, I planted a few more, also in parts of the garden with
the most friable, humus-rich soil rather than really heavy clay. I
didn't bother with the sulphur, but just mixed the local soil with
composted bark. I'm sure leafmould would do the same job if you have
any. I keep them well mulched with organic matter and water them in
really prolonged dry spells. It's really encouraging to see how much
faster they grow in the ground than in a pot.