Are those leaves extra large as well? Its hard to tell if that is real or not from the picture. Also looks like the lobes are somewhat elongated.

Arktrees

Compared to 'Fire Dragon', they are larger. I think close to 5 inches wide compared to 3 inches for 'Fire Dragon'. The leaf shape vary greatly seedling to seedling. I had one that grew to 7.5 ft after 18 months and it had also nice leaf shape so I planted it. I had another one that's only 14 inches tall so I planted it to see if it'd stay small in the ground.

Metro Maples has Dwarf Golden shantung maple with yellow-green summer leaves that glows in the sun. Looked pretty cool. Not yet available for sale though. Maybe in 2 years? MM is selling Skinny Dragon and I'm tempted to buy one. The lobes are unusually thin and I had thought at first they were Japanese maple when I saw it from a distance. It looks to be very fast grower.

I just wished I had bigger lot to plant more of these shantung maple trees. Easy to grow in my terrible soil.

Great looking leaves. Shantungs are some of my favorites.

I have 15 seeds that I am stratifying in the fridge this winter. Looks like most of them are germinating. So I may have a few Shantungs to plant and give to the neighbors. My neighborhood beautification project:)

Redrhodes,

Cool. How long have you had shantung maple in your yard? I've been planting a couple every year since 2006. I'm trying to squeeze in a few more this year somehow. I have 10 shantung maple including 4 'Fire Dragon', Skinny Dragon and Golden Dragon (all from Metro Maples).

Another picture of SM that I grew from seed that I also liked. It's around 7.5 ft after 18 months before planting last fall.

I'm going to start a new batch of SMs from the seeds I collected from my 'Fire Dragon'. They are stored dry in the fridge (hopefully not yet germinated). In a few weeks, I will put them on a moist paper towel in a flat container and placed in the fridge so they can start germinating. Just have to watch out for damping off (bought Actinovate from Natural Gardeners for that).

I just planted a Fire Dragon last summer. At this time it's only 5-6' tall. I picked off the seeds during the fall and figured I would follow along in your footsteps. I'd like to get another Fire Dragon this year to plant in the front of the house.

I've seen some of the seedlings you've germinated and figured it would be fun to give them to neighbors to grow, while I keep the interesting one's for myself. It seems like I'm 3 years behind you:)

What concentration and application of actinovate do you use? My seedlings are about a month away from sprouting, and I'd hate to lose them.

Wow. You collected seeds off 5-6' Fire Dragon? The one I got seeds was from FD that's 8 ft tall or so. I have 14' FD and never saw a single seed.

You need very little of Actinvate. I think it's like 5g (1 teaspoon) per 2g of water and 2 oz package is 56 grams. Can go a long way with it. Can use it on a lot of things. Are you familiar with Al's 5-1-1 mix from Container gardening forum? I learned everything about it from there. Very free draining seems to work the best for fast growth. Look for Lilly Miller fertilizer 16-8-12 from Lowe's. Once they're about 6 inches, risk of damping off is gone. I guess just have to be careful not to get the mix too wet like too much peat in the mix. That's why I'm going with Al's mix as it doesn't contain that much peat that would hold too much water.

I had too many seedlings last fall so I put 6 or 8 of them by curb with the sign saying free shantung maple (3g size) and they were gone within an hour.

Email me directly if you need any help with the mix or where to find them.