Throw them away !!!! Sorry but they're near impossible to root from cuttings. If you did try, the cuttings need to be softwood, have mist and undersoil heating. Even then, a strike rate of 1% is good.

Sorry

Hi, I agree with Badfish, but if you want to propagate these, you can sow seed, in situ or in containers as soon as they're ripe outdoors, or graft them in late winter, or bud them in late summer, Derek.

Yeah, i always sow seeds. I sown them in a seed tray in autumn then leave them in a corner somewhere so they get the full force of all the weather....rain, sun, snow, frost....the lot.

Then i bring them into a warm place in march and they germinate like mad.

I have never tried to propagate Japanes maples but RHS sys that they can be from softwood cuttings.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=126

I tried it a fair few years ago in a commercial propagating unit purely as a bit of an experiment.

I used cuttings material from plants which had been bought into a warm greenhouse in February and forced into growth with heat and extra lighting.

I used the very soft growth about 3-4" long and put them in a heated mist unit.

Many rotted off straight away but some did form a callus of which only one or two produced roots.

The ones that did root i found were weak and never formed a decent plant ( i wanted them for bonsai)

They certainly make good bonsai, but are very slow from seed. One way (for bonsai) us to look for a "runt" in the GC that's had its price slashed, and cut it down.

Welcome to GoY Maria!