Acer P - repot and general style advice

[baron]

Thnx everyone for the advice.
As you can see its growing quite well or at least I think it does



Some leaves are damaged/oversized/deformed but I'm thinking this was a combination of a very hot spring and some beasties...
Took some precautions with a shade cloth too and some sprays.



I also bought some anti fungicide just in case, but haven't applied it yet.
The weather has been dry the last week so apart from getting darker it hasn't spread any further then the internode on the branch like you said.

 

[Jcmmaple]

Glad it’s doing better for you

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Thnx everyone for the advice.
As you can see its growing quite well or at least I think it does

View attachment 196289

Some leaves are damaged/oversized/deformed but I'm thinking this was a combination of a very hot spring and some beasties...
Took some precautions with a shade cloth too and some sprays.

View attachment 196292View attachment 196291

I also bought some anti fungicide just in case, but haven't applied it yet.
The weather has been dry the last week so apart from getting darker it hasn't spread any further then the internode on the branch like you said.

View attachment 196293

Hi Baron,
Nice new growth, and try not to worry too much, as it grows you gain more experience and confidence.
Lots of fert food, as you water you flush away the previous food supply.
Well done so far
Charles

 

[ajm55555]

Some leaves are damaged/oversized/deformed but I'm thinking this was a combination of a very hot spring and some beasties...

From my experience, those are pretty normal at the end of long shoots.

 

[baron]

Still growing like theres no tomorrow... top shoot is about 1m45 now
I know its supposed to grow freely, but would it be ok if I shorten some of the lower branches after leave drop and keep the top ones? Just to make it a little bit easier with winter storage?

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Still growing like theres no tomorrow... top shoot is about 1m45 now
I know its supposed to grow freely, but would it be ok if I shorten some of the lower branches after leave drop and keep the top ones? Just to make it a little bit easier with winter storage?

View attachment 203849

Hi baron,
Simply - Yep.
I would prefer this to go in a wooden box like your other maple to give lots of root growth to bulk trunk.
Sorry can’t remember our other discussions, good to learn with also.
Charles

 

[baron]

Hi baron,
Simply - Yep.
I would prefer this to go in a wooden box like your other maple to give lots of root growth to bulk trunk.
Sorry can’t remember our other discussions, good to learn with also.
Charles

Thnx @Charles!
Yes I was planning on doing that, but not sure yet if I'm gonna do it next spring or the one after as it was only repotted a few months ago.. I didn't remove all of the thick upper roots last time, so will probably remove those, get the roots on 1 level, put a tile/wood underneath (like in the ebihara thread) and repot in a wooden grow box

 

[baron]

Soooo because I didn't remove all the upper roots they got a little thicker and were being a thorn in my eye.
As this was just repotted last year I had the intention of layering of one of the top branches in a few months and wasn't planning on going this far

The thorns

The initial plan was to remove some of the upper soil and was hoping I could tease them out.

Occourse that didn't work...what was I thinking.

I hadn't watered in a while and it felt a bit to soggy so I'm going for a more free draining mix this time.

Finally managed to get the first one free, two more to go.

All clear, ready to cut

This felt like a mess of big thick roots because of the poor job I did last year at cutting back, so I while I'm at it might as well clean up a little more.

Not a bad root base on this side, the other side however...

Quite a big ugly one on this side and I felt there was still something wrong with the root base

Removing the little ones so I could entangle the mess and get a better look at what was going on.

On both sides to keep it even... and to finally discover the most lower roots

Cutting the big one was pretty scary and now this side is a little weaker compared to the other side, but a lot of young strong ones underneath that can hopefully grow fast and thicken up

Flat bottom

And in a the same box but with a fresh more draining mix
I was thinking about cutting some of the thicker roots a little shorter, but didn't go for it as I felt I had removed more then enough already in one repot.

All roots covered except the thickest one

Added some spagnum moss, but made sure to keep it from the lower trunk

That was it.
I know the top isn't much too look at yet, but at least the roots will be somewhat ok if the tree survives this... I certainly hope it does.

For more pics: https://bonsai.curb.be/#15510560119156
Seen as Flicker is being meh I decided to set up my private image hosting, but it's a little annoying to get the images here.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

It’s better that you did this now than wait another year. The longer you left those upper roots the more they would contribute to inverse taper problems at the base of the tree. Looks like a good start to a good nebari, well done.