SilenceDogwood
Seedling
Sergio, beautiful tree and progression. I really like the blue Reiho pot with it as well. Have any photos earlier than 2013?
Your humble servant,
S. Dogwood
Your humble servant,
S. Dogwood
Acer palmatum sharp's pygmy [#07]
- Thread starter MACH5
- Start date
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Hi Paul. The healing of scars on this cultivar is slower in my experience. They do heal but do take a while. Nowhere near as fast as a straight A. palmatum. They are generally not as vigorous either. However, with younger trees things may happen a lot quicker.
Something to watch out for is their density mainly because leaves grow on extremely small internodes. The dense canopy if not thinned out will surely killed all that's growing inside. Partial defoliation is something I need to do on this tree without fail if I want to encourage the development of smaller interior shoots.
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Thanks! Unfortunately I do not. It was only in 2011 when I joined this site that I decided to record the progress of my trees with good photography. A few members here like BVF inspired me to post good photos on my trees as they progressed. Before that time I rarely took any pictures if you can believe it.
BTW this was an EBay tree I got from Matt Smith in 2010.
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Thanks Johnny! I would have to talk to Max (@barrosinc). He was the one who put it all together and I took all the photos. Its was a great deal of work that took several weeks to photograph without fail. It was a commitment! Perhaps at some point but so busy these days that unless I get some sort of help it may prove quite difficult to pull it off.
That branch that you will be removing will take a while I think. If you can let the tree run undisturbed even better. But it will heal. Make sure you cover the wound. My preference by far is to use standard cut paste for that size wound.
whfarro
Chumono
One of my all time favorite trees indeed. Just gets nicer and nicer.Have not updated this thread in well over a year. This maple went through some big edits last year which included a larger branch in the apex. I also air layered another large branch that was not needed anymore. The air layer took a long time but ultimately it was successful. I will use it as future graft stock.
Below is the maple today as it looked entering the new decade. 2020 marks the 10th year I've had this tree. I have learned much caring and working with it and has become an iconic tree in my garden. Looking forward to the next ten years!
Due to the heavier than usual pruning, I got a profusion of back budding which included the trunk. I am leaving many of these to develop into small branches to add additional detail to the overall design. They also could be used in future years to replace thicker branches.
Jiminsauga
Mame
Serigo, I've just gone through all 17 pages of your progress. The level of refinement you've achieved in just over a decade is amazing!
I can't help but notice that you have multiple (6?) branches emanating from the one location on the lower trunk, but very little inverse taper. Could this have something to do with that fact that there are no branches below this junction?
I can't help but notice that you have multiple (6?) branches emanating from the one location on the lower trunk, but very little inverse taper. Could this have something to do with that fact that there are no branches below this junction?
Scrogdor
Chumono
Supposed I'm resurrecting this post for such an awesome tree. I had a question regarding defoliation of sharp's pygmy maples that are still in growth/development phase. Mine is pretty large already a dense canopy where some of the inside leaves/branches are being shaded out, however the leaves are still soft and shoots are still extending.
If my goal growth am I going to wait until it's done extending shoots/leaves harden off to begin defoliation? Not sure how quickly inner branches die off and if I have time to wait for it to finish it's spring growth first before I weaken it. thanks!
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Finally an update on this tree. Have not posted one since January 2020! This maple has been through some changes. Not so much in design but more in improving its branch structure. After a rather aggressive repot in the spring of 2022, the tree declined and looked sickly and pale. I decided to place it under more shaded conditions and the color started to improve. By the second half of the season it was looking better and started fertilizing heavily with Osmocote to help strength it for the following year.
Although I typically wire and work my trees in late winter, I decided to leave this one alone to allow it to fully recover. In the spring it exploded with growth and allowed it for extend until now. Seeing it again so healthy and beautiful, I now have rekindled once more my love for this maple.
Below is the tree today. It was now time to thin out the dense canopy. Osmocote was applied once again this year.
Close up of the base. Notice the large wound from a large branch that I removed in 2021. Another year or so and it will be completely healed.
Here it is after about 2 hours of work. The difference is not so obvious but a large number of leaves had been removed. On this cultivar you take the two basal leaves off and then, if necessary, cut off one out of each pair as you go up the shoot. There are lots of smaller interior growth coming from the trunk that I would like to develop into branches, so it is important to try and keep them from dying back.
I have been slowly improving the overall structure by removing branches that look like this. Long, taper-less with only ramification at the ends. This one was at the back towards the top of the tree. Seeing how vigorous the tree is now, I have confidence that by cutting it back now it will activate latent buds further down.
Back in the garden placed in a rather sunny spot. This cultivar can take strong sunlight well.
I superimposed an image of the tree from back in 2013 over todays photo. I used the first right branch to register the two images. Notice how much wider the nebari has gotten even growing slowly in a pot all these years!
Although I typically wire and work my trees in late winter, I decided to leave this one alone to allow it to fully recover. In the spring it exploded with growth and allowed it for extend until now. Seeing it again so healthy and beautiful, I now have rekindled once more my love for this maple.
Below is the tree today. It was now time to thin out the dense canopy. Osmocote was applied once again this year.
Close up of the base. Notice the large wound from a large branch that I removed in 2021. Another year or so and it will be completely healed.
Here it is after about 2 hours of work. The difference is not so obvious but a large number of leaves had been removed. On this cultivar you take the two basal leaves off and then, if necessary, cut off one out of each pair as you go up the shoot. There are lots of smaller interior growth coming from the trunk that I would like to develop into branches, so it is important to try and keep them from dying back.
I have been slowly improving the overall structure by removing branches that look like this. Long, taper-less with only ramification at the ends. This one was at the back towards the top of the tree. Seeing how vigorous the tree is now, I have confidence that by cutting it back now it will activate latent buds further down.
Back in the garden placed in a rather sunny spot. This cultivar can take strong sunlight well.
I superimposed an image of the tree from back in 2013 over todays photo. I used the first right branch to register the two images. Notice how much wider the nebari has gotten even growing slowly in a pot all these years!
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Gary McCarthy
Chumono
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Happy New Year all!
Lots of strong growth resulted from the heavy dose of Osmocote that I applied earlier last year. As I am getting this tree back on track, I recently reworked it somewhat and now found the back of it had developed into a really nice new front. This is not uncommon and one must always reassess their own trees from time to time. I chose to not cut back much and many tips are still coarse. I want to keep the momentum going for this spring and then cut back more precisely after the first flush. Structural refinement pruning of the tips will happen after leaf fall this year.
The tree today.
Branch that was drastically cut back to improve its structure. Although the new buds that resulted remained dormant, they are set to open and develop in the spring.
As mentioned, many areas were purposely left uncut, leaving many shoots with three and four nodes to keep the tree's forward momentum. Later, these tips will be cut back for refinement.
Many fine shoots were left to develop further. The aim here is not to develop them as main branches but rather keep them small to add fine detail to the design and provide scale contrast with the larger primary branches.
Lots of strong growth resulted from the heavy dose of Osmocote that I applied earlier last year. As I am getting this tree back on track, I recently reworked it somewhat and now found the back of it had developed into a really nice new front. This is not uncommon and one must always reassess their own trees from time to time. I chose to not cut back much and many tips are still coarse. I want to keep the momentum going for this spring and then cut back more precisely after the first flush. Structural refinement pruning of the tips will happen after leaf fall this year.
The tree today.
Branch that was drastically cut back to improve its structure. Although the new buds that resulted remained dormant, they are set to open and develop in the spring.
As mentioned, many areas were purposely left uncut, leaving many shoots with three and four nodes to keep the tree's forward momentum. Later, these tips will be cut back for refinement.
Many fine shoots were left to develop further. The aim here is not to develop them as main branches but rather keep them small to add fine detail to the design and provide scale contrast with the larger primary branches.
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GGB
Masterpiece
wow, this tree is perfect. i love the natural style
INDIGO-STEVE
Yamadori
What are you wrapping your wire with?
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Thanks Dan. Do you mean reinvigorate it?
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
For some bends I use floral tape which is a waxy type of tape and very easily applied to the wire. For more extreme bends I use strips of paper towels (not seen here). These wrappings allows you to keep the wire longer on the branches before it bites in.
INDIGO-STEVE
Yamadori
Thanks for the reply. I normally use paper towels but I'm not familiar with the floral tape method. I'm going to have to give it a try.
No, mostly shortening of long taper-less branches. I may still need to fertilize it a bit more before this though. I wouldn't say that it's weak, but the tree has slowed down nicely.
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Dan, my suggestion with Sharps is crank it up a bit before you decide to cut back. I would do it after the first flush hardens off.
Great tree, Sergio. Pictures with details of the branches showing really nice refinement. I'm not familiar with this particular cultivar but I understand it could be challenging to work with some. Wrapping the wire is nice helpful technique.
Wishing you all the best in 2024.
Wishing you all the best in 2024.
MACH5
Imperial Masterpiece
Thank you Maros, and all the same to you and family!
Sharps is probably one of the better dwarf cultivars for bonsai. Discovered by Jim Sharp in Oregon in the 80's. I started to see some nurseries in Europe selling it. Very short internodes, almost like shishigashira and gets just about as dense. And I'd say not quite as predictable in terms of back budding as regular palmatum. But then again a lot of these "fancy" cultivars tend to have their quirks.
