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Seedling
Live in Yorkshire, UK Zone 9a
I really want to start from the beginning, learn how to take care of trees and understand the biology of them and how to make the changes I'd like, fix problems and create healthy happy trees. So I currently have a mixture of Japanese Maples from seedlings to very young trees that I'm growing on. I don't want to buy a finished bonsai tree or even half way done. I want to learn to create one from scratch, learn about good/bad stock and generally about horticulture and the art of bonsai...
I foresee a lot of 'destructive testing' in my future...
I recently bought a lovely Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum with a good few years of growth on it -this is my first victim. I went for a healthy tree with abundant growth, showed evidence of short internodes and smaller mature leaves in places. A little boring but I liked the branch structure for my first tree but I'm having some issues I'll explain in a moment... there's lots of problems to solve and that's the bit I find both interesting and frustrating.
it's not been grafted. The nebari sucks but I know that can be fixed in a number of ways down the line.It's beginning to feel like other creative pursuits where I'm starting to see all of the faults and whilst I've read obsessively over the last few weeks, I haven't got the experience ti understand the future impact of any changes I might me making.
I've pruned off some leggy growth from an area I wasn't planning keeping for the main tree. They're all off into pots for cuttings.
Here is the tree so far - around 1/3 of the foliage was removed from the right hand branch. I kept everything else. I've tried to exercise some self control here. That was a week ago.
So here are my ideas and my problems:
The 2 red sections are the trunk sections I'd like to keep. The yellow section is going and that's where I've removed most of the foliage.
The green line is the only branch on the second section. At the top left inside the blue triangle is strong apical growth which I haven't touched yet as it's already had a lot of foliage removed.
In the third picture is the sacrifice branch off the first section of trunk. It will grow but I need more foliage and growth in that area at this stage compared to the top.
Please help me make some decisions that won't end up with a dead plant:
1. I pruned heavy one week ago. The yellow part is going to be chopped (I'll learn to air layer on the next victim.) Will chopping it in the next couple of days cause too much stress?
2. The foliage at the top of the tree needs to be thinned out but I also want a healthy tree by winter. Can I reduce this in June, UK and still have a healthy strong tree by the end of the summer?
3. Whilst we're on the subject of apical growth and branches, which is were I really need some advice - as I understand it, the more apical growth I remove, the more likely it is to develop lower branches.
Would thinning out the apical growth and removing the unwanted section of branch help in developing new branch options? Should I do this slowly over weeks or just go balls to the wall and trim a lot of the apical growth now giving it longer to recover?
The most important thing is having a healthy root system and tree for autumn. The second most important thing is growing the small leader low down and encouraging branching from the main trunk. The first section is much longer, it's part buried. I cannot get any good proportions with what I have now and I also want to focus as much growth into that trunk as I can.
My plan: Chop off the yellow trunk secion, leave room for die back. Let the bottom sacrifice branch grow wild whilst I water and fertilise properly. Gradually reduce the apical growth at the top as the bottom gains momentum.
Will that achieve my goal of having less foliage up top, hopefully new branches popping on the trunk and a healthy plant ready for overwintering or is it too much for one season???
I really want to start from the beginning, learn how to take care of trees and understand the biology of them and how to make the changes I'd like, fix problems and create healthy happy trees. So I currently have a mixture of Japanese Maples from seedlings to very young trees that I'm growing on. I don't want to buy a finished bonsai tree or even half way done. I want to learn to create one from scratch, learn about good/bad stock and generally about horticulture and the art of bonsai...
I foresee a lot of 'destructive testing' in my future...
I recently bought a lovely Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum with a good few years of growth on it -this is my first victim. I went for a healthy tree with abundant growth, showed evidence of short internodes and smaller mature leaves in places. A little boring but I liked the branch structure for my first tree but I'm having some issues I'll explain in a moment... there's lots of problems to solve and that's the bit I find both interesting and frustrating.
it's not been grafted. The nebari sucks but I know that can be fixed in a number of ways down the line.It's beginning to feel like other creative pursuits where I'm starting to see all of the faults and whilst I've read obsessively over the last few weeks, I haven't got the experience ti understand the future impact of any changes I might me making.
I've pruned off some leggy growth from an area I wasn't planning keeping for the main tree. They're all off into pots for cuttings.
Here is the tree so far - around 1/3 of the foliage was removed from the right hand branch. I kept everything else. I've tried to exercise some self control here. That was a week ago.
So here are my ideas and my problems:
The 2 red sections are the trunk sections I'd like to keep. The yellow section is going and that's where I've removed most of the foliage.
The green line is the only branch on the second section. At the top left inside the blue triangle is strong apical growth which I haven't touched yet as it's already had a lot of foliage removed.
In the third picture is the sacrifice branch off the first section of trunk. It will grow but I need more foliage and growth in that area at this stage compared to the top.
Please help me make some decisions that won't end up with a dead plant:
1. I pruned heavy one week ago. The yellow part is going to be chopped (I'll learn to air layer on the next victim.) Will chopping it in the next couple of days cause too much stress?
2. The foliage at the top of the tree needs to be thinned out but I also want a healthy tree by winter. Can I reduce this in June, UK and still have a healthy strong tree by the end of the summer?
3. Whilst we're on the subject of apical growth and branches, which is were I really need some advice - as I understand it, the more apical growth I remove, the more likely it is to develop lower branches.
Would thinning out the apical growth and removing the unwanted section of branch help in developing new branch options? Should I do this slowly over weeks or just go balls to the wall and trim a lot of the apical growth now giving it longer to recover?
The most important thing is having a healthy root system and tree for autumn. The second most important thing is growing the small leader low down and encouraging branching from the main trunk. The first section is much longer, it's part buried. I cannot get any good proportions with what I have now and I also want to focus as much growth into that trunk as I can.
My plan: Chop off the yellow trunk secion, leave room for die back. Let the bottom sacrifice branch grow wild whilst I water and fertilise properly. Gradually reduce the apical growth at the top as the bottom gains momentum.
Will that achieve my goal of having less foliage up top, hopefully new branches popping on the trunk and a healthy plant ready for overwintering or is it too much for one season???
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