First time shaping and pruning

[Pigskin Pete]

Harder than it looks. My first attempt at pruning and shaping a bonsai. I bought this Thuja from a big box store, took it home, gave it a hard prune, and began to style it. I attempted a jin with no lime sulfur, and I'm hoping that doesn't allow infection.

My goal now is to keep it alive til Spring and repot it at that time. I'm excited to see where it is in a few years if I can keep it alive. My learning tree.

 

[Javaman4373]

I have a couple of Thuja I collected from our property that I find hard to work with. I would like to force a more compact foliage and I don't really know how to do it. That is how to prune Thuja and when. Maybe this forum can provide some guidance. OP, you don't say where you live, so add that to your profile. I have found that the Thuja foliage gets quite brown over the winter outside here in Vermont. It does green back up over the summer. I found it can back bud to some extent. One of mine is inside in a south facing window and it has liked that. The one shown here is outside and tends to produce needles that turn brown and drop off, even though the distal branches are growing well. My two Thuja were browsed heavily by deer before collection.

 

[Pigskin Pete]

I appreciate your response. I live in zone 7b. I'm not sure how to update that in my profile. I'll try to figure it out.

The tree you shared looks quite nice to my untrained eye!

 

[Sagebrush]

I have a couple of Thuja I collected from our property that I find hard to work with. I would like to force a more compact foliage and I don't really know how to do it. That is how to prune Thuja and when. Maybe this forum can provide some guidance. OP, you don't say where you live, so add that to your profile. I have found that the Thuja foliage gets quite brown over the winter outside here in Vermont. It does green back up over the summer. I found it can back bud to some extent. One of mine is inside in a south facing window and it has liked that. The one shown here is outside and tends to produce needles that turn brown and drop off, even though the distal branches are growing well. My two Thuja were browsed heavily by deer before collection.
View attachment 511678

I like what you have done with this. I have a platycladus with same flat terminus structure to the branches. They want to grow upright. Still struggling with this.

 

[Pigskin Pete]

I have removed some of the browning leaves and tried to show a bit more of the trees structure.

The browning at some of the tips does concern me, but I'm also seeing lots of back budding, which I think is a promising sign.

 

[Eckhoffw]

It’s getting sparse. You’ve done a good job, identifying the structure but I wouldn’t prune anything else off. Let it grow for a year or two.

 

[JonathanBonzai]

Can someone edit this picture with lines on where I should prune and shape? I am very new to this! This is my Blue Jacaranda that i grew from a seed. Just added wires for the first time.

 

[pandacular]

@JonathanBonzai it would be better to ask this question on a general beginner thread such as the one below, or make a new thread in the beginner sub forum. It is not considered polite to hijack another persons thread.

Thread 'How to be a successful bonsai beginner'

Mar 28, 2021

After reading a lot of beginner threads on this site over the years, I am going to create a thread of advice about how to get the best start on your bonsai journey.

Simply put - take advantage of all of the people who have gone before you!

At some level there is a bit of skeptic in all of us, and we need to fight the urge to dive in and just start doing stuff because we are excited and we want to start growing trees NOW! And plus we are pretty smart, and self-confident and think "how hard can it be?" And so we fail. A lot. Meanwhile we are surrounded by people with a lot of...

• Bonsai Nut
• Replies: 198
• Forum: New to Bonsai

• 
• 

 

[JonathanBonzai]

@JonathanBonzai it would be better to ask this question on a general beginner thread such as the one below, or make a new thread in the beginner sub forum. It is not considered polite to hijack another persons thread.

Thread 'How to be a successful bonsai beginner'

Mar 28, 2021

After reading a lot of beginner threads on this site over the years, I am going to create a thread of advice about how to get the best start on your bonsai journey.

Simply put - take advantage of all of the people who have gone before you!

At some level there is a bit of skeptic in all of us, and we need to fight the urge to dive in and just start doing stuff because we are excited and we want to start growing trees NOW! And plus we are pretty smart, and self-confident and think "how hard can it be?" And so we fail. A lot. Meanwhile we are surrounded by people with a lot of...

• Bonsai Nut
• Replies: 198
• Forum: New to Bonsai

• 
• 

Oh my gosh i'm so sorry! I did not know! This is my first time on this site!