Japanese Maple help for beginner

[Wilko]

Hello everyone

I'm relatively new to bonsai and have a few Japanese maples I've been growing in pots a couple of years.
Here is one of them I think its a 'Katsura' but could be wrong.


So I'm after some suggestions on what to do. At the moment I'm planning on waiting till the buds start swelling in the spring then chop both main trunks one longer than the other and root prune repot at the same time.
Any help or suggestion would be brilliant. I'm planning on doing a bonsai course in the up coming months

Thanks Andy

 

[sorce]

I'd clean up that quadra growth at the split and let it keep running with the then less probability of getting reverse taper.

Because,
The 2 trunks it has now seem too similar in size to want to freeze them at that size.

And
When thinking about letting one grow out to make the size difference greater, that one quickly becomes the same size as the existing low trunk, therefore, it seems you have to grow them both out some.

Sans that tiny BS quadra growth that's keeping them from going going.

Of a thousand paths, this seems the fastest to a "good" tree.

Nice material.

Sorce

 

[Wilko]

Thank you for your reply. And sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.

So by letting it just grow am I just hoping one of the trunks becomes bigger than the other or is there anything I should be doing to encourage?

Also should I be inspecting/working on roots and repotting In the spring?

"Sans that tiny BS quadra growth that's keeping them from going going" what do you mean by this ??

Sorry for all the questions
Cheers Andy

 

[Wilko]

bump

 

[Warpig]

First let me start by saying welcome! Its good to hear that you are planning on attending a class to help get a start. If you are really looking into picking it up as a hobby i would suggest taking it a step farther and looking into if there are any bonsai clubs in your area. Speaking of which you should add your location to your profile. It will help you get alot better advise for you. Makes a big difference if you live in Canada or China.

As for getting one of the trunks to thicken you need to let it grow. Decide which trunk you want to be the weaker of the two and prune it back a little more then the other. More falage means more growth and more thickness.

 

[AlainK]

Nice healthy tree.

I second what's said before about choosing a trunk line.

And yes, it looks like 'Katsura', but there are several cultivars that look pretty much the same, like 'Orange Dream' for instance, especially when grown in different areas/climate/soil/ etc..

Speaking of which you should add your location to your profile. It will help you get alot better advise for you.

That could help, yes.

I'm planning on doing a bonsai course in the up coming months

Good move, wait for this course to make up your mind.