Keep it or Cut it?

[MACH5]

Playing around with a photo setup in the studio. Not too bad...
View attachment 115472

Full and beautiful! It just keeps getting better.

Hi Sergio,

I'm sure you've said this elsewhere but which specific type of akadama do you use straight? Exclusively the hard variety? Or do you find it even makes a difference?

Aaron these days I use this akadama (pic attached). Have never used the hard baked kind. Always the soft. Honestly I am not too picky with akadama. I have tried various brands throughout the years with same exact results. By year three is starts to brake down. At which time is time for a repot anyways although I have left maples longer in the same soil with no adverse effects.

 

[amkhalid]

Aaron these days I use this akadama (pic attached). Have never used the hard baked kind. Always the soft. Honestly I am not too picky with akadama. I have tried various brands throughout the years with same exact results. By year three is starts to brake down. At which time is time for a repot anyways although I have left maples longer in the same soil with no adverse effects.

Good to know as we are in a similar climate. I have one maple in development that has been growing in pure soft akadama for two years. It seems to be loving it.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Update. Decent fall color, and with the leaves removed, it appears to have been a decent growing season too.

A little light pruning, and some planning to thread graft a back branch around into the gap on the left side above the first left branch. This will allow me to remove the awkwardly-growing branch emerging at the top of the first left branch, and provide an alternating appearance of branches from the trunk.

 

[markyscott]

Update. Decent fall color, and with the leaves removed, it appears to have been a decent growing season too.
View attachment 125498 View attachment 125499 View attachment 125500
A little light pruning, and some planning to thread graft a back branch around into the gap on the left side above the first left branch. This will allow me to remove the awkwardly-growing branch emerging at the top of the first left branch, and provide an alternating appearance of branches from the trunk.
View attachment 125504 View attachment 125505

Great job, Brian. I think grafting a new branch is a excellent solution. We're just getting some cool weather now - maybe I'll get a bit of fall color on my maples before the leaves fall off out of exhaustion.

S

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Good looking maple.

 

[my nellie]

Brian Van Fleet, Oct 26, 2010

... ...I think 5 more years in a bonsai pot will bring a more refined nebari, bark, and ramification... ...

Yes, you were right of course!
Almost show ready, isn't it?

 

[Les]

Sweet maple

 

[Potawatomi13]

Tree looks good considering is maple except for ugly graft. How long until this disappears? Lower branches to hide this could only help. Current displayed front seems to emphasize graft rather than hiding.

 

[MACH5]

Tree looks good considering is maple except for ugly graft. How long until this disappears? Lower branches to hide this could only help. Current displayed front seems to emphasize graft rather than hiding.

Potawatomi, this tree is not grafted and growing on its own roots, so unsure as to where you see the "ugly graft"? Whatever you may see in the trunk line are natural undulations and markings of the tree.

 

[Giga]

Tree looks good considering is maple except for ugly graft. How long until this disappears? Lower branches to hide this could only help. Current displayed front seems to emphasize graft rather than hiding.

Potawatomi, this tree is not grafted and growing on its own roots, so unsure as to where you see the "ugly graft"? Whatever you may see in the trunk line are natural undulations and markings of the tree.

It does look like a graft if you go back to the first page of this thread - I do not know if it is but it does look like one, or its just a chop point

 

[MACH5]

It does look like a graft if you go back to the first page of this thread - I do not know if it is but it does look like one, or its just a chop point

I'll let Brian chime in, but I do know for a fact it is not a grafted tree. You can see its history on Brian's website.

 

[Giga]

I'll let Brian chime in, but I do know for a fact it is not a grafted tree. You can see its history on Brian's website.

There ya go

 

[Dav4]

I'll let Brian chime in, but I do know for a fact it is not a grafted tree. You can see its history on Brian's website.

...and even if it was grafted (I know it's not), it certainly couldn't be characterized as "ugly"...sheesh.

 

[JudyB]

Tree looks good considering is maple except for ugly graft. How long until this disappears? Lower branches to hide this could only help. Current displayed front seems to emphasize graft rather than hiding.

You could use some glasses if you see an ugly graft here. This tree has really nice natural curves and no graft, and definitely no ugly...

 

[Nybonsai12]

Ugly graft?

 

[Vin]

Possibly Potawatomi means this area where the aged bark and newer bark meet? Not ugly by any means but for someone unfamiliar with JM there is room for misinterpretation.

 

[JudyB]

Possibly Potawatomi means this area where the aged bark and newer bark meet? Not ugly by any means but for someone unfamiliar with JM there is room for misinterpretation.

View attachment 125705

I suppose, but he was referring to the current picture as per his post.

 

[Waltron]

"dem branches way to tall"

sorry if you lost brain cells listening to that, couldn't resist.

 

[MACH5]

Possibly Potawatomi means this area where the aged bark and newer bark meet? Not ugly by any means but for someone unfamiliar with JM there is room for misinterpretation.

View attachment 125705

I believe that is the area in question. So... to answer potawatomi's question, in time the maple bark becomes all grey. When the tree gets even older, the bark will then develop the signature vertical striations rendering any "imperfections", including scars, virtually invisible. This takes many, many years to develop, even just getting the younger greenish areas to turn grey.

 

[Vance Wood]

It will take at least twenty years to fully disappear and blend together.