My current troublemakers

[alivation]

Said lovingly of course. The Acer in the background (a Takinogawa that had a hard time this year and that I'm surprised made it because it arrived literally during our legendary ice storm, and has since put up with record breaking wind storms, hail, heat, and hardly any humidity when we're usually always in the 60%+) is going through the teen uglies at the moment and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. The smaller quince is due for a repot in spring, while the larger one I'm going to wire up on the weekend, I love it's natural movement and got that one on a whim online.

I have a wisteria but it's going through the autumn ugly as I like to call it. They don't... shed their leaves well... especially not here in texas... it looks mangy.

But! Would anyone have any ideas for the Maple or should I let it grow a bit more and let it's natural growth path kind of talk to me?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

But! Would anyone have any ideas for the Maple or should I let it grow a bit more and let it's natural growth path kind of talk to me?

It would help us all if you could put your location in your member profile. Texas is a big state and we'd offer very different advice if you lived in Amarillo versus McAllen.

Secondly, as soon as feasible (in the spring) you will want to get your trees out of deep narrow pots and move them into shallow wide pots. This will help tremendously with watering, and will help get the trees' roots growing radially instead of downwards. Your maple is (at least to me) too small to do much with right now - but that doesn't mean that you can't wire the trunk and put some movement into it before it lignifies and gets too hard/thick to bend.

 

[alivation]

It would help us all if you could put your location in your member profile. Texas is a big state and we'd offer very different advice if you lived in Amarillo versus McAllen.

Secondly, as soon as feasible (in the spring) you will want to get your trees out of deep narrow pots and move them into shallow wide pots. This will help tremendously with watering, and will help get the trees' roots growing radially instead of downwards. Your maple is (at least to me) too small to do much with right now - but that doesn't mean that you can't wire the trunk and put some movement into it before it lignifies and gets too hard/thick to bend.

I completely agree on the wanting to wire the maple before it gets too hard to do so! I actually snapped the maple for this one (my first bonsai ever) because of that a few years back. It scared me off of the art for a bit.

But also, back to the idea of a narrow wide pot, this is actually opposite of what I've been reading for growing thicker trunks, which is what I'm working on at the moment. It's actually not that narrow atm (it's a large pot for the current plant tbh, I raise aroids in my home and the size of this pot made me nervous when I upsized it). I want to grow roots, but I want to increase trunk size most of all. And to do that, from what I was reading, you want to encourage it in as large of a pot as possible. This is as close as I could get to putting it in the ground as I could without drowning the sapling (I live in 8b).

I was mainly following what Heron's bonsai was talking about on youtube, tbh. I can't plant in the ground, since at the moment I rent, so this was as close as I could get.

 

[alivation]

It would help us all if you could put your location in your member profile. Texas is a big state and we'd offer very different advice if you lived in Amarillo versus McAllen.

Secondly, as soon as feasible (in the spring) you will want to get your trees out of deep narrow pots and move them into shallow wide pots. This will help tremendously with watering, and will help get the trees' roots growing radially instead of downwards. Your maple is (at least to me) too small to do much with right now - but that doesn't mean that you can't wire the trunk and put some movement into it before it lignifies and gets too hard/thick to bend.

Wow too much info me. I do have some grow bags that are wider than they are deep. Do you think that would be better?

 

[rockm]

These plants are too small to do much with. If the quince are Japanese quince, that's not going to get much better if you continue growing them in a container. All your plants need some time (like five years or more) in the ground without ANY pruning. Making a good bonsai depends on the first third of the trunk (about 6-8 inches). The more growth connected to that section, the more heft it will develop.

FWIW, wire is not really an effective option with the thicker portions of deciduous trees. Trunk and branch movement on deciduous trees is more effective and "believable" with hard pruning. Wire puts unnatural-looking arcs and swoops into deciduous trees that wind up looking artificial. The "cut and grow" --hard pruning and subsequent backbudding is closer to how deciduous trees develop in nature.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Wow too much info me. I do have some grow bags that are wider than they are deep. Do you think that would be better?

Don't get overwhelmed, it isn't that complicated. I use Anderson deep propagation flats which are nothing more than a 15 3/4" x 15 3/4" x 5" plastic square pot - much wider than deep. I can get pretty big trunks without planting in the ground. Planting in the ground is definitely the best... but this is a relatively good second if you don't have ground to plant in, or if you need to move frequently, etc.

 

[Shibui]

In my hot summer climate trees grow better in deeper pots. Too much evaporation from the large surface area of a shallow tray.
Roost can be managed by good root pruning every few years. Active management of the roots will give a much better result than just planting in a shallow container and hoping for a result.

The Japanese maple may not be the best choice for bonsai in Texas. Plenty more suitable species with great bonsai potential and also easier and quicker to develop. Trident maple is much quicker and more responsive and will forgive many beginner mistakes far better than any JM.