New Field Maple with girthhhh

[RKatzin]

There's no need to rush into anything. The tree is not going to out run you. Give it a year or two headstart and in a moment, snip, and it's all gone. Mean time, study up. Learn how to wire. There's a lot more to it than simply wrapping and bending. Find and join a local bonsai club, if at all possible, your most valuable resource.
Excellent tree BTW!

 

[cbroad]

@Clorgan
I like your attitude, keep it up!

Only thing I would caution before you go tugging and pulling on the tree: make sure your tree is secured in or to the pot or that the pot is full of roots and the trunk doesn't have any wiggle to it. Last thing you want to do is yank on it too much and damage any new roots.

Oh and fertilize fertilize fertilize.

Good luck!

 

[Clorgan]

There's no need to rush into anything. The tree is not going to out run you. Give it a year or two headstart and in a moment, snip, and it's all gone. Mean time, study up. Learn how to wire. There's a lot more to it than simply wrapping and bending. Find and join a local bonsai club, if at all possible, your most valuable resource.
Excellent tree BTW!

Deep down I think I know this is the best option Thanks very much for the wisdom! I did snip the bottom branch - I know it could have helped thicken the trunk, but I didn't like its position, and didn't want the inverse taper to get any worse.

All other thoughts on hold for now, I'll mull it over over the next few days - like you said, there's no rush. I suppose as my first piece of (what I think is) decent material, I should err on the side of caution. Definitely intend on joining a club - going to look into it once school has finished for the summer (I'm a teacher and will have A LOT of free time for 6 weeks). Haven't done so yet due to the current global strangeness.

Thanks for the compliment on the tree - it's nice to see my eye for decent material is improving! It was £45 by the way - I'd be interested to know if you think this is a good price? I thought it was!

 

[Clorgan]

@Clorgan
I like your attitude, keep it up!

Only thing I would caution before you go tugging and pulling on the tree: make sure your tree is secured in or to the pot or that the pot is full of roots and the trunk doesn't have any wiggle to it. Last thing you want to do is yank on it too much and damage any new roots.

Oh and fertilize fertilize fertilize.

Good luck!

Thanks for the kind words - appreciated!

Yeah it's wired into the pot, seems very secure. Not sure about the roots, came in that pot and soil mix. Doesn't look like it's full of roots so I'm guessing it was repotted recently, but could be wrong and will ask the guy when I'm next at the nursery

Been using a pretty basic liquid fertiliser on all my plants so far, keep meaning to look into that further so thanks for reminding me!

 

[Woocash]

I’m about to prune 2 of the maples I collected this year for the second time. These things are nuts with enough water, nutrition and space for roots (apparently anyway, still a newb remember). I’m following the hedging method of pruning a few times during the growing season to a general silhouette, letting grow, repeating and then I’ll wire and select branches after leaf fall so I can see all the options more clearly.

I hadn’t planned on pruning at all this year so soon after collection, but I have no need for a million foot long whips and no sense of where they’re heading til autumn. The tree dictates!

Like has been said and you agreed, I’d wait to see how the tree grows first. If it’s super crazy vigorous then a snip here and there wont hurt. If it’s a slower grower then choosing your cuts will be more vital.

45 squiddlies seems pretty good to me!

 

[Paulpash]

The hardest part about Field Maple is taming the internodes and getting some movement in the branches. FM are indestructible - I've had good fun training mine

 

[Clorgan]

I’m about to prune 2 of the maples I collected this year for the second time. These things are nuts with enough water, nutrition and space for roots (apparently anyway, still a newb remember). I’m following the hedging method of pruning a few times during the growing season to a general silhouette, letting grow, repeating and then I’ll wire and select branches after leaf fall so I can see all the options more clearly.

I hadn’t planned on pruning at all this year so soon after collection, but I have no need for a million foot long whips and no sense of where they’re heading til autumn. The tree dictates!

Like has been said and you agreed, I’d wait to see how the tree grows first. If it’s super crazy vigorous then a snip here and there wont hurt. If it’s a slower grower then choosing your cuts will be more vital.

45 squiddlies seems pretty good to me!

Nice, some of your maple posts inspired me to give one a go!

Yeah I've watered it twice today! Lots of useful stuff to think about there, taaa very much time will tell on its growth habits, very intrigued to see what it does over the next few weeks

 

[Clorgan]

The hardest part about Field Maple is taming the internodes and getting some movement in the branches. FM are indestructible - I've had good fun training mine

Being indestructible is absolutely ideal for me! Although I am yet to kill a plant... The dog has had 3 though, all sticks luckily

They do look a lot of fun, having a great time browsing everyone's threads on here

 

[leatherback]

Comon, you have had this for days now. Have you started wiring yet?

 

[Clorgan]

Comon, you have had this for days now. Have you started wiring yet?

I can't tell whether there's sarcasm in here or not there's so many mixed opinions here, I've been torn!

 

[Kanorin]

Nice find!
I think this tree looks like it was chopped this spring.

I'd probably go ahead with wiring, but I wouldn't do much pruning to it this year.

 

[Clorgan]

Nice find!
I think this tree looks like it was chopped this spring.

I'd probably go ahead with wiring, but I wouldn't do much pruning to it this year.

Yeah you're likely right! Cut paste doesn't look like it's been on for long. Seems to be two schools of thought here - the grow wild and free-ers and the wire-ers

Cheers for the input!!

 

[leatherback]

Better make sure you can keep it healthy before doing too much work on it.

 

[leatherback]

I can't tell whether there's sarcasm in here or not

for sure is!

 

[Clorgan]

for sure is!

Thought as much, point taken