Red Maple Cuttings in progress

[Darth Masiah]

cut a few of the first leaves to open that were shading the most, mostly from the first and second node.
i pinched out the middle set of leaves as the buds extended on a few shoots like the first left branch and the it slowed the elongation of the node spacing. this tree woke up a lot sooner than the other red maples i have, assuming because of the hard chop i just did before budbreak.


the curvy one




i wired up, repotted, and heavy root edited these cuttings in late October '23, so the only thing we're doing this spring is waiting to cut off the wire. i definitely couldn't have got the bends in that i did if i hadn't wired early. by one year old, the shoot itself is two years old and pretty stiff. my bro science take is repot in fall if you want strong growth the following spring, and repot in the spring to slow the tree down a little.

 

[luvinthemountains]

The root spread on the curvy one is to die for!

 

[Darth Masiah]

 

[Jrmcmich]

Nice thread on progression. So looks like you started with standard nursery pot amd switched to basket. What’s your thoughts on what has worked better for your trees?

 

[Tieball]

The Elephant foot tree bases are a phenomenal development and look fabulous. And the trees are still at a young age. Well done on all of the trees! Very impressive documentation along the growth trail. Mighty fine!

 

[Darth Masiah]

Nice thread on progression. So looks like you started with standard nursery pot amd switched to basket. What’s your thoughts on what has worked better for your trees?

well, we'll see how the root ball looks in spring '25, 2 year repot of the natural style maple. i was going to put it in a pot and expose more of the nebari. give it a smaller particle size. i just started growing them here in this thread, so not much experience. with these first two trees my goal was to create a nice nebari of course, but to also see if i could maintain it, not let it get out of proportion, while growing the trunks to the size i wanted, which isn't very big since i like shohin.

 

[Shogun610]

cut a few of the first leaves to open that were shading the most, mostly from the first and second node.
i pinched out the middle set of leaves as the buds extended on a few shoots like the first left branch and the it slowed the elongation of the node spacing. this tree woke up a lot sooner than the other red maples i have, assuming because of the hard chop i just did before budbreak.
View attachment 540055

the curvy one

View attachment 540107
View attachment 540108

i wired up, repotted, and heavy root edited these cuttings in late October '23, so the only thing we're doing this spring is waiting to cut off the wire. i definitely couldn't have got the bends in that i did if i hadn't wired early. by one year old, the shoot itself is two years old and pretty stiff. my bro science take is repot in fall if you want strong growth the following spring, and repot in the spring to slow the tree down a little.

View attachment 540109

That base on the curve one is just fantastic you should send that to me

 

[Darth Masiah]

wire has been on since Nov '23, when i repotted and root pruned. best decision i could have made, as the roots were already doing unfavorable things.

 

[Tieball]

Nice effective wiring. Well done.

 

[Gabler]

That looks like insulated electrical wiring with a solid core, rather than a cable of multiple finer strands. Where do you buy it? Do you find the copper is soft enough to easily apply the wire? It looks perfect for deciduous trees with smooth bark.

 

[Darth Masiah]

That looks like insulated electrical wiring with a solid core, rather than a cable of multiple finer strands. Where do you buy it? Do you find the copper is soft enough to easily apply the wire? It looks perfect for deciduous trees with smooth bark.

it's copper bonsai wire combined with electrical wire heat shrink wrap. seems to be an amazing combo. i needed that holding power small copper wire brings with the softness of aluminum.

 

[Gabler]

it's copper bonsai wire combined with electrical wire heat shrink wrap. seems to be an amazing combo. i needed that holding power small copper wire brings with the softness of aluminum.

View attachment 542341

Brilliant. That's an Egg of Columbus if I've ever seen one. I feel a bit silly that I never thought to do that myself!

 

[luvinthemountains]

Egg of Columbus

What a great and obscure phrase. I never knew.

 

[Darth Masiah]

i started taking the wire off these one year olds. they're definitely set. here's a couple pics from the repot and root pruning of anything i didn't like, then wiring up on 11/18/23. anytime it dropped below 30°f i put them in a plastic tote. October probably would've been safer, but after care was on point. they grew a lot more roots since post #36. a lot of them had stuff going on that was going to be unfavorable asthetically later on like crossing roots. you have to start editing early if you don't want that big box store shit nebari.



5/1/24

 

[Darth Masiah]

cut back some stuff i didn't like and selected my new leader. i don't want to break the shoot, slow it down too much or accidentally get big wire scars, so im going to wait till the fall to wire it.

 

[Darth Masiah]

ive been pruning here and there and pinching a little as leaves come out. just messing around. you can always subtract if stuff gets out of control.

 

[Daniel son STL]

with the long internodes and huge leaves do you plan to grow any out into larger bonsa? These would probably be a great candidate for something 3-4’ tall!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

nice job..have some of my own that can use some wire like this.

 

[Darth Masiah]

with the long internodes and huge leaves do you plan to grow any out into larger bonsa? These would probably be a great candidate for something 3-4’ tall!

didn't plan on growing any really large bonsai, but i know I'll eventually put something in the ground since i have so much space.

 

[Darth Masiah]