AusBonsai

I learnt this watching the DVDs and reading all the posts that his many students have put up. Then a couple of years of trial and error have shown me that in Melb, around the 10th of December is the right time.

Roots and nebari are very important. They are the building blocks of the tree and need to be right, sure you could fix them, but only if they are fixable. Grants method is great but you still need to have roots that will be pliable enough to get them into position to start with. Why spend tht time developing roots when the nursury man should have at least done some root work whilst the tree was young. It's one of the vital parts of a great bonsai and in Australia it seems to take second place to a thick trunk. I believe we should be developing now trees for our children, and grand children with the expectation that we may never see a lot of them in bonsai pots. The Japanese have been doing it for years, we should take a leaf out of their books. Spend 2-3 years setting up a nebari so that there is far less work to do in 10 years time when the tree has some girth.

That'll do for now.

P.s. I will get some photos from Takamatsu to show you what I mean.

Another thing I should probably mention with this technique is that you effectively get two years ramification in one season. Effectively halving the time it takes to build a branch.

And a side note on things I should probably mention, you should never do this in the same year you repot as it can be too stressful for the tree. So next year I won't be cutting the candles on this tree as I need to sort out some horrible roots in spring. I don't always pass up on a good trunk just because the roots are terrible!

JARROD, This post is for you mate! For the courage to take this bold topic head on in the first place!
"GROW BETTER TREES FOR OUR CHILDREN"


Congratulations on your wedding day yesterday and we wish you and your wife a lovely honey moon in japan! Look forward to hearing all about it.

Jarrod...you got married! Big congratulations to you. I would have loved to have photographed it for you... Where in Japan are you heading?

thanks for the right up jezz, it takes a lot of the hard timing issues out of growing them, its just a matter of working out the correct time to do it, between this and noah i am sure i will have JBP worked out

jamie

Baloc is the man check him out. I really liked him. He hs so much knowledge if you know how to get it out of him

Is anyone giving this treatment a go at the moment?

I wanted to do mine but not sure if this is the right time for Brissy. Any suggestion about timing for Brisbane?

I am continuing to use this method. Was going to cut a week ago but accidentally left my tools at a friends place. With the season being as wet and cool as it has, I think cutting earlier would be better!

I have no idea on the timing for Brisbane. Guessing about now but only with trial and re trial;) will you get the right results.

Hi Kvan,
re: timing in Brisbane. I've been doing my larger trees in late December (xmas onwards) and the smaller ones as late as mid-January. I've had good results with this approach over the last couple of years and am keen to hear the experiences of others.


STeve

Jarrod wrote:Once the work above has been completed remove all ferts for 1 month. No liquid feeding either. Then start feeding heavily again.

Just re-reading this post again, I was wondering why we do this?
Cheers

Hey Jarrod,

I now this post has been here a while but just want to let you know that the photo's and information are very clear esp. for a newbie like me. I bought a field grown jbp from shibui and hoping to follow this instructions next year as I just repotted it recently.

Cheers mate
Carlos

Thanks Carlos, I will update this tree shortly when I get a chance, it is coming along well and I have decided on the branching i am going to keep and removed the rest. It will be cut again this year after a rest last year due to a repot. Also thanks for bumping this as I missed Boomys questions.

Boomy wrote:

Jarrod wrote:Once the work above has been completed remove all ferts for 1 month. No liquid feeding either. Then start feeding heavily again.

Just re-reading this post again, I was wondering why we do this?
Cheers

Boomy,

We remove the ferts as we dont want the new buds to come and get too long, we want compact growth from the summer candles. Hope that helps.

Cheers.

Looking forward to the update Jarrod

Here is the updated pic. It has extended more than what the pic shows.



Needs carving soon.