New Japanese Maple

[melbmaple]

Hello everyone,

Very new to the bonsai world, only bought this Japanese Maple last week, I have applied wire to slowly start shaping.
I am really interested to hear suggestions from the wealth on knowledge on here.

photo by rberry91, on Flickr

Thanks for any comments in advance.

[Hackimoto]

To create a more interestingly shaped tree in the future I would plant it at a 45degree angle sloping to the right, use the first branch on the right as a side branch and use the first branch on the left as your new trunk ar leader. Cut everything else off above that. Just one option.

[kcpoole]

Hi Melb
to elaborate on hack's comment.

To make a tree more interesting, we most of the time make them exit the soil at and angle, and then wire the leader back the other way and this starts the movement in the trunk.
The other thing he mentioned is to wire one of the branches as the new leader and then the other one becomes the first branch.
This does several things. Avoids having 3 shoots coming from the one spot on the tree, If left this will cause that section of the tree to thicken more, and develop reverse taper at that point. The other thing is that it avoids the dreaded "bar branch" as well. The third thing it does is to start developing the Taper of the tree where each section becomes progressively thinner.

Do search for each of these terms on the site or wiki for more info and examples
Bar branches, Taper and Reverse taper

Ken

[Guy]

..........and at this stage you could bend the trunk and branches a quite a bit more........... i.e. give it more shape or interest before it gets too thick........

[melbmaple]

Thanks for your comments, in relation to repotting and making the left branch the new leader, would i be able to do that this winter ready for spring or should i allow it to rest til next season?

[Luke308]

Thanks for your comments, in relation to repotting and making the left branch the new leader, would i be able to do that this winter ready for spring or should i allow it to rest til next season?

You can do that this winter, keep an eye on the buds, and when they begin to swell, (not open) that is the best time. I would suggest (if it hasn't been mentioned already) that you should pot it into a grow box or even better would be the ground. It is going to take a few years of growing & chopping back to get convincing taper, so you want as much growth as possible each season at this stage. Also when you repot, trim all downward growing roots, and try and spread the roots radially and uncross any crossing roots if possible. The sooner you start sorting the roots out, the quicker you will have a nice tree. Have a search on both her and wiki for root pruning ( I think shibui has just done one recently with a trident maple). Also you should try and gently put some more bends in the trunk both side to side and front to back (to avoid a 2 dimensional tree) to create some interest to the trunk line. Remember though that as the tree grows the bends will become less as the tree grows upwards straightening itself out slightly.

Good luck, and I hope the bonsai bug doesn't bite TOO hard.

PS I would recommend getting some cut paste to seal all wounds/cuts and if you dont already, get yourself a concave cutter as this will help avoid ugly scarring too. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/390374514473 ... 1497.l2649

As a beginner you only really need some cheap tools, but if you start to become hooked, then you should invest in some quality Japanese tools. These are perfect for beginners http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Bonsai-T ... 5ad63ca06b