AusBonsai

Hey guys,
A very new Bonsai owner here, my name is Blake and I'm from Melbourne. I have recently gotten into Bonsai growing and really want to run away with it. It's a hobby I could definitely see myself doing it for the rest of my life.
I need any and all advice you guys wish to give me but mostly the pruning side of Bonsai. I've read a few articles and I know the very basics but walls of text only gets me so far. I'm more of a hands on sorta guy and need some pictures to better understand the way it works.
I have taken some photos of my Japanese maple and have a certain look in mind. This is virtually how I bought it when I chose it. The cascade style lean on it is something I want to accentuate and develop further.
http://imgur.com/JTI13hi.jpg
I'm finding pruning difficult because the look I want isn't as simple as big at the base and small at the top. Because the look is horizontal I guess, would I be correct in saying all branches from the main branch are virtually the same length?
Please feel free to speak to me like I know nothing, because I don't know a lot and won't take offence.
This is some new growth on my longest branch I would think needs the buds nipped but don't want to do anything without getting advice from some professionals like you guys
http://imgur.com/yplt8y6.jpg
http://imgur.com/cOJtKPC.jpg
Please let me know your thoughts and I'm so happy to be here - these forums seem great! ^_^

Welcome!
hard to see on the pics as they are being cut off a bit.
Personally I'd let this one grow for a bit this season to bulk up.
Maybe trim and put some wire on when the leaves have fallen and spring is close.

A mistake i made for many years is to prune to often.
If you prune to much your tree will really struggle to bulk up and age.

Cheers!

Welcome
Take some pics of the entire tree against a plain background if you can from just above soil level. that way we can see it's current shape properly

Ken

Hi Goomi,
Welcome to AusBonsai. Your tree is still very young. I remember what it was like when I first started. You want to do lots of things to the tree. If you have a look on this site and also search the WEB, you will see that all the Maples that really look great have quite a bit of bulk to there trunks. For this to happen will take time and patience. You need to slip pot it into a larger pot and just let it take off. To keep your interest get yourself a Fig or Corky Bark Chinese Elm. These trees can be developed reasonably quickly and keep you busy shaping them.

Regards Ray

Hi Goomi,

Japanese maple have what is termed opposite branch placement, which means the new shoots develop in the form of a Y.

Idealy, branch placement should be in alternate branching, or staggered.

A simple remedy to this is to prune or pinch out growth to acheive the desired alternate branch direction, which is not a natural growth pattern in maple

The long branching on your maple is known as intenodes, or length between nodes (bud and growth producing areas).

I have posted some crude, colour coded arrows over your original pics.

Yellow being nodes, blue being die back and red being internodes.

You will notice in the first stages of the tree, the internodes are very close together, and as the tree strives to grow, they are very straight and much further apart.

As the tree progresses to grow, these internodes will continue to become further apart, and the leaves which shoot from them progressivly larger,
till they reach maturity.

New growth will only come from the node area and not from the space between ( internodes....marked in red).

Pruning the new shoots along the internodes will forcce the plant to produce new growth from the remaining nodes.

Take note, the when an internode is pruned, it dies back to the nearest node, ( areas marked in blue).

By this knowledge when pruning, you can acheive smaller, more compact growth, with smaller internodes and less straight growth habit with opposite branching.

I hope this helps ?

Regards Paul

Boics wrote:Welcome!
hard to see on the pics as they are being cut off a bit.
Personally I'd let this one grow for a bit this season to bulk up.
Maybe trim and put some wire on when the leaves have fallen and spring is close.

A mistake i made for many years is to prune to often.
If you prune to much your tree will really struggle to bulk up and age.

Cheers!

Ray M wrote:Hi Goomi,
Welcome to AusBonsai. Your tree is still very young. I remember what it was like when I first started. You want to do lots of things to the tree. If you have a look on this site and also search the WEB, you will see that all the Maples that really look great have quite a bit of bulk to there trunks. For this to happen will take time and patience. You need to slip pot it into a larger pot and just let it take off. To keep your interest get yourself a Fig or Corky Bark Chinese Elm. These trees can be developed reasonably quickly and keep you busy shaping them.

Regards Ray

I have updated the pics to links, hopefully that has fixed them being cut off!
Sorry about that.

Thank you for the advice everyone, I will watch it flourish into summer and do my best to not do too much in the mean time
And thanks for the warm welcome too!

kcpoole wrote:Welcome
Take some pics of the entire tree against a plain background if you can from just above soil level. that way we can see it's current shape properly

Ken

Will do Ken, I have night shift tonight and have to leave soon but tomorrow I will!

PaulC wrote:Hi Goomi,

Japanese maple have what is termed opposite branch placement, which means the new shoots develop in the form of a Y.

Idealy, branch placement should be in alternate branching, or staggered.

A simple remedy to this is to prune or pinch out growth to acheive the desired alternate branch direction, which is not a natural growth pattern in maple

The long branching on your maple is known as intenodes, or length between nodes (bud and growth producing areas).

I have posted some crude, colour coded arrows over your original pics.

Yellow being nodes, blue being die back and red being internodes.

You will notice in the first stages of the tree, the internodes are very close together, and as the tree strives to grow, they are very straight and much further apart.

As the tree progresses to grow, these internodes will continue to become further apart, and the leaves which shoot from them progressivly larger,
till they reach maturity.

New growth will only come from the node area and not from the space between ( internodes....marked in red).

Pruning the new shoots along the internodes will forcce the plant to produce new growth from the remaining nodes.

Take note, the when an internode is pruned, it dies back to the nearest node, ( areas marked in blue).

By this knowledge when pruning, you can acheive smaller, more compact growth, with smaller internodes and less straight growth habit with opposite branching.

I hope this helps ?

Regards Paul

Thanks, Paul. I had to read this slowly and a few times over but I certainly think I understand what you're saying. This is starting to make a lot more sense now. Just what I wanted!

Goomi wrote:

kcpoole wrote:Welcome
Take some pics of the entire tree against a plain background if you can from just above soil level. that way we can see it's current shape properly

Ken

Will do Ken, I have night shift tonight and have to leave soon but tomorrow I will!

Sorry for the delay!


Also, these are growing in the bottom, anyone recognise them or are they just weeds?

Much better pics.

I see what you mean about the style.
My advise will still remain the same and that is to grow it out for a season or two and look to trim and wire before spring / bud burst next year.

What I also find to be very sound advise is if you wish to get into chopping and styling right away is to buy another tree or two - one to chop one to grow.
This is great for comparisons and to learn from the one your "working on".

Good luck and welcome!

Sure thing! Keen to let this little guy grow but I think I might get something else in order to have some fun chopping. The suggestions given earlier were a fig or a Chinese elm. Any other species know for rapid growth?

Hi Goomi,
Those seedlings in the pot look like weeds to me.

Your original post talked about cascade style

The cascade style lean on it is something I want to accentuate and develop further.

but the pics you have supplied show an upright tree so I'm lost You will need to explain further so we understand what you have in mind in order to get useful advice.

This is some new growth on my longest branch I would think needs the buds nipped but don't want to do anything without getting advice from some professionals like you guys

. It is usual to allow developing trees to gro quite long shoots before cutting them. This helps to thicken the trunk and develop the tree.

PJ figs, tridents and banksias are among the quickest growing trees for bonsai that I know but they still take years, not weeks to make noticeable growth. patience will be an adavantage in bonsai.

Hi Shibui,
I know there's no wire on it yet but from the main trunk it comes out on about a 45 degree angle. With wire I'm hoping to make that more horizontal.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you apply wire in the winter when the branches are bare with no leaves?

You can wire any time of year but it is easier when there are no leaves in the way.

In cascade style the end of the tree falls to below the bottom of the pot. Semicascade style trees have the end of the tree below the top of the pot but not going down below the bottom of the pot. (the WIKI home page has links to bonsai styles with description and pics)
To be either cascade or semicascade style you will need to tilt your entire tree about 90degrees to the right or twist the trunk so the apex points down to the left but I suspect that as a beginner that is not really what you are aiming at?? Maybe just a more dramatic initial trunk angle then the tree going upward?? -
Just trying to get the same vision as you have in mind so we can give accurate advice.

I've found with maples the most important thing is the balance between too much and not enough direct sunlight---too much and the tree suffers stress from leaf burn and moisture loss--too little and growth becomes weak ,thin and leggy with too much distance between each set of leaves -this often means moving the plant to different areas of light and shade according to season-If you can achieve that balance ,your halfway to having a healthy little tree-- this also applies to most other tree types but maples seem to be more susceptible--(here in s.a. we have a very dry heat)

https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... sai_styles

Check out wiki for info on different bonsai styles
Definitely not a cascade there that you have.
You can wire at any time, gut with a deciduos tree, the growth will be so fast the wire will cut in before the new wood sets into place, and you will probably wave to take it off and rewire it. Do not let the wire mark the bark on a male as it will scar for ever and look ugly

In winter you can leave the wire on longer

Ken