AusBonsai

Late last year I took up Bonsai as a hobby and joined a local club. Since then I have started a small collection of trees, that seem to be increasing quickly.

I have posted two photos of the Cedar of Lebanon that I have recently purchased and just started working on. The photos are before and after I attempted to lightly prune and wire the tree. I have really only wired the large branches at this stage. To try and encourage the trunk to thicken I haven't pruned the two lowest branches.

I presume my next step now is to feed, water and watch until the foliage thickens up. I wasn't too sure how to tackle the apex. There area couple of larger diameter branches up high which I'm not sure if I should wire (one in particular seems too thick and short to wire). Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

This is my first attempt at uploading photos so hopefully they work.

I'm no expert on this species so I'll leave the critique to others but... Welcome to Ausbonsai and I really like what you have done with your tree, I think you're heading in the right direction, enjoy yourself and just as importantly, enjoy your trees! Nice start!

nice material and it will develop well with care.

The thick branch may well wire up as the new apex and replace the one that is there. To remove the thick brnahch will leave a hole that needs to be filled.
Do Cedar backbud on bare wood? (I do not have one so cannot be sure but doubt it. I think they require needles to shoot from).
that is why might be better to remove the original apex and trhy the branch.

Remember that all branches must exit the trunk in sympthy. If 1 hangs down then they all should on that section of tree.
typically teh lower ones down, the middle ones horizontal and the uppper ones heading up.

Ken

ps welcome.

Here is my experience with Cedar and bonsai in general.

It is true that you should not prune more than 1/3 of cedar without letting it recover first. Not matter how healthy and strongly growing it is.
My opinion with wiring all the branches down too early in a tree's development is that at some later point, when you want to create some taper by trunk chop, you have no new leader that is pointing upwards.
You will end up with a cascading style.

I think it is too early to be wiring branches down for your tree. But this will depend on if you are still trunk thickening or ramifying.
My opinion is this tree needs a little more girth.

Love the color of Cedars. This is a lovely specimen with nice even branches.

Dennis

As a comment on the last post, my view is that early wiring down branches that you know won't be used for a new leader is a good idea. It means that you get a better and more natural angle of emergence from the trunk. Allowing all branches to grow as they wish and then seeking to wire down much later can mean that they are very difficult to bring into place and/or only move down with an unnatural bow shape.


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Thanks everyone for the feedback. Interesting thoughts for the apex, I think I will have to do some more research before I go the chop.

Ken, I particularly liked your input about the angle of the branches depending where they are located on the tree. I'm not sure about the back budding.

I'm looking forward to being more active on the forum and learning as much as possible.

As a comment on the last post, my view is that early wiring down branches that you know won't be used for a new leader is a good idea. It means that you get a better and more natural angle of emergence from the trunk. Allowing all branches to grow as they wish and then seeking to wire down much later can mean that they are very difficult to bring into place and/or only move down with an unnatural bow shape.


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Hi guys,

Just to throw my thoughts out there, lebanese cedar are crazy top heavy when it comes to growth. If you let anything grow up and gain vigour, you'll need to really keep a close eye on lower branches to ensure they don't die off.

This is the main reason we dont come by very thick trunks on leb cedars often (never seen one myself).

Happy to be proven wrong though, would certainly improve my trees if there was a way to thicken the trunk without losing taper and lower branches!!

Also, no, they do not back bud on bare wood - at least not easily enough to warrant trying. You could potentially graft, or better yet, just keep shoots close to the trunk for now since you have a younger tree to work with. No point letting it grow out and giving yourself the problem of then having to chase the growth back to the trunk.

Cheers,
Mo


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Thanks for the information Mo. All of what you have said echoes what I was told by the nursery owner where I bought this tree from.

Any shoots that are close to the trunk I have kept, just in case I have any casualties.

At the nursery they carry out trunk splitting to encourage a wound response on the trunk that increases the diameter of the trunk. I have seen a couple after they were split and although it looks pretty drastic to start with, the splits on the older trees had nearly grown over and looked quite good.

With regards to the apex, I have removed the large branch, wired another smaller one to fill the gap and given the apex some direction to the right. It's funny how little changes can make such a big difference. After looking at this photo I think I will go back outside and put a little more movement in to the two lowest right hand branches.

Excellent result

Ken

Excellent work, although I would bend the branches down at a more acute angle as they have a tendency to rise after being unwired.

wow tree is looking good after the wiring will turn into a great plant when it gets older keep updating during spring so we can see the growth

You should also remove the needles below the branches and any downward pointing buds/shoots, take you 20 minutes to do and will improve the tree quite a bit.

Cheers,
Mojo