AusBonsai

I'm giving my Japanese maple it's first annual chop with some creation pruning.
I'm struggling with which direction to go and find a front.
I've just chopped off the extended branches at this point so I am willing to take more off if needed.
Your help would be much appreciated.

I think both those branches are too low to be kept. You can keep them as sacrifice branches - that may help determine the front as you would put the scars to the back. ATM I would look at cutting back the trunk hard to get some taper happening and not worry about a front yet

I like the idea of a clump style tree with 3 trunks. It's probably photo 2 that gives the best front. It will look nice when it leafs out.

I'm with Daluke. Multi trunk is the most natural style for Japanese maples. The main trunk goes up through the centre and other rising trunks/branches fill the role of branches. They should ramify as they curve out to provide foliage pads. It is hard to see how the existing trunks move forward and back but I think I'd try picture 2 as well. I'd shorten nearly all the existing growth to get it to start branching and to promote some taper.

I agree too with Luke and Shibui. Pic 2 if probably the front to keep with offset branches. Unless you want to put multiple trees in a group planting, it is better to keep the branches. Japanese maples would look better when "fuller".
Just my 3cents!
Cheers
DK

I'm going to go out on a limb here and disagree with the posters above me for numerous reasons:

1 - It is far too early days to be deciding concrete branch locations. The main trunks probably barely break 1cm in girth so the main focus for now should be building the foundations of a good nebari and growing on trunk girth.

2 - If you were to go for the multi-trunk style as previously mentioned (an awesome style for palmatum by the way!) the 2 secondary trunks diverge from the main trunk far too close together. This goes back to my first point, but once you have some decent girth on this tree, the height difference between the left and right "trunks" would slowly merge together, and you'd instead have the appearance of 3 branches emerging from the same point and inverse taper.

3 - This style of growth will give you no taper to your trunks. Ideally you'd want to incorporate some trunk chops and re-growth, but at the very least, some sacrifice branches to give a soft subtle taper. If you were to grow on from the point you're currently at, you'd end up with very straight taper-less trunks, which I think you'd find would be less interesting than what you're capable with at this point of development with this tree.

Anyway, this is my 2c. Good luck with the tree, and have fun on the journey. It'll be a long and fun road ahead i'm sure.

Interesting points Truth. So what would you suggest she do with the tree?

I simply love Maples grown with multiple trunks shooting up and gradually out, like the one Mike has done in the thread below.

If it were mine, I would let the middle trunk grow unhindered, and try to keep the 2 low side branches kept short to stop them thickening as much, and try to replicate something like this:

viewtopic.php?f=129&t=20231

This way, the goal would be to thicken the centre trunk and constantly cut back the 2 side shoots to not let them thicken at the same rate as the centre.
I don't have much experience with maples and I am only slowly trying a few, but if it were mine this is what I would do.

I do this with my Casuarina stock ALL the time. Casuarina is one of the most bulge prone trees you can grow. So when you have branches / trunks in positions that you don't want to lose, I then apply strategic pruning that is relevant to how the tree grows, to keep everything in check.
If you choose this method, then going forward make sure that these lower shorter trunks are allowed to get full sun to keep the ramification short and kept in check.

[quote="Rory"]I simply love Maples grown with multiple trunks shooting up and gradually out, like the one Mike has done in the thread below.

If it were mine, I would let the middle trunk grow unhindered, and try to keep the 2 low side branches kept short to stop them thickening as much, and try to replicate something like this:

viewtopic.php?f=129&t=20231
]

I think those trunks are in the wrong position for that Rory.

Unfortunately, I think your tree is.......

treeman wrote: I think those trunks are in the wrong position for that Rory.

Yes, I didn't mean exactly like yours Mike. I just meant not a single trunk with no low branching.

I assume you mean that yours was layered to start out with the multiple trunks at the point of the soil, unlike this material.

Let me elaborate.
Staying with this front because you can see where the branches start.
You could go left or right like this kind of thing
You could use one of the lower branches as a second trunk but it should be kept smaller
You may be able stretch it to using both branches as second and third trunks.
If you do this you will need to restrain them so that you end up with # 3 as the strongest and highest, #2 as the next strongest and second highest and #1 as the weakest and lowest.
Because all are now more or less the same diameter, It will take a little time to adjust them.

Either way though, for a good tree you will need to cut quite hard for 3 reasons. The first is that there is no movement in the ''trunks''
The second is that there is no taper in them. (This is achieved by cut, grow, wire, cut grow, wire).
And the third is that if you leave as is there is nowhere to go.

C8lyn

Don't you love the time and effort the members of this forum put in to give excellent advice!

You now have a number of options you can consider, as do I for my trees having read this thread.

Good stuff!

Theo

Sir Theodore wrote:C8lyn

Don't you love the time and effort the members of this forum put in to give excellent advice!

You now have a number of options you can consider, as do I for my trees having read this thread.

Good stuff!

Theo

Cold and rainy outside....

Treeman's last virt was pretty close to what I had in mind for that tree.
I'm not sure how large the tree is at the moment but It seems to me that multi trunk AP needs to be min 40cm tall to have room to fit trunks and ramification. 60cm + is even better.
Treeman is absolutely correct that taper is best developed through cut and grow with occasional wiring.
That's why I suggested earlier

I'd shorten nearly all the existing growth to get it to start branching and to promote some taper.

Depending on current size it may not be necessary to cut down quite as much as Treeman has drawn but that will partly depend how obsessive you are about taper and perfection.

In addition, Japanese maples are extremely prone to unwanted thickening along the trunks. I have several specimens to illustrate that point To develop good JM bonsai you must be rigorous with pruning and pinching and thinning multi shoots. By all means have fun learning with Jm but better JM bonsai need advanced skills and lots of experience.