AusBonsai

I've been growing a few Satsuki azaleas on to thicken the trunks. They were getting a bit long with straight, bare trunks so I reckon it's time for a cut back. Summer should be a good time to do that as they are ready to grow right after flowering.
Click on the pictures. They should turn right side up when they open to full size.
Still no plan for styling any of these. I'll probably let them grow again to add a little more trunk before chopping again and seeing what I have to work with then.

I been looking into this alot lately. I've found japanese growers will cut all the growth off in Winter and repot at the same time So the tree will not put flowers out that year and only produce leaves to promote thickening of the trunks.

Another method i'm trying is pinning the branches into the soil to give more energy to the main trunk but results arent showing anything.

Wooden box pots sitted on the ground is how they do it in japan. got me inspired to give a few a go next winter.

Simon

I been looking into this alot lately. I've found japanese growers will cut all the growth off in Winter and repot at the same time So the tree will not put flowers out that year and only produce leaves to promote thickening of the trunks.

This sounds worth trying. I've noticed that Sao-to-me, the non flowering azalea, seems to grow and thicken quicker than most other cultivars so that may be as a result of growing leaves instead of wasting energy on flowers.

Another method i'm trying is pinning the branches into the soil to give more energy to the main trunk but results arent showing anything.

Wooden box pots sitted on the ground is how they do it in japan. got me inspired to give a few a go next winter.

Not sure how this works. In theory, sap doesn't flow backwards. When a branch layers, the new roots start feeding the part growing above/past the new roots and the old stem between the parent and the new roots usually stops growing. Worth some trials though.

See how you are leaving a number of trunks after the chop, will that not distribute the thickening? I am curious as to how the Japanese trunks sometimes have the thickness of an arm have chopped one of mine to a single trunk as per your tips on a separate thread. Checking if I am on the right track.

I guess each trunk will thicken according to how much foliage it has so leaving several will probably distribute the thickening between the trunks.
My plan was to have multi trunk bonsai from these as that seems to be how most azaleas grow. If I want a single trunk I would probably reduce to a single trunk to concentrate growth into that trunk. Just need to be careful to have some different leaders growing from the trunk to add taper to the trunk line. 1 single trunk will usually end up with no taper and a huge chop when the time comes to reduce. Then years more as you grow new leaders and branches.
Maybe I should look better at some of these to identify probable unwanted trunks and get rid of those now so the remaining trunks grow more?

I love growing satsuki azaleas, I have been a great fan of a watching Satsuki Channel on You tube I have to use translate to understand , has a lot of very interesting ways of growing, what I've tried this year is to prune in late winter, and removing the inner foliage leaving outer foliage, which helps thicken the trunks quicker and also growing in the ground,