Some before and afters

[Marc]

HI all, had the day off work so was out amoungst my plants tinkering. Did a little work on some, so thought I'd show some before and afters for you.

A pine we were talking about a few days ago, i got the courage to butcher it, make of it what you will, it of course will need to recover a lot, but it is a very healthy tree with lots of baby buds just starting. So we'll see in a year or two wont we...

A fig that I posted the other day too, did a little trim and wired the buggery out of it to give it more canopy.

And a cedar, man I love them, again, got the courage to chop it back.

These three trees I envisage as much larger than what they are today, ultimately I prefer them as quite large. After the last few weeks of chatting with you guys it has given me the courage to chop a little more aggressively. After looking at them (in the backyard, these pics don't really do them justice), I am confident it will all be good - eventually.

[Jon Chown]

Marc, I can understand if you find this daunting, believe me I did untill I saw the results. When you do this to a healthy Fig they will respond by sending out heaps of shoots further back where you need them - choose the ones that come from under the branch where possible.

Marcs Fig.jpg

You need to do this now before they get too thick to train them where you want them to go. Your aim is to create a mass of branching from here on out no matter how big you want the end product to be. Check the branch structure on this fig.

Min Lo Fig branch design 1.jpg

Min Lo Fig branch design.jpg

If you wait too long to do this, believe me when I say, it only gets harder. Often to improve a bonsai, you have to be prepared to go back hard and sacrifice what looks ok on your bench.

Jon

[Marc]

phew, Jon, I dunno if I can, this is going to KILL me!!! I'll try.... let me suck in some breath first...

[aaron_tas]

although i do agree with jon, and the idea of smashing figs is not that daunting if you're sydney up, i reckon you should start doing hard cut backs after you get those branches down a bit more, that's probably what i would do.

awesome progress marc

[Marc]

oky doky, done.

this is about my fave from my collection..... fingers crossed !!!

[Jon Chown]

Well done Marc. There are a few more cuts in my opinion. The straight red lines in the following photo are where I would cut back to and the result of this cutting will produce lots of new shoots (shown in green). The ones that you should be looking for are the ones that I have circled in red. All of these you will note are from the under side of the parent branch and as such will have a more downward growth habit than those above. This process will be repeated several times over the ensuing years to achieve the ramification that you see in Min Lo's trees. Notice the angular bends in his branching, that is where the cuts have been made in the past.

Marcs Fig 2.jpg

Jon

[Marc]

Jon, you're a gem, I really appreciate your help, thanks mate.

i'm praying to god, allah, yaweh and buddah at the moment that it will sprout a new flush, i think it should.... but I have never been so brutal to this plant.

I have several peppercorns that I have butchered heaps, and I mean butchered, a few even chopped the trunk off, right in half to get rid of all branches and they just keep on growing. So doing this to my peppercorns doesn't fill me with dread. buuuuut, to this fig...

Anyway, i believe it will be ok, a few scars that time will heal, some more drasstic cuts down the track.

Man o man, those 2 fig examples, just magnificent eh!

[daiviet_nguyen]

HI Marc,

I think the pine has good potential. I think you should think about ramification right now.

The earlier the better, it will saves you heaps of times later on --

Scorpio has posted this wonderful article on pines http://www.adamsbonsai.com/pine_foliage.pdf

I also find this book:

Bonsai Today Masters' Series, PINES, Stone Lantern Publishing Company, P.O. Box 70 Passumpsic, VT 05861, U.S.A. 2005.

very useful. It costs about $60.00

Cheers Marc.

[aaron_tas]

well done marc

good chop chop

i love smashing trees, and seeing them getting smashed. so thanks

i still reckon you've gotta bend them down a bit more, but you and jon have it sorted for sure

[MelaQuin]

Think you need to get heavy wire onto the cedar and put some movement and character in the trunk now before it thickens any more. A bit too much telegraph pole for my taste but I am sure you will change that.

[aaron_tas]

[Marc]

Thanks daiviet, will check it out... I like this pine, the bark is alreadyt well on the way to being AWESOME!!

Hey, aaron_tas, i've done my choppy choppy, actually did a little more after this pic .... soooo, hella hot weather in Melb these days, stax of watering, fingers crossed I am rewarded!!

Melaquin.... i;ve got another deodar cedar with a cool twist in the trunk I am working on doing that, it's only young, so no pics for you yet, this one I am thinking of keeping as a regular looking one - ie, one that I see in the park near me, it's a "formal upright", well, as formal upright as deodar cedars give us...

But yeah, this pic really badly makes it look kinda boring!! but, with any luck, it'll get back some glory when the wired branches take... wish me luck..

thanks for the comments guys, i really do look for then and want them. I really appreciate comments from you all.

[Asus101]

You need to do this now before they get too thick to train them where you want them to go. Your aim is to create a mass of branching from here on out no matter how big you want the end product to be. Check the branch structure on this fig.

Min Lo Fig branch design 1.jpg

Min Lo Fig branch design.jpg

Most, if not all of those Taiwanese ficus have been grafted. The main tree and trunk are allowed to grow and thicken, then they graft stock with short nodes onto the branches. The graft is then allowed to grow out before being cut back again to grow the graft scar out.

[Marc]

G'day all. Jon, I'm amazed, the number of new shoots coming off this fig, there were 50 at least, i was totally suprised. I have chopped back some more branches since then too, and pinched off a lot of new growth, did what you suggested and kept the under side new growth.

But I'm over the moon. It will take years for the chop scars to heal, however, i'm and very happy.

I'll post a pic as soon as I can.

Now my main problem is choosing whcih new buds to keep and to pick off. There have been litterally dozens of them!!

[Hector Johnson]

Figs are tough little buggers. Just don't overdo it. Now that you've got a flush of shoots to work with you can see where it's headed and pick off the wrong ones at your leisure when they get a bit bigger. Seal the ugly scars, where you've removed an entire branch flush with the trunk. The rest will look after themselves unless they're thicker than about a centimetre in diameter.