Maros Bonsai Blog

FRAXINUS NO.2

As I wrote in previous post about this Ash back in April tree will need defoliation.

What? Defoliation again?

Yaeh. I had too.

Leaves were too big, mass of the crown too voluminous, and tree needed some editing as well. Actually, tree was on local exhibition month ago and to make it look decent I had to reduce foliage mass as well. So now it was second time this year. But now I cut off almost all leaves.

Partly done, night shift.

And now ti looks like this. New leaves will be back in two weeks.

And do you remember when I wrote in April post this:

Patch of moss is there no due aesthetical reasons but to cover cutting spot on one of the larger roots, to keep place permanently moist. It could help create new roots on the spot.

So, new roots are there, just as I hoped.

Picea abies No.3

I have always strange feeling writing first time about some tree. Now that's the case. This is one of my Norway Spruce projects. Tree was collected in March 2011. Encouraged after successful collection of my first spruce (Picea No.2) I went on same place and brought back couple of them.

So, tree was collected and potted into plastic pot. Immediately fertilized and well watered. Basically, nothing more than fertilising and proper watering was not done to it most of the time.

Couple of days after collecting from wild during the spring 2011.

Then tree shed the needles and kept only most recent once. They do it always when stressed from transplanting from wild. It obviously results in leggy branches with needles only on the ends. Funny part is you have to force it to back bud and create foliage on those inner parts of the branches. But you cannot do it too quickly, because spruces do not like to lose too much of foliage mass at once.

So you have to keep removing tips of the branches, force tree to create buds on inner parts of them and consecutively again remove end parts. It depends on the tree, but achieving it on one meter long branch it could take few years.

Picture from June 2011. Lower branches removed, left only those which could be used in future design. Strange upward growing branch on left side left on purpose. I had a feeling by removing it tree would be too simple. With this branch it is possible to create secondary trunk.

Old needles in first summer. And fertiliser, chicken granules visible.

One year later in June 2012, color of the foliage much better. It is sign of well fed tree, gaining health and growing new roots. Foliage still too far from where it needs to be

Strong growth on second year.

So tree was first time cut back, ends of the branches removed. Overall foliage mass was reduced. Now we are waiting for new buds on old wood.

Summer 2013. Result of fertilising and watering. Strong back budding and new growth.

Then there are no more pictures from 2013-2016. There were two things done to the tree in that time period. Trunk on the top was jinned. Tree was originally about 2-3 meters high. It was shorted on collection day. One have to deal with apex so jin is most common solution. Makes sense on conifer though.

Second important move was this:

Couple of guy wires were used to fix originally straight horizontal branches into downward facing positions. It was left this way for few years and they hardened into this positions firmly.

Fast forward to the future and now we are in summer 2017. Dried stumps are jinned. Guy wires removed.

And this is how it looked before first major styling.

Little helper born three years later after collecting this spruce. In the are of refusing orders to clear the photo area, yet. At least she is helping with aerating substrate surface. Never too early to learn decent skills. And it gives you perspective on the tree size.

Jins were later burned and brushed with wire brush. Time will make its work and patina will be much better.

One of the stumps jined later. You can see the wood density. Tree was growing in harsh conditions gaining only minimum of girth annually. This stump is about 1cm thick. I can count about ten rings, so about 10 years old branch. Whole tree could be about minimum 50 years old, probably more.

Now this is the result of wiring after first session.

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And finished on next night under artificial lighting.

And final pictures on next day:

Now, whats next? New pot in spring. Shortening branches even further, bottom part mostly. One or two major branches will go. Top may be lowered a bit and created much longer jin. There could be shari from apex jin down to the nebari....a lot to do for next decade, hmm?

We will see.

Tilia cordata No.2

Linden was edited in March. Since then it is growing nicely and strongly. In mid May it was too dense and must have been defoliated almost completely. Few of the shoots were left untouched to help thicken specific parts of the structure. You can see difference in green color between old leaves and new growth. Now new growth was already too strong so today tree was cut back, edited a bit heer and there, couple of branches were wired to get them into slightly better positions. Fack is linden is easy to wire even if branches are thicker so I'm in no hurry here. On last picture you can see detail of the removed roots which were too high on the trunk, I decided to remove them since this kind of roots could create problems with taper if left unchecked.

BTW this is not yamadori as most of my trees, it is from sapling from nursery grown in the ground for couple of years.

LARIX DECIDUA

In April right part of the tree on first picture was wired in detail, I had to finish wiring left side. It was done in May, bit more complicated with needles but OK. I tried to bring whole mass of the crown closer to the trunk. Couple of branches which were making left side too massive were removed and now I have feeling it is better. Now pictures shows still fresh needles, which could soon change in current temperatures reaching over 30C.

TILIA CORDATA NO.1

Three weeks ago this linden was defoliated, as you can see in one of the previous posts. I took picture of emerging new foliage last week and then again today. On couple of detail pictures you can clearly see how cutting back branches, together with defoliation resulted in couple of new sprouts. Basically, this is the result one wants. This way I'm able to create denser ramification and new shots are emerging on part of the tree, where backbudding without this kind of drastical technique is less possible. Removing so much end buds on branches and removing foliage is putting a lot of stress on the tree. Without auxin it is using resources for new growth and it is waking up buds which would normally stay dormant. Now new growth will harden a bit and it will be wired. Most probably tree will be defoliated again in couple of weeks from now.

BTW during May I was defoliating many other trees, which is not so funny after you cut off trillion leaves. But as boring and timely it is, it is necessary. When it started being really bad for my mental health, and even cold Czech beer was not able to keep me sane during bonsai work, I put deciduous trees on a side for a while, and I started to work on one of my next spruce projects. So, I hope to post few pictures from progress on it in next couple of days.

Tiny bud on old wood inside the deep crown. This is I think outcome we hope for, now new branch can be formed from here on place which is straight and boring.

Picture taken couple of days ago.