This nice Water-elm got its first bonsai pot in late February of this year (2109). I had collected it as a bare trunk, and chopped it where you see the obvious mark.
So here we are, just under 10 months later. There’s been a good bit of wiring and trimming during that time, and the tree is shaping up well. But … time for a cut and style!
Whenever you’re doing this sort of work, you need to examine the tree closely for this problem – namely, overgrown apical branches. Just about everything you’ll grow for bonsai will be apically dominant, and it’s this phenomenon that can literally ruin a tree. I’ve caught this one in time, but I do have to take strong measures to rebalance the tree’s energy.
This is the first step in controlling the imbalance, namely, cutting back the strong branch hard. Now, it will react as you’d expect, and try to regrow what I hacked off. As long as I come right behind and keep the branch trimmed, I’ll win the fight.
The problem is not as bad over on the right, but if I don’t cut back pretty hard it’ll just keep on thickening and get out of balance as the left one did.
And this completes the pruning of the crown of this tree. It’ll bud like crazy some spring, so I’ll need to be on my toes. But I’ll achieve at least tertiary ramification in the crown in 2020.
In this photo, I’ve done the rest of the cleanup pruning and trimming. All that’s left is to do some necessary wiring to get the structure back in line.
All set for the start of the 2020 growing season. This tree should be ready for grow and clip, for the most part, by next summer.
Zach: Have to say the top half of the truck looks a bit unnatural to my eye, and definitely too straight for my liking. Think I’d try a chop again near or at the original chop and try to develop a trunk line with movement and taper that’s more in line with the bottom section.
Thanks for the feedback, Richard. Maybe whoever buys the tree will want to chop it lower. There’s actually movement in the trunk all the way up, it’s just more subtle in the upper part. Each to his own, as they say!
Thanks!……for a good clear message on balancing energy and handling branches that start to become overly thick in the apex. I have to address this on a few of my trees. Your clear visual presentation helps greatly. And, I like that your subject is just getting started so the work you do can be seen clearly…before and after. The subject tree is at a development point similar to many of my new tree trunks. I’m visually oriented.
I appreciate the feedback, John. One of the biggest challenges we all face is balancing energy. Trees just grow the way they want to, and it’s often not the way we want them to. But that’s actually part of the fun, trying to keep them in line.