bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - How to speed up the growth of baby trees?

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Thankyou to those who have replied, the answers have been extremely helpful. However after viewing the articles, i have some more questions.

1) What is a 'leader'? I have the impression it is the branch that grows up out of the chopped off trunk, rather than straight out like the others.

This leads to my second question.

2) If, as Brent Walston says in his article 'Developing Large Trunks for Bonsai', it is best to grow a tree for 10 years or so before chopping its trunk and moving it to a Bonsai pot, won't this result in just a large trunk with a small branch growing out the top, i.e out of proportion, a tree that bears no resemblance to itself in the wild? To have an idea of what i mean, check out the picture of his chopped Zelkova in training.

3) Is it also true that a tree's trunk will thicken very little in a Bonsai pot? If this is true, than as a beginner I have wasted a lot of my time as a lot of my young trees and cuttings are in Bonsai pots already.

Any replies would be gratefully appreciated.

Bren.

Hello there, I have one view of deciduous Trees that can be helpful, try to imagine growth as electricity, the easiest route in a tree would be from the taproot straight through to the apex. If you reduce the height, and wire upwards a new leader, it will grow upwards ( and outwards) naturally to get at the light in a competitive way as all trees' do. From the chop the rest of the trunk should throw out new buds from all over, these can be encouraged in the right places and removed from the wrong places, luck plays a part. With an untouched root system the tree will readily be able to grow back the top part that has been removed because it has the root system of a much larger plant. So the energy, like electricity will shoot straight through to the apex as well as feeding the rest of the live parts. Then the new leader will develop, the cut should be sealed and will quickly develop a callous. As the growth extends the leader will thicken and the cut will heal. Soon there will be a chance to cut the leader again when there is a smooth transition from trunk to leader, when the base of the new leader will be as thick as the top of the trunk. Then the "electricity" energy will need to be re-directed. This is done by reducing the root system and shaping the foliage to favour sideways growth. The downward growing taproots are removed at the base of the trunk. Visible thick surface roots are kept, but these should be pruned below the soil surface to finer roots to generate more, finer feeding roots. All other thick roots should be pruned back and finer roots should be trimmed. When doing this to a new Bonsai try to keep as much of the finer roots as possible. A lot of thick roots might only have finer roots at the ends so be careful when trimming, and don't be in a hurry to fit the tree into a Bonsai pot. The tree's new pot should be quite shallow but wide. Maybe as deep as 2 or 3x the thickness of the trunk and as wide as the tree is high. Given time the dificult roots can be modified and the sideways root growth will help to flare the trunk even more. Again with time and good pruning both above and below, the tree will be able to have a Bonsai pot, and it will be on it's way to being a Bonsai. Yours, Johnbonsai.