Plants' crucial period

zradovan

Guys I appreciate your advices (Matt and Jose) on the Ficus issue. As soon as I take some pictures, this session goes on…

For a beginner like me, it is very difficult to determine the right coarse of actions in the period when a young plant is mature enough to become a bonsai and the proper treatment is about to be taken.

Generally speaking this matter is far to less explained in any piece of literature, on the net, even in discussions on our Talk Forum, and my opinion is that this is the most crucial moment (period from 2-4 years of plants age) for the plant in it’s bonsai lifetime (if grown from a cutting or a seed).

This could be an interesting issue for a bigger discussion as for the fact that every bonsaimaker has its own approach…

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TreeBay

Bonsai are developed from purchased or collected stock and seed, graft and layer, so it's difficult to say when the critical period might be. I know I try to be careful after any complicated restyling or training, and certainly collected trees need some special care.

As trees become increasingly refined, with more branches and so forth, in shallow pots, they are actually more fragile and subject to damage than before.

But, if you are saying that it takes some experience with a tree to understand its needs better, and that there is a learning curve, I can completely agree with that.

Regards,

Matt

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ripsgreentree

I will go back to something that I will do when I am dealing with new material. It is simply: grow the material for at least one year to began to understand how it grows and reacts, when is its big spring push, very early like the japanese apricot or very late like the verigated zelkova? Or does it take heat like the bald cypress to get it to bud out?

Here is my point: you should know exactly what your material is capable of doing. Now with this knowlege, you grow your tree in larger containers creating proper roots and trunk until it reaches your idea of what you want your composition to look like. Then you pot into your bonsai container to refine the limb structure and crown.

It is good to remember that your tree will stop gaining trunk size when it goes into a bonsai container, so it is good to gain all of the trunk and nebari that you want before you go into a bonsai container. This is hard for newbies as they have a great desire for keeping bonsai in containers.

I hope that this helps.

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

zradovan

As a beginner I appreciate every single word of advice…
I must say that I am not so eager in putting any plant in a bonsai container. My main goal is to grow a plant in a proper (elegant) manner but It’s difficult for me to determine the need for some early actions - etc. do I have to prune back main branches from time to time while reaching their desired length (treat them as new shoots) or do I just have to cut the top of when the main branch reaches it’s supposed size?

I completely agree whit your remarks – time is the ultimate teacher. But it would be a waste of resources not to get an advice from you guys about some specific issue.

I appreciate your replies… I am looking forward to hear from you when I post some new pictures of my small pre bonsai plants.

TreeBay

Rip has told you pretty much the way it goes. The question you are asking really isn't that specific:It depends on the stage the plant is at and what you have in mind for it. It even depends to some extent on the type of tree and the style in which it is being trained.

I have trees that are a couple years old developed as bonsai and some that are collected juniper that are several hundreds of years old. The stakes may be higher, but the process is no different.

On a deciduous tree you don't need to worry a great deal about the branching until the trunk has approached the proportions you are trying to develop in the stock. Conifers are more important because most tend not to backbud very easily.

Once you have decided the trunk is approaching your expectations (today, a week from now or in ten years, depending on what you're trying to do and where you're starting from) you move into a refinement process. Your satisfaction with that trunk will depend on the development of the roots, taper of the trunk and the appearance of promising designs or styles that might occur to you. This is why the designation of the "front" and planting angle is so critical in the early development stages. This will define the future of the tree.

Maybe the front and style are readily apparent. Maybe it is promising but has some defects (too spindly, no taper, lack of vigor, just too small) so into a growing container or into the ground.

As the trunk reaches "completion," you begin to establish and refine the branching with one more potential designs in mind. Selecting the branches that will participate in the final design is a major step, but there are continual maintenance operations:

Cutting back the outside to maintain a silhouette and drive the back budding in to the interior; thinning out the interior so that the growth isn't too dense. Allowing certain branches free reign to run and develop thickness at the expense of others; Pruning branches to shape growth and wiring branches to raise some and lower others; Correcting minor defects in the rootage and making the root system more efficient so it will better tolerate the confines of a bonsai pot; Helping scars to heal; Refining the branching by pruning so that the branch itself tapers from base to terminal.

Detail pruning and wiring the twigs and shoots to develop a dense crown of fine twigs is really the final process, but that can go on indefinitely as the cycle repeats as the tree ages and branches grow too thick they are replaced by twigs and so forth.

It would be a waste of time to do most of that while the tree was in early development because it is growing so rapidly. So, for one tree pruning back main branches to shoots might be the answer. For another, maybe it is to discard the existing, rough field grown branches entirely. For a third it might just need to be left alone to grow.

So the answer is, yes, at some point you will need to do all that type of pruning and more. But the question really is, what does it look like now, and what is your goal?

I would say that the crucial period for any plant can't be determined by any external clock or calendar. It is determined by the artist when he defines the front, selects a planting angle and starts a mere plant on its journey toward becoming a bonsai.

Regards,

Matt

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erubeck

Matt:

What a masterful description of developing a bonsai. You just condensed several books on the subject into a few paragraphs.

Your description gave me a frame of reference in which to work. I am the newest of the new and this really helps.

Thank you!
Ed

zradovan

Matt, the answer you gave me is the thing that really encourages me… It is not just advices you gave but the determination to share every bit of knowledge on bonsai topics. Some things are much clearer now. I made several important conclusions and it helped me avoiding some crucial mistakes in the future…

I made a conclusion from your description so, please, correct me if I am wrong:



If I work on small Ficus (upright) I have to let it grow until it reaches suitable trunk thickness. I don’t have to worry about the fact it has grown to high or branches are to long (optionally I can shorten a branch that is really out of proportions).
The point when I am pleased with the current status of the trunk (and branching) is the point of putting the tree in a bonsai container (and first root pruning). Then I make the first styling and I prune back all the branches to the point I want new, thicker and more refine growth to begin (as an effect of ‘bonsai’ environment)– that is the crucial point I, more or less, had in mind. Everything else is a bit of inspiration, a bit of art and a lot of patience and care…


I realise the triviality of my observations but it is the only way to learn something.

Thank you very much…

Zarko