Beginners Question Red Maple

thatlondon

Hi,

I'm new to the wonderful world of bonsai, its like an infectious disease first I started out with a small ficus which lives on my dining room table then I progressed to two large 3ft ficus. Now im in real trouble as I want to take the plunge to growing a outdoor Acer or two.

When I was in the garden center at the weekend I came across the two sorry looking acers seen in the attached pictures. There is a Red Acer and a Dwarf Acer.

I have a couple of books on Bonsai but neither of them really tell me how I can prepare a couple of trees like I have.

Red Acer:
I was thinking about chopping the trunk to remove the right hand growth and to trim down the left hand. The small branch on the right would then be trained to a kind of double trunk style? If i do this when is the best time its now Autumn in the UK, however I have read that this should be done before the tree comes into leaf at the end of the winter?

Also If I chop the trunk should I wait a year to re-pot the tree or can I do this now?

Dwarf Acer:
Not really sure what to do with this tree, I was thinking about re-potting it and then tidying up the top branches and waiting a bit?

Id appreciate your assistance and comments on these issues.

Regards,

Nic Jackson

Attached Images

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	IMAGE_027#1.jpg (52.7 KB, 65 views)

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kcpoole

I would not be doing anything major on these now as you are heading into Autumn/Winter.

If they are pot bound, you could slip pot them to give more room but that is all I would do..
Wait till spring and then Repot and trim them as you desire.

Ken

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Sarg

Find some info on the red, some people have told me that they don't like being messed with to much eg defoliating and roots and others have said the opposite. I have a one that I defoliated 2 years ago ,as I do my green leaved one, and it hasn't been the same since. They don't seem as vigorous as the green leaved cultivars.

Each year I get a quarter of the buds opening and at the moment I have two buds opened and growing strong another 1 that has just come out 1 that looks like it may and about 15 that look alive but not doing anything. I've read that the more twiggy growth you have the better the root system which might be why, maybe the roots weren't that good when I brought it and defoliating made it worse?

Andrew