Hackberry

dbz12fan

This hackberry was collected by Jim Vanlandingham several years ago. Through the generosity of Jim, it has found its way into my hands. The only work that I have done on the tree is a touchup sillouhette shape pruning and clearing away of unusuable branches from the trunk for the photo. I plan to style this tree at a club workshop with Ernie Fernandez on Tuesday, July 13.

Any virtuals, comments, or suggestions are welcome.

Front-

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Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

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dbz12fan

Back, this has a much better root spread, but the trunk bulges out at the base on this side. Typically, the trunk should have a slight inward curve in the lower portion, and that is on the other side.

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Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

dbz12fan

I decided to wait until the next month's meeting because the whitefly on the tree caused its health to decline. Whitefly is only a problem for hackberries in our area, and it seems every hackberry has it. The tree seemed very healthy this month, so I brought it to the meeting to style.

Here is a photo of the styled tree. Branching was left long for the photo, but will be cut shorter after the hurricane.

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Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

Master-S.T-

dang....that trunk is just blowing my mind away ..i for one think it needs a bigger pot ..it just looks like it has no room to even move around?
lol but im not sure..on the style.

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gcraft

im with you but then again i like short wide pots with everything

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dbz12fan

This is just a plastic training pot.

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Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

FredL

Charles, I find myself wondering what one of the more experienced folks might say about this tree. I am struck by the abrupt transition between the original stump and the new leader. I wonder whether it might make sense to hollow out the old stump part of the trunk. Interesting material to work with and illustrative of a whole class of trees that result from chopping a large tree. The initial styling of this tree by somebody really good (assuming there is a design solution for this problem) I think would provide help to a whole lot of us.

Fred

bonsaial1

OK Fred, My take!

The trunk in the bottom third is wonderful. Then it starts to taper and then all of a sudden there is this new leader. Now given time, the joint may or may not smooth out. A crap shoot! Best to help it along by chopping back now.

The leader as it is is just too long, the same diameter and too straight. The tree starts out so interesting and then gets very boring and straight the rest of the way up.

What I would do! The uninteresting part is in red. The whole leader and part of the trunk are boring.

I would chop it at blue. seal all the cuts as hackberries are notorious for dieback. I would train pink as the new leader.

Very agressive decision, but nothing ventured nothing gained. This has potential, just not in the present configuration.

Good luck, /|\ Bonsai-al

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bonsaial1

Some points about chops and growouts. The leader here was not allowed to grow long enough before it was pruned back. The leader is never going to catch up to the main trunk after pruning. Best to wait till it is the same size and then cut back to about 1/2" tall, with a slanting cut opposite the direction of the first chop. Continue to cut and chop when each subsequent leader has grown to the approximate size of the trunk underneath it. That way you won't have this abrupt size change in the trunk every few inches.

On large initial chops, this may take two or more years before the first growout is pruned back. The rest of the tree may take another 2 to 4 years to get the perfect taper after that. Good bonsai when done from first chops is not a overnight proposition. It takes years of hard work to get the proportions right. That is why the raw good stock cost so much. Someone has to pay for all this hard work and time!

Good Luck, /|\ Bonsai-al

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