Wiring a field maple

Carl_Bergstrom

I usually use a lot of clip-and-grow and not a lot of wire, but it's probably more for a lack of talent with wiring than for any deep-seated aesthetic reason. So as things have slowed down over the summer, I've decided to spend some time practicing. (I realize it's not the best time to wire, but I need the practice and there's little else to do right now.)

Here's a little field maple Acer campestre that I wired up yesterday. It's almost too young to begin developing branches, but I thought it would fun to try, anyway.

So how'd I do? I'd love to hear your comments - and please don't pull any punches. I'm looking to learn, not to be complemented.

Comments on styling or future directions are also appreciated, though I am aware that I'm doing the old thing of styling a maple like a formal upright pine.

Thanks in advance,
Old Mister

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bonsaial1

Looks like a marvelous job to me. One question though, do you intend to style the tree with stick straight brances or are you going to put a little wiggle in them?

Carl_Bergstrom

Thanks, Al.

With respect to styling, I'm not really quite sure. I was thinking to keep things fairly stick-straight, actually, since I'm styling this as a formal pine rather than as a naturalistic maple.

There are buds all along the branches; I could also cut back to these and go for extended ramification.
Any thoughts?

-Old Mister

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ripsgreentree

Mr Crow: The acer campestre is one of my favorite trees. I propigate this tree from seed, root cutting, and cutting. A couple of points that you will find interesting are, the vigor with which this tree will bud back into hard wood and the tendancy to form a heavy trunk simular to the common trident maple. The harder that you cut this tree back and the more you use defoliation techniques the faster you will form smaller leaves and ramification. If you turn this tree loose in the ground you will find the growth rate to be quite fast. I have several in the field and judging by the growth that they have put out in the first two years it looks like four years in the field to form root foundation and nebari and trunk tayper and then into a growing box to set the limb structure and then the bonsai pot to finish with aged bark and ramification. This is a good tree for clip and grow because of its vigor. Cutting will also shorten internodes which with this tree can be a problem. I hope that you enjoy your field maples as much as I enjoy mine. Last point is this material will create any size bonsai from palm sized to four man size.

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Earl

Welcome back. Cranky.

I know you said you want a formal pine look, but it seems to me those branches still have bends in them, they tend to droop at the bottom of tree and move up through the tree.

Matt did a wonderful virtual awhile back on a Maple where he put gentle arcs in the branches...almost like a rainbow arc. It seems with formal branch placement and a straight trunk, you could still use Matt's idea and make a much more interesting tree.

Nice wiring! Can't see any way to improve on it.

Earl

Carl_Bergstrom

Thanks, Earl - it's good to be back!

Was this the sort of thing that you meant?

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Carl_Bergstrom

Rip,

Thanks for all the hints about this species. It's not one that I've seen used extensively for bonsai, and so I didn't know too much about its habits. That, and this is the only one that I have for the time being. So it's really useful to know what I can get away with in terms of cutting it back!

I'm looking forward to getting to know the tree better. I should probably move this particular one into a growing box if not the ground. If I do put it into the ground, do you think it will it be hard to keep its size down to under 2 feet?

All the best,
Old Mister

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ripsgreentree

If you put it into the ground it will want to bolt which just means you will have to cut it as often as it needs it. Field growing can give you up to one inch a year in trunk girth so cutting is necessary to keep hight down. When you repot remember to plant the roots with a little sticking out of the soil you will get some babys. Not as good as elms but better than just one tree.

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ripsgreentree

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GaryS

Field maple is a good candidate for bonsai. I have one bonsai but have hundreds of seedings in the back yard.
I planted 3 grafted Field maples on the West side of my property some 20 years ago that I got from Hess Nursery out in New Jersey. They're 30 feet tall and just started producing seeds 3 years ago. the bark on these is nice and corky and they growlike weeds.

ripsgreentree is right. They sure take to pruning well. Almoost to well if there is such a thing in bonsai. I'm just having a ball keeping them out of the neighbors yard.

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