Advise please!

[tperoda]

Hi folks, I'm new here, first summer bonsaier (spelling?). I picked up a juniper/cedar and maple at the local nursery, did some trimming based on some videos I watched, but I just don't know if I'm pushing/pulling the growth/energy in the bonsai enough. I've attached some pics and would love some suggestions on composition/ways to position it to grow a bit better. The maple especially, I'm thinking needs to be cut way down. But unsure.

Thank you SO much folks!

- Ty

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Grow it a bit better? That means growing them, which takes time. But on the maple you can start by reducing all points where branches originate to two; a trunk and a branch, or just a fork of two branches at the top.
Next plants, especially conifers, work your way from outside in, instead of removing the insides and keeping an outer shell. That helps downscaling the tree to a small scale that fits the height.

For the rest, grow them out! Fertilize and let them run.

 

[tperoda]

I should add, also in Hot Summer/Cold Winter Western Canada.

 

[tperoda]

Grow it a bit better? That means growing them, which takes time. But on the maple you can start by reducing all points where branches originate to two; a trunk and a branch, or just a fork of two branches at the top.
Next plants, especially conifers, work your way from outside in, instead of removing the insides and keeping an outer shell. That helps downscaling the tree to a small scale that fits the height.

For the rest, grow them out! Fertilize and let them run.

Thank you! Totally validated a hunch of mine, just needed someone with more experience to validate before I hack and slash the maple, and ostensably forget about the other 2 for a while and just let them run.
For the maple, so what you're suggesting is to REALLY pair it down, take it down to essentially the truck and a leader of sorts? I do have one branch in there (doesn't really show in the photo), but could be a good sacrificial branch as well.

Thank you again!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'm not that good with maples, so take my advice with caution.
If you want to go for a multi trunk, I suggest cutting the central trunk off. This'll leave you with an octopus of branches, which you can grow out as trunks.
If you want to go for a singular trunk as most trees in nature, consider doing the "left branch, right branch, back branch" (or a variation of it) starting from the bottom and working your way up.
Speculative: Of course you can leave every branch, and use it as a sacrifice to thicken the trunk, but I'm not sure if that would lead to inverse taper - I think it does, but again; maples are not my forte.

Keep in mind that you can use any branch as a future trunk and that it's not needed to keep the straight telephone pole in the center and wire that into shape; if you cut the straight trunk off and leave a branch on one side of the cut, that would be your new trunk and it would automatically have some direction into it. Minimal scarring, immediate direction.

Since these maple cultivars with large leaves hardly scale down, you can assume you're going for a bigger tree in the end. So removing branches down low now, would not inhibit you from going down that path.

 

[tperoda]

I'm not that good with maples, so take my advice with caution.
If you want to go for a multi trunk, I suggest cutting the central trunk off. This'll leave you with an octopus of branches, which you can grow out as trunks.
If you want to go for a singular trunk as most trees in nature, consider doing the "left branch, right branch, back branch" (or a variation of it) starting from the bottom and working your way up.
Speculative: Of course you can leave every branch, and use it as a sacrifice to thicken the trunk, but I'm not sure if that would lead to inverse taper - I think it does, but again; maples are not my forte.

Keep in mind that you can use any branch as a future trunk and that it's not needed to keep the straight telephone pole in the center and wire that into shape; if you cut the straight trunk off and leave a branch on one side of the cut, that would be your new trunk and it would automatically have some direction into it. Minimal scarring, immediate direction.

Since these maple cultivars with large leaves hardly scale down, you can assume you're going for a bigger tree in the end. So removing branches down low now, would not inhibit you from going down that path.

Great advice! Thank you. Yah, I'd like to do the singular trunk approach, so I'll give it some solid cutting down later. Always a bit ... nerve wracking as a noobie to do that much cutting, there's so much apart of me that wants to leave as much foliage as I can haha. But I also know, you have to set the tree up properly!