cbroad
Omono
Hey everybody, I have a few questions about what I think is a Bloodgood J.M. I guess it could be Emperor 1 or Fireglow, they all look so similar to me when they're this small and very hard to tell the difference.
I got it about two years ago from a lady that I did some landscaping for and she paid me with plants.
This maple is in a 25 gallon pot and stands between 4 and 5 feet from the root crown to the tips of the branches. It had been ground grown before being dug and stuck in a pot; not sure how long it's been potted though. I've done nothing to it except cleaning up some cuts from the prior owner and dressing them with wound sealer (experiment to see if it works) and cutting off a dead 8" stump near the crotch.
I'm definitely repotting it soon, it's been growing in field dirt and it's a heavy pig and I'll see what the root system looks like very soon. I'm more than likely going to pot it back up in straight potting soil or regular potting soil mixed with some substrate to open up the drainage more. My goal is to increase growth with the stability of soil rather than with a fast draining bonsai mix, or do you all find superior vigor when grown in wide shallow boxes with bonsai mix? What do you all use to train your pre-bonsai?
I don't have any presentable bonsai (nothing even close) and this season I'm working on putting all my pre-bonsai back into potting soil or planting in the ground. I have some stuff in colanders and pond baskets with my mix of bonsai soil (turface mvp, permatill, granite grit and some pine bark). They're doing fine in that but while in the early stages of training I think I want more sturdy growth while they mature without the stress of a fast draining inorganic medium. I think im erring on the side of stability rather than fast draining. What I really want is plant vigor and to keep things as simple as possible as my plants are progressing towards an eventual bonsai pot.
So, soil v.s. soilless for training? ... not trying to start a huge shit storm with that question
Onto the styling questions
I've had plenty of time to ponder about where I should take this tree. Since this is an upright growing J.M. I feel like this should look more tree like and not have two diverging trunks, but rather a single commanding trunk. I originally wanted to incorporate both trunks but I think that would only work for a weeping variety. The 1st, 2nd and 4th pictures are what I envision the front being. So I think I'm going to prune out the main trunk on the left since this trunk has almost no taper and shoots out to the side with no movement. Don't know how well the pictures will show this but the one on the right has some movement and at least some taper. I made some virtuals to show what I'm thinking:
I have an idea of what I'll do with the top, nothing concrete though. Leave the fork? Prune one away? Chop and grow? If so, how far down? I'm open to suggestions. Oh yeah and I plan on taking that left branch off as an air layer if anybody has suggestions about that too, when the leaves harden off, right?
Thanks
I got it about two years ago from a lady that I did some landscaping for and she paid me with plants.
This maple is in a 25 gallon pot and stands between 4 and 5 feet from the root crown to the tips of the branches. It had been ground grown before being dug and stuck in a pot; not sure how long it's been potted though. I've done nothing to it except cleaning up some cuts from the prior owner and dressing them with wound sealer (experiment to see if it works) and cutting off a dead 8" stump near the crotch. I'm definitely repotting it soon, it's been growing in field dirt and it's a heavy pig and I'll see what the root system looks like very soon. I'm more than likely going to pot it back up in straight potting soil or regular potting soil mixed with some substrate to open up the drainage more. My goal is to increase growth with the stability of soil rather than with a fast draining bonsai mix, or do you all find superior vigor when grown in wide shallow boxes with bonsai mix? What do you all use to train your pre-bonsai?
I don't have any presentable bonsai (nothing even close) and this season I'm working on putting all my pre-bonsai back into potting soil or planting in the ground. I have some stuff in colanders and pond baskets with my mix of bonsai soil (turface mvp, permatill, granite grit and some pine bark). They're doing fine in that but while in the early stages of training I think I want more sturdy growth while they mature without the stress of a fast draining inorganic medium. I think im erring on the side of stability rather than fast draining. What I really want is plant vigor and to keep things as simple as possible as my plants are progressing towards an eventual bonsai pot.
So, soil v.s. soilless for training? ... not trying to start a huge shit storm with that question
Onto the styling questions
I've had plenty of time to ponder about where I should take this tree. Since this is an upright growing J.M. I feel like this should look more tree like and not have two diverging trunks, but rather a single commanding trunk. I originally wanted to incorporate both trunks but I think that would only work for a weeping variety. The 1st, 2nd and 4th pictures are what I envision the front being. So I think I'm going to prune out the main trunk on the left since this trunk has almost no taper and shoots out to the side with no movement. Don't know how well the pictures will show this but the one on the right has some movement and at least some taper. I made some virtuals to show what I'm thinking:
I have an idea of what I'll do with the top, nothing concrete though. Leave the fork? Prune one away? Chop and grow? If so, how far down? I'm open to suggestions. Oh yeah and I plan on taking that left branch off as an air layer if anybody has suggestions about that too, when the leaves harden off, right?
Thanks
