Building Shohin

[Tidal Bonsai]

I have this Japanese beautyberry that has been growing out for the past year in my garden. It has been in the greenhouse for the past few months, as you can tell it’s very happy! This is my first experience with this species, and I’m not sure whether you should make cuts more frequently for taper since they have softwood. The trunk currently is 1 inch thick above the nebari, and I would like it to be at least another half inch to 1 inch thicker.

So should these low sacrifice branches stay or go?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

How big are you growing it? Do you have a trunk line identified, or a style in mind?

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

I am looking for it to be around 8 inches tall and have a 1.5-2 inch trunk so it’s more feminine. Here is a quick phone outline and sketch for the informal upright I am envisioning.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I am looking for it to be around 8 inches tall and have a 1.5-2 inch trunk so it’s more feminine. Here is a quick phone outline and sketch for the informal upright I am envisioning.

I like your plan.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

I like your plan.

Thanks! Do you know if you cut back sacrifices earlier on softwood trees? You built that beautiful ginko, so I am sure you have a truck up your sleeve ?

 

[Shibui]

I definitely cut back sacrifice branches on shohin earlier than large bonsai. Scars show up more and take longer to recover on smaller bonsai. Take a couple of extra years to grow a good shohin. Well worth it IMHO

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Thanks! Do you know if you cut back sacrifices earlier on softwood trees? You built that beautiful ginko, so I am sure you have a truck up your sleeve ?

Yes, I would remove the two lower trunks ASAP and allow the scars to heal while the tree is still in the bigger container. Once you get it into a small pot, the healing slows to a crawl, and small flaws are big flaws with Shohin Bonsai. Let the upper branches run a bit to help healing (especially those that emerge from the back), and identify some branches to be final branches, that you can keep trimmed short.

We had a beautyberry in our first back yard. It was big and old. I don’t know why I never potted it. I considered it for years and just didn’t...wish I would have!

 

[JudyB]

I have this Japanese beautyberry that has been growing out for the past year in my garden. It has been in the greenhouse for the past few months, as you can tell it’s very happy! This is my first experience with this species, and I’m not sure whether you should make cuts more frequently for taper since they have softwood. The trunk currently is 1 inch thick above the nebari, and I would like it to be at least another half inch to 1 inch thicker.

So should these low sacrifice branches stay or go?

Cool project. I like your sketch.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Yes, I would remove the two lower trunks ASAP and allow the scars to heal while the tree is still in the bigger container. Once you get it into a small pot, the healing slows to a crawl, and small flaws are big flaws with Shohin Bonsai. Let the upper branches run a bit to help healing (especially those that emerge from the back), and identify some branches to be final branches, that you can keep trimmed short.

We had a beautyberry in our first back yard. It was big and old. I don’t know why I never potted it. I considered it for years and just didn’t...wish I would have!

I chopped off the two lowest sacrifices, and one of the upper branches. I left stumps for dieback, and in a month or two, I will make clean cuts that will be covered with cut paste. Once the trunk thickens more, I am going to make more chops at the red lines. For now...I got a good amount of cuttings to try and root!!!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Cool. Good luck on the cuttings!

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

I had some luck

 

[Smoke]

Have you had any luck reducing the leaves?

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

I haven’t really started the refinement phase on the mother, or any other cuttings because I am still growing out the trunks. Because beautyberry are shown with the leaves off, I don’t know if reducing the leaves is going to be that large of a goal for me, just chop them in half and no one will be the wiser come showtime .

These are some pictures of the Beautyberry forest by Kimura that got me into the species. The leaves don’t look reduced at all to me, what do you all think?

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Just for posterities sake, this is the “mother” Beautyberry after a full season of growth. After only three seasons container grown from a cutting, the trunk is 1.25 inches above the nebari and it has the bones of being a nice Shohin in a few years!

It will be repotted in the spring, and the next two sacrifice branches will he removed sometime during the next growing season. The big chop I made is 90% healed in only ONE SEASON!!!

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

I was just doing some light work to it last night. I removed the last of the low sacrifice branches since it has a 4 inch radial nebari that tapers to a 1.5 inch base! Since the wound in the middle of the trunk stopped at 90% I filled the hollow with epoxy and cut the callus again to hopefully get it to close 100%. This tree is developing so fast, despite being in a container it’s whole life!!!

I saw something a little more interesting than my initial sketch, so I drew out an updated picture. Red is the last sacrifice (that’s about 3 feet long) and greeen is the future “tree” for now...

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

The nebari is killer, the taper is good, and the wounds on the trunk are all healing nicely! I put this tree into a tall and narrow nursery can to keep the nebari in check, but still allow vigorous growth. Once the wounds heal over I will transitition this to a small pot for refinement.

The trunk is 1.5 inches wide and the nebari is around 6 inches wide as of now.

 

[Njyamadori]

That’s amazing for a beauty berry ! Beauty berry is probably on my top 3 favorite trees for bonsai !

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

That’s amazing for a beauty berry ! Beauty berry is probably on my top 3 favorite trees for bonsai !

Thanks! I don't think I did anything too revolutionary, just training it early, and revisiting the nebari annually to get it radial and flat. The large and shallow container it was growing in the first few years helped a lot, now I am trying to get scars to heal before I reduce the pot size.

 

[PA_Penjing]

coming along very nicely, I love the yellow leaves against the purple berries on this species

 

[ochong]

How’s this tree coming along?

I purchased several rooted cuttings last week so starting my journey with beautyberry!