Smoke
Ignore-Amus
Seen no need to screw up further the other guys thread.
Hi Charles, but Whoa, Whoa, back the pony up!
I never said this was an alternative to primary branches. What I do to maples is mostly after the tree is done or almost done and one could call "refinement technique".
What you are asking is all over the place about building a tree.
We are talking:
Trunk Building
Branch Building
Internode management
And refinement.
I have not included nebari here because that is something that you only get one shot at for the year and most of it takes place in the pot anyway so it can be done while building the top of the tree.
TRUNKS
Anyone remember Ripsgreentree? The guy where I earned my reputation fighting with on a daily basis back on BonsaiTALK. The forum called us Itchy and Scratchy. Well what everyone didn't know was that we are best friends. Glenn Vanwinkle has had a lot of health issues over the last four years and is doing better.
Glenn makes trunks and roots. Some of the best stuff you will see. He is very good at building good flat bases and getting radial roots spreads. He does "pretty" good at building the trunks. About 4 out of 10 are worthy. Thats for me, many of you might see that different, and they do cause Glenn has probably sold more material than all the trees on this forum. That ain't no exaggeration. Even Boon has bought loads of trees from Glenn. Glenn used to have 40 acres in rows of trees. He hasn't had property to work for many decades. The last picture above is of Glenn sifting soil in his mechanical shaker he called Cali-dama. Tons have gone thru that shaker.
So back to trunks. I think bonsai can be divided into mediums. It is definitely that way in Japan where people may grow nothing but liners. Then someone may grow them up to 1 inch with some wire on the trunk. Then a grower may specialize in growing it out to 3 inch trunks and some branch stubs to work off of. At this point is where a lot of material is finally in the hands of the bonsai artisan. It is at this point that the pecking order I talked about starts to work.
Walter Pall may be able to get his hands on material in the $10,000.00 dollar range, and be able to buy it.
Sergio may be buying $5,000.00 material
BVF may be buying $2000.00 material
and I am buying $500.00 material
We each will be working on material that reflects the price we have paid for it. This does not account for talent that may allow BVF to make a better tree than Sergio's at a higher initial cost. That's not the point, the point is, we all have a certain amount of money to spend and the more you can spend the better the material you will be able to afford. Now if you don't have access, (any one remember my long article at bonsaiTALK about Talent, access and means?) you will have to grow your own.
I take the easy way out. I buy trunks, like a lot here. If you have to make your own, I can, but I don't have the time or the space to plant in the ground, if you can find someone to show you how to grow a trunk out. It will require so much space and time to explain that I am winded just thinking about that. I have shown some of the process on my blog below. It's just time and space,selective pruning a little luck and nothing more
BRANCHES
For sake of time I am speaking more about deciduous trees than conifers. My method does not concern branches either. pruning for internode length is done on branches there not to produce the branch, though I do use it to keep the branch in check close to the trunk. I like to graft. On maples I usually will graft at least half the branches on. It just gets them where I want them. Buds are notorious about failing where you want them. All I can say about branches is get them where you want them and then have the patience to allow them to grow until they reach the size you want. I'm not very patient and am working on lasting till the branch is the correct size.
Last year I lost two branches on this cork elm and am in the process of building new ones. It budded in two pretty good locations, not perfect but OK. Corks don't graft well so that was out of the question. They bud profusely so just wait it out. They are wired and have not been pruned this year, and I won't. If I'm lucky the will be four feet long by Fall. I'll just roll up the shoots soon and keep them in check by allowing the tip to grow. The one to the left is another corker. The big one is having it's top layered off. It now has some roots and I am excited. It has buds all over the top, one popped in the perfect place.
This is the large shohin layer. The best way to get good trunks with a large size and ready to fit into a pot.
The top of the tree.
The layer
I didn't keep the very top because it had a bulb.
The shoot that popped right on the elbow on the trunk. Couldn't be more perfect. Those shoots right above the circle at the base of the leader will be a shoot that the leader will be cut back to in a month or two. That will be the top of the canopy right there. After the canopy is chosen and branches set, is when I begin cutting back weekly to establish internode length. This cork elm is pretty good in that respect, it's not too coarse. This trunk will be 5 inches across the bottom and 7 inches tall.
I know this doesn't help much with building a tree from scratch. I didn't have anyone to ask way back when, just had to find my own way by experimenting and cutting lots of trees and seeing what they do. Some died, some lived, some became bonsai. Most didn't.
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