Choppers, cutters and wishful thinking.

[Smoke]

Recently on a thread about maples and Mr. Ebihara, Osoyoung talked about the chances of Japanese masters not giving up "all" the ingredients in the soup. While I have no doubt that there are some minute details that are held back, much can be gleened from pictures. While I have taken two maybe three, ( getting old and can't remember) yamadori style juniper classes from Jim Gremel over the years, I still to this day have never seen him bend one. He will show you how to put the raffia, then the wire then he will tell you to "bend it up" and compact it, never actually showing how he does it.

Some Jim Gremel work


So much for junipers. My focus for this writing is more about maples and how to treat them during the grow out phase. There are many people, professionals all over the net that share readily about maple care. Most of that care is devoted to maintaining an otherwise finished tree. There are some people even here that have some very nice bonsai and readily share there expertise, but most of the sharing is for that last years of the tree and nothing about development from nothing.

I am kinda one of those weird guys. I don't have the time to make a master piece like William Valavanis has done over a life time, yet I enjoy the building process probably most of all. the experimenting and testing, the theory, and watching it thrive or fail. I have no problem with failure, if it was done in the name of trying to understand a better way. Of course failure to something stupid like forgetting to water is hurtful and makes me want to quit sometimes.

Growing a maple for the future is a very misunderstood technique. There are many trees that we try to emulate because they are beautiful, yet don't fully understand how they got that way. I wish to share what I know here on the subject of growing a maple to better utilize the material from planting it in the ground to having finished tree.

There are really just two things to remember about maples and once that is understood the rest is rather easy.

1. Build the top first.

2. Build the base second.

Building the top

One has to decide what kind of maple is going to be made. This is important. One is very easy to do and the other is very difficult to do. This is why there is a severe shortage of maples that look like trees and an over abundance of maples that look like pines. While it seems the Japanese grow either very well, here in America growers seem to gravitate to the pointy topped overly exaggerated tapered trunks so commonly seen.

 

[Smoke]

The other commonly seen maple is also very tapered but has branches that seem to splay out and reach skyward getting away from the horizontal branching or even worse, the downward pointing branches of the pine tree style. In this style even though the tree is upright and tapered the trunk displays a sort of graceful nature.


In either there are just a couple things that can be done to help make the tree good from the start. Maples over time seem to melt and flow with regularity. In other words you can count on them to fix itself and make itself beautiful. Not many trees have the ability to do this , which is why maples are so much fun to work with. Make no mistake, there is no fast road, to make a high quality tree, it may take four or five decades to have a flawless trunk with no scars. Many people pay huge sums of money to have that in their lifetime and I am OK with that, I just don't have the bankroll to do it. I have to make mine. I can share with you what I have found out along the way.

Hint no. one
Short makes big. On maples and a lot of deciduous trees in general, making short makes things big. Don't always think height, think roots, branches and also trunk. Maples in general if left to grow all season unchecked will double the next season if cut back near the trunk. This part is very hard for most people to do. It means that for five or more seasons the tree is a wonk. Branches left to grow five feet long only to cut it back to one inch the first year, two inches the second year, three the third, etc., etc. By the third year there should have been some secondaries reserved along the branch length that will get the same treatment along the way.
First year grow long
Second year cut back to one inch from trunk, Allow divisions to grow.
Third year, cut back divisions to two inches total from trunk. Allow new divisions from these new secondaries to grow,
Fourth year, cut back last years growth to one inch from last years cut and overall branch should now be no more than four inches long.
After this point the branch will have good structure and ramification can now be worked on.

Hint no. two
Chop every year, even in the ground. Always let the tree grow all season. Remember we are making trees not grooming a tree. In the fall let the tree be all winter. In the spring, when the buds are swelling, about a week before they break, we chop. We always chop to a bud, or better still many buds. Chop as low as you can, keeping in mind the need for the buds or node rings, they will sprout also. What we want is for all these basal buds to sprout and grow. Gather them up when they get about two feet tall and tie them together to keep them growing straight up. If it does fork, cut one off, keep it to one leader if possible but individual shoots is OK, rather like a clump. At each years chop, always chop back to no more than an inch from the previous chop. The most interesting trunks come from trees grown with as many directional changes as possible. No straight sections. Wire is OK here, keep in mind that it will grow fast so be careful about scars. With each yearly chop it is to be expected to almost double each years previous girth. If you start a 1/2 sapling on this plan you can expect a 2 inch trunk in about three years with a good season. Northern climates will not experience rapid growth as the southern locations will.

Hint no. three.
Do not dig the tree up. You can plant it in a colander and set it on the ground to escape or plant it in the ground, or in a big box on the ground that can escape. Escape is everything, without the ground the doubling will not happen. One can grow shohin size maples in boxes with out the ground but to grow a 30 inch tall maple with a 5 inch trunk we need the ground. The bottom of the tree will be developed later.

Hint no. four
Year three is the time to decide what type of tree is going to be made, spreading oak or pine tree. At year three branches will be decided upon or forking of the trunk to get the oak look. The trunk should only be about three inches tall or so at this point and is the perfect time to start the branching process. At this point by years five we will be back to hint one and the shortening process of the sub trunks or branches we are doing along the way.

Currently I am working on a large based maple with what I hope will have the lava flow base and either a clump tree of a single trunk tree, I just have not decided yet. There is plenty of time.

 

[Smoke]

The project was started in 2014 in the winter of that year. It was backfilled with pumice and covered with Goke moss.



In the spring of 2015, the entire clump was cut back hard, to about 1/2 inch stubs and allowed to grow.


The trees grew and were cut back again in 2016 and allowed to grow. The trees when planted were about 3/8 to 1/2 across, and the holes in the plate were 1 1/4 across. I had a long way to go before I would experience any layering at all. By the end of 2015 the tree were just shy of filling the holes. Roots were already starting to grow above the plate.


For the 2016 season the trees were once again chopped back. Not as short as I should here. I won't make that mistake again. The trees are about 1.25 inches across.

 

[Smoke]

To night I took these pictures, as I will shortly be cutting the maples down for this season. Probably within the next few weeks as stuff here starts to begin to move in early Feb. The trees now are nearly two inches across and are fully in layer process now with trunk flare beginning and fusing this next season. This is the part I have been waiting for.
In summer 2016


I had to place a strip of retaining wall around the tree and add more soil. I was finding the roots would grow out of the thin soil I had above the plate and were drying out. I need all those roots for the fusing and blending of the bottom of the base. The trees right now are 13 feet tall in one season and grew about 3/4 inch in girth this year.



Will update after I make the cuts later this month. It should be fun to see what happens this year.

 

[JudyB]

Great thread topic, nice to have you participating in this manner here again, makes this forum rock.

 

[Adair M]

Great thread topic, nice to have you participating in this manner here again, makes this forum rock.

I concur. Happy New Year, Smoke!

 

[thumblessprimate1]

Great post, Smoke!

 

[namnhi]

Will definitely follow this thread. Thanks for putting in the time @Smoke

 

[my nellie]

Me, too! Thanks!

 

[Smoke]

What I find very interesting about these trees is the ability to make bad things go away. As the trees grow and stretch things that were there a year ago seem to disappear a year later. Check these two photo's. Also note the outward turn of the trees and the now straight up growth pattern of the tree.

At planting


Two years later, cut back and really ugly looking.


Recently, bone straight, twice as big and no scars or signs of the slant they were planted at.

 

[platypus]

Thank you Smoke, this looks amazing. I'm new to bonsai, and soaking in as much information as I can. I am really keen to try the tile method, but I have a question. Have you tried this with other species, or is this only likely to give good results with Japanese maples?

 

[Eric Group]

Thank you Smoke, this looks amazing. I'm new to bonsai, and soaking in as much information as I can. I am really keen to try the tile method, but I have a question. Have you tried this with other species, or is this only likely to give good results with Japanese maples?

Well these are Trident Maples, soooo... ;p

Great thread Smoke and thanks for updating us on this project!

 

[platypus]

Well these are Trident Maples, soooo... ;p

Great thread Smoke and thanks for updating us on this project!

Fair point, but do you think this method could produce a similar result with trees other than maples?

 

[Smoke]

Fair point, but do you think this method could produce a similar result with trees other than maples?

Of course it would.

 

[namnhi]

What I find very interesting about these trees is the ability to make bad things go away. As the trees grow and stretch things that were there a year ago seem to disappear a year later. Check these two photo's. Also note the outward turn of the trees and the now straight up growth pattern of the tree.

At planting
View attachment 129388

Two years later, cut back and really ugly looking.
View attachment 129389

Recently, bone straight, twice as big and no scars or signs of the slant they were planted at.
View attachment 129390

Smoke,
Since trident can magically fixing themselves. Should one plant the outside trees more slant so you don't end up all straight trunks?
Thanks,
NN

 

[platypus]

Of course it would.

Thank you, I am eager to give it a try.

 

[Eric Group]

Fair point, but do you think this method could produce a similar result with trees other than maples?

It should work fine with most any commonly used species of deciduous tree, but focus on the ones that propagate from cuttings and layers the best... Maples, Elms, I'm sure Hornbeams... vigorous growers that root well on their own roots and produce solid radial nebari... I would be careful trying it on most Pines and evergreens... logistically it would be more difficult to accomplish and Pines are very hard to root by comparison to the trees listed above..

 

[Smoke]

Smoke,
Since trident can magically fixing themselves. Should one plant the outside trees more slant so you don't end up all straight trunks?
Thanks,
NN

If you have followed my posts over the years it is one of the topics I mention to anyone willing to listen about plating out material for growing. "Plant trees at an angle to allow for the most interesting growth".

 

[Smoke]

It is funny that we take for granted most of the techniques that we are unfamiliar with as somehow new and unique to bonsai. Most of the stuff we see being done to trees in pots, has been done to trees in the ground for centuries.

 

[Eric Group]

It is funny that we take for granted most of the techniques that we are unfamiliar with as somehow new and unique to bonsai. Most of the stuff we see being done to trees in pots, has been done to trees in the ground for centuries.

Shhhhh, Smoke! Most people reading this thought you invented these processes! LOL