Considering a Japanese Maple, but it's too tall

[Bonsai Babby]

Hello,

I always wanted a Japanese Maple. I saw these today and I am wondering how to chop it. I mean, if I cut it down so it is the height I want the tree to be, wont it just be a stick with no tapering? Or do I cut it shorter than I want the final tree to be, and let new branches grow up out of the new trunk? How do you stop the tree from getting too tall and big, and how do you keep the branches fine and thin so it looks like a mini tree instead of a bunch of thick, chopped off branches?

Here is a picture of what I am considering:

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Unless you buy a pre-bonsai Japanese maple, you are almost guaranteed to have a grafted cultivar. In other words, a special Japanese maple scion on common green maple root stock. So in addition to having the problem that you have a leggy tree, you have one the if you cut too low you may end up cutting below the graft and removing the pretty section of the tree.

There is no true best way forward in these cases... but if you are absolutely in love with the tree I would consider air-layering the tree above the graft so that you start with better roots and no graft scar, and then transplant your air-layer into a low broad growing pot like an Anderson flat to let it bulk up.

 

[bonsaidave]

I get these in July/August at a local place that marks them to 75% off. No grafts either. That's $7.50 each. At $7.50 I chop them down with no regrets. This is one about 2-3 weeks after I chopped it down to 3 inches.



I probably wouldn't spend $30 on one of these though.

I will try to get a picture of it tomorrow with 6 months of growth. It did well for chopping in the dead of summer.

 

[Bonsai Babby]

The trees pictured are 3-4 feet tall, I don't think they are intended to be bonsai, does that mean they are pre-bonsai? Sorry I am new, and still learning the terminology. It does make sense that if they grafted a Japanese maple branch onto a normal maple, I wouldn't want to cut off the whole good part.

So I could buy one of these guys just for the purpose of air layering, where I would find a branch I like and use it for air layering and making a new little tree to start with?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Bonsai Babby]

I get these in July/August at a local place that marks them to 75% off. No grafts either. That's $7.50 each. At $7.50 I chop them down with no regrets. This is one about 2-3 weeks after I chopped it down to 3 inches.

View attachment 176506

I probably wouldn't spend $30 on one of these though.

I will try to get a picture of it tomorrow with 6 months of growth. It did well for chopping in the dead of summer.

Wow! I would not mind chopping that right down if it was only 7.50

I have a question if I may ask: After you chopped it, there is that flat stump top. What is going to happen to that? Will it stay like a flat stump? Is it going to still be able to grow a nice normal looking trunk?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The trees pictured are 3-4 feet tall, I don't think they are intended to be bonsai, does that mean they are pre-bonsai?

No. Pre-bonsai means that they are nursery trees grown specifically to be bonsai in the future. Generally it means that if they are grafted trees they are extremely low (invisible) grafts, that they have shallow root stuctures, and they have been specifically trained to have crooked trunks and lots of taper.

A landscape nursery will never have pre-bonsai, because the market for landscape trees is for bean-pole straight trunks with deep roots and zero taper - the exact opposite of what you want for bonsai.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Check out this thread by Bob Pressler (@bonsaibp ) Bob owns a successful bonsai nursery up in Northridge. He develops pre-bonsai for the retail market, workshop use, and for his own purposes.

You can see how his cork-bark Chinese elms look like nothing that you would see in a landscape nursery - but they have all of the qualities you look for in a tree that has a bonsai future...

 

[Bonsai Babby]

Check out this thread by Bob Pressler (@bonsaibp ) Bob owns a successful bonsai nursery up in Northridge. He develops pre-bonsai for the retail market, workshop use, and for his own purposes.

You can see how his cork-bark Chinese elms look like nothing that you would see in a landscape nursery - but they have all of the qualities you look for in a tree that has a bonsai future...

I need to learn more! When I look at those cork elms, I have no idea how it will turn into a bonsai. It looks like the trunk is super thick, won't it just be a big thick stick? How can you make that into a tapered miniature tree?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

When you start with raw stock like that, the most important part is the nebari (the surface roots and base of the trunk) and the initial line of the trunk - because that is the part that takes YEARS to develop. With elms, it is so easy to air-layer them that if you felt the trunk was too long/straight for your final design you could just air-layer off the top 8" and end up with two trees.

Before:



After (still in development):

 

[ajm55555]

The trees pictured are 3-4 feet tall, I don't think they are intended to be bonsai, does that mean they are pre-bonsai?

You can turn anything into a bonsai. Of course, the earlier you train a tree to be a bonsai, the better the results. So if you start from an already tall tree, which was not meant to be a bonsai but a garden tree, it will take you more time and effort to correct the roots and the branch structure and the final result might not be as good.
Of course this is also true for collected trees but in that case you usually choose the ones that mother Nature already trained for you with wind, rain snow, animals doing the trimming and so on ;-)

 

[sorce]

http://bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATdevelopingtrunksforbonsai.htm

Sorce