Eastern red cedar advice

ChefB

Mame
Messages
195
Reaction score
217
Location
New Orleans
USDA Zone
9a
Hi everyone! After being mostly just a lurker in these forums I decided it was time for me to get involved. I recently purchased this eastern red cedar at my local bonsai club auction here in New Orleans. The tree was obviously put through it’s paces by its previous owner and in what seems to be an attempt to bend the straight section in the middle of the tree they did a trunk split which is quite ugly. All I have been doing to this tree since I got it back in August has been study it and care for it. I began fertilizing last month and it is definitely showing signs of growth. The sticker on the front of the pot says it has been in the same container at the nursery for three years. The jin that was created on the front of the tree seems to have left the tree with not a lot of roots supporting the tree in the front. I used a wire to secure the tree in the pot and is not quite as wiggly. The plan for this tree is to re-split the trunk along the same line as previous and taking the back half of the split and pulling it down and around to the left side creating an interesting wrapping of the deadwood as well as to bring the overall height and apex of the tree down. The other half of the split trunk would then be made into a jin that would come up through the foliage in the apex. My question would be when should I perform the operations? Now and repot in early spring, perform ops now and wait to repot til following spring, wait to do the ops, re-pot in spring and then do the operations in fall of ‘23 or spring ‘24. I’m not sure if doing this before dormancy would be good or not. We don’t have a true winter here. Any advice about the timing of the operation or the design idea is welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!

Let me add that I know eastern red cedar isn’t the most desirable species, but being the first bonsai that I will ever truly create I’m not worried if I kill it. It was cheap. Though I don’t want to kill it, I just want to learn some things.
 

Attachments

  • 434C8D7E-410F-4B2E-8949-6CEDC6074645.jpeg
    434C8D7E-410F-4B2E-8949-6CEDC6074645.jpeg
    302.5 KB · Views: 11
  • 2BE90238-4C84-4804-A004-9B9F3DEFD451.jpeg
    2BE90238-4C84-4804-A004-9B9F3DEFD451.jpeg
    315.1 KB · Views: 11
  • 2A30BE3D-FB94-45F5-8E82-6FF66EF72296.jpeg
    2A30BE3D-FB94-45F5-8E82-6FF66EF72296.jpeg
    337.3 KB · Views: 9
  • 12AA2FF7-DF93-4A1B-8B07-5D51358C1E0F.jpeg
    12AA2FF7-DF93-4A1B-8B07-5D51358C1E0F.jpeg
    346.4 KB · Views: 10
Last edited:
Top Bottom