Ground growing strategies

[WNC Bonsai]

I have a number of trees in my growing bed including tridents and Jap maples, Chinese quince, zelkova, and Korean hornbeams. What strategies do you usually follow for developing trees in the ground? For example do you let them extend then cut them back each year or just let them grow until they are the desired girth? Do you dig them each year and work on the root system or just let them do their thing? How much styling do you actually do at this stage of development? Do you do any wiring other than creating movement in the main stem? Mine have been in the ground 2 years so I figure they will need at least 3 more but I don’t want to ignore them or overdo along the way.

 

[Nybonsai12]

Ive just put in the ground and let them grow wild to trunk up, that’s the fastest way to get girth. ive chopped when necessary for trunk movement. The only thing that may be beneficial is to dig and work roots every so many years to work and keep roots in check So they don’t get too far away.

 

[Shibui]

I'm sure this topic has been covered numerous times but I'll put in my 2c again.
Tridents grow fast so I've found I get better results pruning and digging every year. You may get girth fast by not chopping at all but the next stage - growing new apex to merge into the stump and healing large scars will take twice as long. By pruning the top regularly you'll end up with better trunk movement, better taper and less scars so even if I'm a year or 2 behind the no chop I'll be way ahead a few years later.
Leaving the roots alone will yield a trunk with just a couple of very thick roots. If that's your idea of nebari then feel free. I prefer to have lots of well ramified roots as nebari. Root pruning regularly makes that happen.
Maple roots are also hard. I can't dig through a root thicker than 3/4" with a shovel so thicker roots means axe or saw and slows digging a lot. The trees are also slower to get started after root pruning if there's just a few thick roots V lots and lots of fine feeder roots.

Chinese quince starts life with just a few vertical roots. That's just how they grow. Root pruning a few times will change that to more lateral roots and spreading nebari. Above ground level the trunk also tends to be vertical with little taper. Pruning will definitely help with changes in direction and taper.

Japanese maples are slower to grow and thicken. I tend to leave those for 2-3 years before root pruning or trimming the tops but the same applies as trident - some intervention will yield a far better trunk.

Can't comment on zelkova and hornbeam as I grow very few of either.

I've found that there's very little in the way of styling while trees are growing fast in the ground. Wires will bite into the bark in weeks so cause more problems than it will help. Branches get way too thick so wait until after trunk thickening to start working on branching or ramification.
Ground growing is best to develop thick trunks. Leave all the rest for the next stage in a grow pot.

All the above is just my opinions and experience from growing hundreds of bonsai over 30 years. Take it or leave it as you see fit.

 

[Dav4]

I've learned the hard way that trident maples, and palmatums to a lesser extent, tend to develop several very large ones sided roots- truly out of scale with the trunk- if left to grow without root work at least every year or two. In ground growing really is all about building trunk size while imparting movement and taper so I don't worry about branching until the tree is potted up. When I was ground growing a bunch of stock in GA, my typical schedule would be to plant the 2-3 year old maple seedling after initial root work +/- some wiring to the trunk while potted, let grow wild for 2 years, then chop/dig up and work roots all in one go, than replant and repeat. I would also mention that the frequency of chops may depend on what the final size of the tree might be... bigger trees will get chopped less frequently than smaller ones... maybe every 3 to 4 years verses every 1-2 years for shohin.

 

[PonderingSage:]

Succinctly written replies, that are really helpful. And confirms what l have read. I have a couple of 2-3 yr seedlings that l will do root work on and get in the ground next spring.
Do you do any soil prep? And how so?

 

[Shibui]

Do you do any soil prep? And how so?

Soil prep will help with growth. How much and what depends entirely on the current state of the soil you have to plant in.
My soil is well drained sandy loam so soil improvement is relatively simple - kill weeds, add compost and/or manures and dig it in before planting. Some soils will need more amendments. More/better soil prep will usually result in better growth.
Anything that would give you good vegetable garden soil should give you good grow bed soil.

 

[Gr8tfuldad]

I'm sure this topic has been covered numerous times but I'll put in my 2c again.
Tridents grow fast so I've found I get better results pruning and digging every year. You may get girth fast by not chopping at all but the next stage - growing new apex to merge into the stump and healing large scars will take twice as long. By pruning the top regularly you'll end up with better trunk movement, better taper and less scars so even if I'm a year or 2 behind the no chop I'll be way ahead a few years later.
Leaving the roots alone will yield a trunk with just a couple of very thick roots. If that's your idea of nebari then feel free. I prefer to have lots of well ramified roots as nebari. Root pruning regularly makes that happen.
Maple roots are also hard. I can't dig through a root thicker than 3/4" with a shovel so thicker roots means axe or saw and slows digging a lot. The trees are also slower to get started after root pruning if there's just a few thick roots V lots and lots of fine feeder roots.

Chinese quince starts life with just a few vertical roots. That's just how they grow. Root pruning a few times will change that to more lateral roots and spreading nebari. Above ground level the trunk also tends to be vertical with little taper. Pruning will definitely help with changes in direction and taper.

Japanese maples are slower to grow and thicken. I tend to leave those for 2-3 years before root pruning or trimming the tops but the same applies as trident - some intervention will yield a far better trunk.

Can't comment on zelkova and hornbeam as I grow very few of either.

I've found that there's very little in the way of styling while trees are growing fast in the ground. Wires will bite into the bark in weeks so cause more problems than it will help. Branches get way too thick so wait until after trunk thickening to start working on branching or ramification.
Ground growing is best to develop thick trunks. Leave all the rest for the next stage in a grow pot.

All the above is just my opinions and experience from growing hundreds of bonsai over 30 years. Take it or leave it as you see fit.

I swear, you should be given an award for all the knowledge you share on here.

 

[PonderingSage:]

Soil prep will help with growth. How much and what depends entirely on the current state of the soil you have to plant in.
My soil is well drained sandy loam so soil improvement is relatively simple - kill weeds, add compost and/or manures and dig it in before planting. Some soils will need more amendments. More/better soil prep will usually result in better growth.
Anything that would give you good vegetable garden soil should give you good grow bed soil.

Thanks, l also have a cinder cone by me, so l was thinking of adding some sifted lava to the soil to help w/ aeration

 

[BobbyLane]

I swear, you should be given an award for all the knowledge you share on here.

I agree, many times he goes in depth to share solid information and barely gets any acknowledgement or a simple thank you. I dont care what anyone has to say to this, but for me its bad forum etiquette

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Mine have been in the ground 2 seasons now so it sounds like next spring they will get the treatment. I have been letting the tridents get about 6-8’ tall then chopping them back but have not done the root work. All of them have the trunk through a CD so hopefully they have developed a shallow root system above it. It will be interesting to see how well that worked out. I did put some movement into the quinces before putting them in the ground and they are now about 6’ tall so need chopping back to get some taper going. I was hoping the long extensions would act as sacrifice branches and fatten the trunk faster. I’ll make sure to document with photos when I get around to digging them all up. Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[one_bonsai]

With ground growing conifers, don't you have to at least wire the trunk? Otherwise how do you get interesting trunks?

 

[Shibui]

With ground growing conifers, don't you have to at least wire the trunk? Otherwise how do you get interesting trunks?

Can get interesting trunks/ movement in trunks several ways.
I use pruning to add bends and taper at the same time. Allow trunks to grow then chop. For species that don't bud on old wood that means chopping just above an existing branch, shoot or bud so it can still be used with conifers.
Wire and bend adds movement to trunks but does not usually add any taper. I use wire and bend extensively with shimpaku, other junipers and pines where trunk taper is not such a big issue. Add sacrifice branches/trunks to get better taper.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

This was all very helpful. Yesterday I dug the tridents for the first time and checked out the roots. The CD disk trick worked out very well with all trees putting out a nice spread of roots above the level of the CD. So I was able to just snip off the old trunk section below the CD along with its old roots and had a nice flat layer of new roots spreading laterally.

I had planted 2 clumps of trees using the CDs and that too worked a expected. One has 5 trees coming up through the center hole in the CD all of which had fused into a single mass at the base. I again snipped off the old stems below the level of the CD, pruned the mass of fine roots, and replanted them. The other clump has 4 stems which I had inserted in holes drilled around the CD about halfway out. Because of the separation between them, their trunks did not fuse but the new roots that spread over the surface of the CD did. So in a few years I hope to have a nice turtle back layer of roots.

I wish I had time to take photos of all of this but I had 6 tridents, 2 quince, 2 zelkova, 2 K. hornbeam, and 3 J. maples to dig, root prune, and replant and I was working alone, so there just wasn‘t time. Thanks though to all who offered advice above.

 

[Soup Dragon]

One thing I have learned through my (very limited) experience with ground growing is that when you chop to grow a new leader, make sure that the direction change is pronounced enough that it will be interesting when all of the trunk sections have thickened to their final girth. What looks like an interesting change of direction when the new leader is just a twig can look insignificant when it has thickened out. I have a bunch of trees that have gentle curves when I wanted a much more twisted look to them.

I now make the direction change much more pronounced. It looks to be too much at first, but when it thickens out it looks right.