Harunobu
Chumono
I think we all know exactly what we mean so I won't post any pictures.
If you let a tree grow normally you will get a straight trunk. The older the tree, the taller and the bigger the diameter of the trunk. A bonsai should often ideally be six times as tall as the diameter. Now you can't just decide 'I want a 70 cm high bonsai', calculate that that means you need a trunk with almost 12 diameter, and then go out and get/buy a tree that has a trunk that big and cut it down to 70 cm.
How exactly do you get that almost pyramid-like structure? Do you need to have a sacrificial leader branch go off lower down the stem? If so how do you get rid of the scars?
Or do you just create the bonsai with the height and branches, maintain it like you would a normal bonsai and eventually it will age and gain that impressive taper?
Another idea I can come up with is that you chop the trunk several times. Say you want that same 70 cm 12 diameter bonsai. The first branch will be at 22 cm. Then you let it grow till it is 12 in diameter, the you chop it off at 22 cm. Then you let it regrow and at some time you prune it to make sure it has only 1 leader. Then you let that one grow until it has the correct diameter at the right height. Say 30 cm height and 16 in diameter.
Of course this is just an idea I might try if I had no other way to find out. It seems it will take a long long time.
Or maybe a process similar to the one mentioned before except rather than growing out a new apex you use an existing branch to be the new apex?
Reason I want to know this is because I want to collect one or more Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris) from the forests here. I am growing from seeds mostly right now. You see nice looking but somewhat spindly bonsai. I can collect trees that will look exactly like that. I can fix the branches in place, grow it out a bit. But will it ever start to look like those really impressive bonsai? Those that really look like an ancient huge tree in small form? I am young and I want to aim at that. But I don't know the process. It is going to take 20 or 30 years or more, fine. I am going to try.
I know in Japan they often collected 100 or even 400 year old trees from the wild. This is not possible where I live. All forests are artificial and all trees are eventually harvested for the timber industry. There are no rocks or hillsides. It is hard to find a young tree that is not perfectly straight, but possible. But no tree is going to be old. Let alone old and small.
So I have no real clue what exactly to look for when I don't know what to do with it exactly.
If you let a tree grow normally you will get a straight trunk. The older the tree, the taller and the bigger the diameter of the trunk. A bonsai should often ideally be six times as tall as the diameter. Now you can't just decide 'I want a 70 cm high bonsai', calculate that that means you need a trunk with almost 12 diameter, and then go out and get/buy a tree that has a trunk that big and cut it down to 70 cm.
How exactly do you get that almost pyramid-like structure? Do you need to have a sacrificial leader branch go off lower down the stem? If so how do you get rid of the scars?
Or do you just create the bonsai with the height and branches, maintain it like you would a normal bonsai and eventually it will age and gain that impressive taper?
Another idea I can come up with is that you chop the trunk several times. Say you want that same 70 cm 12 diameter bonsai. The first branch will be at 22 cm. Then you let it grow till it is 12 in diameter, the you chop it off at 22 cm. Then you let it regrow and at some time you prune it to make sure it has only 1 leader. Then you let that one grow until it has the correct diameter at the right height. Say 30 cm height and 16 in diameter.
Of course this is just an idea I might try if I had no other way to find out. It seems it will take a long long time.
Or maybe a process similar to the one mentioned before except rather than growing out a new apex you use an existing branch to be the new apex?
Reason I want to know this is because I want to collect one or more Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris) from the forests here. I am growing from seeds mostly right now. You see nice looking but somewhat spindly bonsai. I can collect trees that will look exactly like that. I can fix the branches in place, grow it out a bit. But will it ever start to look like those really impressive bonsai? Those that really look like an ancient huge tree in small form? I am young and I want to aim at that. But I don't know the process. It is going to take 20 or 30 years or more, fine. I am going to try.
I know in Japan they often collected 100 or even 400 year old trees from the wild. This is not possible where I live. All forests are artificial and all trees are eventually harvested for the timber industry. There are no rocks or hillsides. It is hard to find a young tree that is not perfectly straight, but possible. But no tree is going to be old. Let alone old and small.
So I have no real clue what exactly to look for when I don't know what to do with it exactly.