Large maple collection

[CrippyFreaky24]

Hey guys. It is late spring and basically summer, however I still am hunting bonsai. This would be a first tree, besides for a few bittersweet vines that I collected earlier in spring and they are growing leaves. I’ll make threads on the other trees but this one is The tree has leaves going out of the trunk, which is the only visibly alive part of the tree. The first photo shows a little bit of the length of the tree and the base is at the bottom. The rest of the tree stretches up around 20 feet but has no growth. The base is around 4-6 inches wide. Would this be possible to collect? Should I try to collect this as a beginner? I’m not sure if this tree would survive the season without collecting it but it may die anyways now if I do collect it. Advice would be really appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Dav4]

You could collect this with a good chance of success next spring- not now-... but should you? That looks like a lot of work to end up with mediocre material. My advice would be to move on... wrong time to be collecting anyway... and look for better material to collect at a more appropriate time.

 

[Dav4]

double post

 

[BrianBay9]

Agree. Plus the tree doesn't look healthy at all. Could go through a lot of work to end up with a declining tree. Or worse, a diseased tree that could spread to others.

 

[rockm]

Not worth the trouble, even if it was the season to collect it--late spring and early summer are EXACTLY THE WRONG TIME for tree collection for most species. The top of this red maple (most likely species, although listing you location would help a lot with advice and species ID) is dead, which is why there's no leaves up there an all the growth is at the bottom. That tells me the tree is struggling with disease and/or major stress. It likely won't make the year, or will limp along for a while.

Also not much of interest on the trunk to make it a good collection candidate.

 

[Paradox]

Agree with Dave and Rocm.
Not worth the effort.
Not every big trunk will make a good bonsai.

 

[Shibui]

Not every big trunk will make a good bonsai.

Exactly.
'Big' does not mean 'good', especially in bonsai where small is good.

 

[CrippyFreaky24]

Thanks for the advice guys. It probably isn’t the best time to collect right now but it would be cool to get some practice trees in, I’ll probably collect some most bittersweet vine as it’s invasive and if it dies it’s getting rid of some in the wild anyways. I was considering collecting this because it didn’t look healthy and seeing if a large trunk chop and trimming roots back could help it keep its foliage and possibly survive, but by the fact the bark looks like it came off around the top and the top doesn't have any foliage, it seems likely the tree could be diseased and die anyways.