My first bonsai purchase

[riginos92]

Hello all,

I made my first purchase today. A Japanese maple (Deshojo). I need your help about future styling/pruning of my bonsai.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Good Morning and Welcome Aboard Bonsai Nut!

Congratulations on your new purchase! Maple bonsai can be very rewarding and complex all at the same time.

The first thing you might want to do is decide high big a bonsai you want this to be and let folks know this. It’s highly likely this will mean the tree will be grown out for a number of years… in a different container. Growing the trunk caliper, working the roots and finally the branches.

Hopefully the tree is being kept outside as maple, as well as most bonsai, are outside trees.

Also, what are the prospective areas you’ll be wintering over this tree.

Finally to help folks provide meaningful comments, please let folks know your approximate location and USDS growing zone. Insert the information by double tapping your icon on top of the page and entering the data. This data will then appear on your icon for each post.

Welcome Aboard once again!

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Paradox]

Hey, welcome to the forum.
Not a bad first purchase.

Besides the things Deep Sea stated,
You should leave it alone for this year and let it acclimate to your location.

You need to decide which branch is going to be the main trunk and remove the other next spring as buds swell. After that, decide how big you want the trunk to be. That decision will help determine next steps

 

[riginos92]

Good Morning and Welcome Aboard Bonsai Nut!

Congratulations on your new purchase! Maple bonsai can be very rewarding and complex all at the same time.

The first thing you might want to do is decide high big a bonsai you want this to be and let folks know this. It’s highly likely this will mean the tree will be grown out for a number of years… in a different container. Growing the trunk caliper, working the roots and finally the branches.

Hopefully the tree is being kept outside as maple, as well as most bonsai, are outside trees.

Also, what are the prospective areas you’ll be wintering over this tree.

Finally to help folks provide meaningful comments, please let folks know your approximate location and USDS growing zone. Insert the information by double tapping your icon on top of the page and entering the data. This data will then appear on your icon for each post.

Welcome Aboard once again!

cheers
DSD sends

Thank you for your reply.
I want to keep that height of my plant.
I live in Cyprus so during summer the temperature is very high and i will try to keep my plant away from sun.

 

[sorce]

try to keep my plant away from sun.

It needs that to grow!

Welcome to Crazy!

Just to rethink the sun.....

I believe there is a larger danger of heat related stress when a plant isn't allowed to cool off for the night, especially the pot.

So an instance may arise where one can only find escape from the sun by hiding it from morning sun on the west side of a structure, which would effectively cut the amount of sun exposure down, but leave you vulnerable to heat retained in the structure never allowing the plant to cool off overnight.

I believe best case scenario would be in the middle of an open field, full sun exposure throughout the day, but with an umbrella to shade it completely from around noon to 4 PM.
As opposed to "shade cloth" which is too unnatural for me, too static, too consistently penetrable by heat.

I guess just be mindful of the situation.

A laser Focus on the heat problem should cause a natural greater allowance for the sun, the food.

So then provided you don't bake it......

You largest problem seems to be a bulge moreso from a graft(?) than the 3 branches emerging from roughly the same point on the trunk, which is the usual "reverse taper" culprit.

So pruning isn't really a must soon, more a detriment.

Seems the fastest way to fix that will be to get it into a more appropriate wide and shallow pot, which you're going to want that foliage or future foliage to aid in health and root growth for the Repot. This will allow that lower trunk to expand, which is the only way to really fix this problem.

Unless you feel like taking some risks and learning to air layer.

You can get your feet wet safely on any of those 3 branches, cuz IMO, the first internodes on all of them are too long.
Perhaps you'll layer yourself a better tree from up there and find them to do well on their own roots there.
I doubt anyone would consider shipping non-grafted plants to some Island in the middle of the Mediterranean when the grafted ones are proven in more, and more general climates.

Then once you are comfortable layering you can figure on whether or not you even want to Repot what junk you may find below the soil, and opt to layer it at the widest point there near the bulge.

Hopefully the branch layer will have sprouted some new small low growth you can keep usefully close noded for your new good base.

Don't get stuck on a height, go for excellent and accept what height that becomes.

Sorce