My very first bonsai styling

[Boex]

Hi everyone,
I think this is my second post ever here And I thought I could sahre my first bonsai with you, in order to have some advices.

Last Saturday I went to visit a nursery in Quebec, Canada named "Bonsaï Gros-Bec". Once there, I decided to buy my first bonsai material, a juniperus, to style it myself. I took a lot of time to chose the one that I thought would produce a good bonsai. Looking for a potential nice nebari, a nice base, no reverse tapper etc. So my choice finally sotped on this one:


I also bought 3 deshojo saplings:

Very exited to finally begin my journey into bonsai, my friend @Ugo offered me to come pay him a visit to give me some advices and use his tool while mine were yet to be delivered. So with a bit of supervision while him and his wife were prepping there backyard for the summer, I started to trim, chose what I should keep, remove etc. I think I made some poor decisions, but overall, I was really happy with how it was going so far.

Then monday, I did the wiring and styling alone, and did some touch up today. So here is the final result, wich I'm quite happy with for a first one (don't mind my cat who decided to photo bomb ):


please feel free to critic or give some advices of what I should have done, or what I could do.

 

[Boex]

I would be interested to know your thoughts on what ferts you would use for the next years. I was thinking combining Miracle Grow Shake N Feed 12-4-8 with chicken poop until middle of summer, then replace the Shake N Feed with something lower in nitrogen.

 

[Kullas]

I'm still a noob to but I think you did a good job

 

[Shibui]

Looks great for a first styling.
Not sure the lowest branch will be useful if that's the proposed planting angle that low branch will be almost touching the ground. Trees usually look better with a trunk rather than having branches from soil level up.
Apex still appears strong and dense. Apical dominance means upper parts grow stronger than lower branches. With that strong apex it is likely that the lower branches won't grow much and will still be small and skinny for many years. Apex seems to be the hardest part to style initially but I'd thin that out substantially at some stage.

The ferts you propose will be fine. I think the concept of low N for winter has been debunked. We don't have cold winters here so check with local growers but I believe even over there it is not considered necessary now but still won't hurt the growth or the tree.

 

[Boex]

Looks great for a first styling.
Not sure the lowest branch will be useful if that's the proposed planting angle that low branch will be almost touching the ground. Trees usually look better with a trunk rather than having branches from soil level up.
Apex still appears strong and dense. Apical dominance means upper parts grow stronger than lower branches. With that strong apex it is likely that the lower branches won't grow much and will still be small and skinny for many years. Apex seems to be the hardest part to style initially but I'd thin that out substantially at some stage.

The ferts you propose will be fine. I think the concept of low N for winter has been debunked. We don't have cold winters here so check with local growers but I believe even over there it is not considered necessary now but still won't hurt the growth or the tree.

Yeah I agree for the lowest branch. I almost cut it yesterday, but decided I'll wait next spring when I'll re-pot, to see how it'll look. The trunk is about 1" still buried before the nebari. I was think maybe I'll have the branch cascading out of the pot... but I'm not sure it'll would look nice, or make a djinn out of it. Also thanks for the apex advice in relation with the growth of lower branches... This is the part I still have to learn about... I think styling is the easiest part, planing and controlling is the hardest one... I've been reading and watching videos for years.. so I'm not going completely blind in this... but experience is what I'm missing . I'll look further into the N ratio as you mentioned. I've read information going both ways, saying that giving to much N before dormancy does not helps the tree since it's promoting growth etc...

 

[Paradox]

That is a very good start for a first time, you did well.
I agree with Shibui that the top is probably still a little dense.

The only way to get experience is to work on trees, make mistakes, have successes and see how the trees respond.

You dont need to change fertilizers for the fall.
Just feed it once a month until the growth starts to slow in the fall then stop.
The tree will know what to do as the temperatures cool off telling it that it is time to get ready for winter.

 

[Boex]

That is a very good start for a first time, you did well.
I agree with Shibui that the top is probably still a little dense.

The only way to get experience is to work on trees, make mistakes, have successes and see how the trees respond.

You dont need to change fertilizers for the fall.
Just feed it once a month until the growth starts to slow in the fall then stop.
The tree will know what to do as the temperatures cool off telling it that it is time to get ready for winter.

This weekend, I'll try to work the apex a bit more. I was afraid to remove too much, so I stopped I'll try to trim and divide it in 3 to 5 pads

 

[Paradox]

This weekend, I'll try to work the apex a bit more. I was afraid to remove too much, so I stopped I'll try to trim and divide it in 3 to 5 pads

your instinct to not remove too much is a good one. You can thin it a little but but I wouldnt go crazy

 

[Boex]

your instinct to not remove too much is a good one. You can thin it a little but but I wouldnt go crazy

I would try to make something like this

 

[Shibui]

your instinct to not remove too much is a good one. You can thin it a little but but I wouldnt go crazy

Good point for beginners. Juniper can react badly to massive reduction but I'm estimating around 10%-20% reduction so far. It should cope with 50% in one session no problem so a little more this week will be fine.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Personally see future of tree in first 2-5 branches. Between 1st 2 branches and big bend trunk is straight/uninteresting. If keeping needs bent. Trunk needs growth/thickened a lot by growing out tree several years. Major cutbacks, too early development/attempted refinement, small container best guarantee of skinny uninteresting tree forever. To grow tree fertilize weekly.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

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Very good work wiring for a kittycat!! hope you didnt scratch the trunk with your claws haha

 

[sorce]

Mad props to @Ugo for facilitating this meetup. Best have pictures in the Meeting Nuts in Person thread! POIDH!

Doesn't matter what feeling the tree gives you when the feeling of community is overflowing like bro's garbage can from that graft thread. TGP.

I'd hope your far future involves cutting it back to those first 2 branches as a new beginning, which would technically be a "middle" if you plan for it now and keep styling those branches for it.

Sorce