Next Steps with my Portulacaria Afra?

cbrshadow23

Shohin
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I have a Portulacaria Afra that I recently trimmed. I was thinking that I'd let it start to grow out and I'd keep trimming to get ramification on the branches, but I'm considering a harder cut.
What I like:
- Good root base/flare
- Good taper on lower half of the tree

What I don't like:
- Top half of tree has less extreme taper
- Lower branches don't have ramification/split until several inches out away from the trunk.

What would you do with this tree? If your answer is "chop it", where would you do that?

Here's a video to give a little better idea of how the tree looks.

Thanks for any advice.
 

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W3rk

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I have a Portulacaria Afra that I recently trimmed. I was thinking that I'd let it start to grow out and I'd keep trimming to get ramification on the branches, but I'm considering a harder cut.
What I like:
- Good root base/flare
- Good taper on lower half of the tree

What I don't like:
- Top half of tree has less extreme taper
- Lower branches don't have ramification/split until several inches out away from the trunk.

What would you do with this tree? If your answer is "chop it", where would you do that?

Here's a video to give a little better idea of how the tree looks.

Thanks for any advice.
Not any specific advice for your tree/design. But if you are into P. Afra and don't know him yet, check out "LittleJadeBonsai" on Instagram. Gilbert does killer work with P. Afra.
 

Negril123

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I second the Little Jade Instagram. He now also has a few on YouTube but his Instagram is great. Have fun with the Ports/Elephant Bush.... I am new to bonsai and am still learning.
 

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Mycin

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Any updates? I think it has good taper, especially for a port. Looks like trunk & primary branches are set, are you trying to develop pads or more of a continuous silhouette?


Let us know how it did after a Summer's growth
 

cbrshadow23

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Any updates? I think it has good taper, especially for a port. Looks like trunk & primary branches are set, are you trying to develop pads or more of a continuous silhouette?


Let us know how it did after a Summer's growth
Here's what it looks like today. Not the clearest video but you get the idea. I've been letting it grow and trimming it back quite a bit. It grows incredibly fast so I've gotten lots of ramification. It's hard to tell in my video below, but I have lots of guy wires pulling branches down, wired branches to spread evenly, trimming to pads, etc. I'll have to post a better video once I get a chance to give it a good trim. The trunk is looking good and has more corking than it previously had, I believe.

 

Forsoothe!

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You gain taper by growing lots of foliage on the bottom of the tree and limit foliage as you ascend the tree and little at the top. It wants to grow top foliage at the expense of growing lower foliage which you have to foil. As illustrated here, post#6
 

Mycin

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Looks great to me, your initial concerns (less taper in top half, no secondary branching close to trunk) are starting to be concealed. Nice work!

When do you think you might put in a bonsai pot, 1-2 years? I'm curious to see how the roots look after growing in an air pot
 

cbrshadow23

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You gain taper by growing lots of foliage on the bottom of the tree and limit foliage as you ascend the tree and little at the top. It wants to grow top foliage at the expense of growing lower foliage which you have to foil. As illustrated here, post#6
These illustrations are super helpful. Thanks for that.
I do think I'll reduce the top branches quite a bit. We have a newborn in the house now so my freetime now has limits haha I take on 1-2 bonsai tasks per week other than regular watering and fertilizing.
Much appreciated!
 

cbrshadow23

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Looks great to me, your initial concerns (less taper in top half, no secondary branching close to trunk) are starting to be concealed. Nice work!

When do you think you might put in a bonsai pot, 1-2 years? I'm curious to see how the roots look after growing in an air pot
I'm not really sure about the bonsai pot just yet since I have trouble visualizing what I want this tree to look like in the long term. The video I posted above makes the tree look pretty messy, which right now it is, but a 10 minute cleanup would expose nice pads on each branch that I created over the summer. Right now it's pretty wild though!
Next spring/summer I'll likely at least repot the tree even if it's not into a bonsai pot.
 

cbrshadow23

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I thought I'd post an update that's more clear than my video.
Today I defoliated the tree so that I can apply some wire and try to create some pads. It's hard to tell scale in the picture but this tree is quite large - defoliating it took forever!
Before anyone jumps in saying that I shouldn't defoliate at this time of the year, I keep my trees under grow lights in the winter and am quite confident that they'll snap right back with a new flush of growth. :)
Any feedback welcome! Where should I wire, prune, chop?

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IMG-4114.jpg
 

Carol 83

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I thought I'd post an update that's more clear than my video.
Today I defoliated the tree so that I can apply some wire and try to create some pads. It's hard to tell scale in the picture but this tree is quite large - defoliating it took forever!
Before anyone jumps in saying that I shouldn't defoliate at this time of the year, I keep my trees under grow lights in the winter and am quite confident that they'll snap right back with a new flush of growth. :)
Any feedback welcome! Where should I wire, prune, chop?

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I bet you have a shit-ton of cuttings!
 

Mycin

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Wow! I love it.

Gotta be honest - right now, it looks like something took a bite out of the top. I think it would look great as formal upright, looks like there's a branch or two out of that group at that top that could be wired up as leader.
 

cbrshadow23

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Wow! I love it.

Gotta be honest - right now, it looks like something took a bite out of the top. I think it would look great as formal upright, looks like there's a branch or two out of that group at that top that could be wired up as leader.
Yeah I agree it's out of balance at the moment. I didn't do any styling, wiring, trimming after defoliating it.
I think the reason why the top and right side are too 'heavy' is because I didn't do a good job of rotating the tree this summer so that side got the most sunlight.

I'll thin out the top and sides, especially the right side. Any other suggestions? I'm planning on wiring some movement into the primary branches and creating pads on each of them.
 

Mycin

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The only other thing I suggest would be to cut the downward growing branches but I’m guessing that’s what you mean with “creating pads”. I’m not experienced enough to think of anything else.

To my eyes it looks like it’s well its way, you’ve been doing a great job. Excited to follow along. I love P. Afras so please keep us (me) updated!
 
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