Progression of Acer palmatum C

[PA_Penjing]

Excited to try this with elm, the base on yours is really looking nice. Sounds like you had some roots die off along the way? I assume maybe strangled by other roots? I have never tried a clump style tree and would be curious to know how to mitigate root death or how much to expect.

 

[parhamr]

Excited to try this with elm, the base on yours is really looking nice. Sounds like you had some roots die off along the way? I assume maybe strangled by other roots? I have never tried a clump style tree and would be curious to know how to mitigate root death or how much to expect.

Hmm I don’t think I had significant root death. What did you mean?

There have been some sections that weren’t as equally filled in as others, which is a normal growth habit for most trees. The fifth trunk was also added into a void between trees and it happened to have fewer roots on the side I put toward the front of the clump.

Most of the quirks of how the trees interconnect are from growing them near to each other and gradually taking the soil down to expose the nebari.

 

[PA_Penjing]

In this repot I did minor work on the nebari. It’s a little uneven where some older roots rotted away.

was referring to this quote, sorry it was said a while ago. maybe it was just minor small stuff. I guess I just read that as a bigger problem than it was

 

[parhamr]

was referring to this quote, sorry it was said a while ago. maybe it was just minor small stuff. I guess I just read that as a bigger problem than it was

Ohh! Gotcha. They were the mid-sized, inconsequential roots that tend to fail as I transition nursery stock from a growing/training soil and potting into a more bonsai specific culture.

That tends to happen in the older pockets of soil with more organic content.

 

[parhamr]

It had a decent year. The branch structure will soon be visible.


It possibly deserves to go into an Anderson flat for another 5 years of intermediate refinement.

 

[Stella]

looking good. I'm loving the pot with this tree

 

[parhamr]

Repotted yesterday — I’m giving this clump more space to continue a balanced approach between development and refinement. It was in a Reiho Tokoname pot of about 14" length and now it’s in an 18" Vicki Chamberlain oval. I fixed the orientation of the clump (rotated around 15º clockwise); it’s feeling right on all counts.



Most of the motivation to repot was for more root space. The Reiho was a showy pot with just enough room to sustain but not quite enough to continue progressing. Around the bottom of the pot the root tips had all encircled about 24 inches!

 

[ibakey]

Great progression thread. It just makes me want to start my own clump trees! Great pot selections too.

 

[parhamr]

Quite a show of color this fall!


I left it alone this year, shaded next to a bench and the fence. I don’t recall pruning it. The heat was a real scorcher and I had some other trees that were unhappy, so I didn’t touch this one.

The extension growths were greater than 3 feet and the internodes were moderately large. I chopped some of them back to the third node to encourage the tree to mature the interior buds. It’ll get a heavy pruning next May after the first flush hardens.