Shimpaku Nursery Stock How To Start

[roberthu]

I recently bought three small Shimpaku nursery stock at our local bonsai nursery for $30 each. They are all very healthy with dense foliage and nice color. However, all three has multiple trunks growing from the base. I plan to ground grow them and wire and bend this winter to style them as single trunks in the long run. Should I cut the unwanted trunks off next spring before buds push or keep all the trunks to build up strength until I am ready to style? I imaging that it's going to take 5 years or so to get the trunks to workable sizes so I am not sure if it's worth it to keep all the trunks and foliages right now.

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Pics?

 

[roberthu]

Pics?

I didn’t take any. They are just small starter plants with no shapes or anything.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Have you checked Bjorn's videos? He covers some basics.

 

[leatherback]

I would clean them up a little bit, and avoid half-merged bulges of trunks at the base.
If I grow out, I remove all duplicates and make sure individual sacrifice branches do not "link" their base with the ones higher or lower.

 

[Shibui]

Leave extra trunks. They will add to the overall trunk thickness. They will also give extra options when you come to style - if the main trunk end up looking boring or does not look good maybe one of the lower trunks could be better option. Many sacrifice branches in juniper will end up as jin so more is good. Really low branches will probably self layer while the tree is growing in the ground so you will have more trees without any effort when you dig.
Shimpaku grow slow. They hardly seem to row at all for a couple of years then start to thicken. 5 years is probably a minimum depending how thick you want the trunks.
Shimpaku growth habit is long, straight trunks. Very difficult to style. I now bend and twist shimpaku trunks before planting in the ground so I will have some interest in the trunk and main branches when styling at the end of growing. Pruning to side branches occasionally as they grow is also an option which mimics natural damage to growing trees in the wild.
I tried bending and twisting the growing trunks and branches while they were in the ground but it is very difficult to get good looking bends and twists that way.

 

[roberthu]

Have you checked Bjorn's videos? He covers some basics.

Yeah I need to re-watch this video again. Thank you for sharing!

 

[roberthu]

I would clean them up a little bit, and avoid half-merged bulges of trunks at the base.
If I grow out, I remove all duplicates and make sure individual sacrifice branches do not "link" their base with the ones higher or lower.

Good point! Eliminating multiple branches emerging from the same point of the trunk to avoid bulge is the key.
Thank you!

 

[roberthu]

Leave extra trunks. They will add to the overall trunk thickness. They will also give extra options when you come to style - if the main trunk end up looking boring or does not look good maybe one of the lower trunks could be better option. Many sacrifice branches in juniper will end up as jin so more is good. Really low branches will probably self layer while the tree is growing in the ground so you will have more trees without any effort when you dig.
Shimpaku grow slow. They hardly seem to row at all for a couple of years then start to thicken. 5 years is probably a minimum depending how thick you want the trunks.
Shimpaku growth habit is long, straight trunks. Very difficult to style. I now bend and twist shimpaku trunks before planting in the ground so I will have some interest in the trunk and main branches when styling at the end of growing. Pruning to side branches occasionally as they grow is also an option which mimics natural damage to growing trees in the wild.
I tried bending and twisting the growing trunks and branches while they were in the ground but it is very difficult to get good looking bends and twists that way.

Yeah I will be bending the trunks soon probably in the next few weeks when they start to grow again. It's finally going to cool down to below 80F tomorrow. Hope the forecast is accurate.

 

[Shibui]

Need to be very careful bending growing trunks. When the plant is active the cambium is also active and bark separates easily from the wood under stress. Bending active junipers often results in death of parts of the branch/trunk. Far better to bend when the tree is dormant.
At this stage it probably does not matter too much as long as some lower branches or shoots are still alive the tree will continue, new leaders will have better taper and it probably won't set the project back more than a few months at most.

 

[sorce]

Excess is always good to learn death tricks on!

At least haphazardly try to root all the cuttings.

If you don't need them yourself, you can always use the bonsai currency they provide!

Sorce