To Air Layer, or Not to Air Layer?

Tidal Bonsai

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The nebari is ok to me, but I feel like the secondary trunk too high for a twin trunk. What do you guys/gals think?
 

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sorce

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I think it's a perfect height to model what an actual natural broom might be.

Sorce
 

Paradox

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Little high for my taste. I would air layer the second trunk off. The main trunk has some really nice movement and the near are a good start so I would leave that as is.
 

JudyB

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I don't mind the height it comes off at, (second trunk) but it has a lack of taper and movement that may bother you down the road. It may also be a bit heavy.
 

Tidal Bonsai

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Thank you all for the replies, the secondary trunk has some movement/taper, but it’s kind of tough getting a front where both the main and secondary show their stuff.

I may layer off the main, and grow out the secondary, but I am still a bit undecided
 

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bonsaichile

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I wouldn't air layer that secondary trunk. It is too straight and taperless to be of any use. I would simply cut it off.
 

Tieball

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I would not cut it off. I’d work with it.....here’s a rough of my thought process. I changed the angle and removed a low branch on the left trunk. This would be my starting point....then I’d cut back some overly thick branches that are higher up on both trunks.
423251F7-E9F7-4F14-8CD3-9EA319742FFC.jpeg
 

Tidal Bonsai

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That is what i was thinking. But maybe it is a special species?

I should have stayed the species, it’s nothing too special, just a crape myrtle with pretty small leaves naturally (it has never been in a bonsai pot, just grown in a nursery container). I picked it up in the late fall, lightly pruned and buried it in my yard for winter storage. More moves will be made in the spring.
 

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Tidal Bonsai

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I would not cut it off. I’d work with it.....here’s a rough of my thought process. I changed the angle and removed a low branch on the left trunk. This would be my starting point....then I’d cut back some overly thick branches that are higher up on both trunks.
View attachment 275191

I dig it! That angle makes the secondary trunk mirror the main trunk more. Time to layer in the spring.

PS I knew that branch needed to go, not really sure why I left it on before burying it for the winter 😂 I may have thought it could be bent for a back branch or something.
 

Tieball

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@Brewing and Bonsai Are the roots that bad that an air layer is needed?
Air layers, in my view, tend to produce flat unnatural roots from what I’ve seen in photos (unless that’s what you want for a look). I remedied this on a maple tree years ago by cutting a very wavy line around the tree....uneven.....just enough wave that roots would not be perfectly flat. I thought about, imagined, how I wanted the roots to regrow rather than just cut a ring. I knew where I wanted a slightly higher root based on the tree shape. I probably overthought the roots to much. However. The tree responded with nice naturally different roots almost exactly as imagined. I was likely just lucky. No photos....several years ago.
 

Tidal Bonsai

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@Brewing and Bonsai Are the roots that bad that an air layer is needed?
Air layers, in my view, tend to produce flat unnatural roots from what I’ve seen in photos (unless that’s what you want for a look). I remedied this on a maple tree years ago by cutting a very wavy line around the tree....uneven.....just enough wave that roots would not be perfectly flat. I thought about, imagined, how I wanted the roots to regrow rather than just cut a ring. I knew where I wanted a slightly higher root based on the tree shape. I probably overthought the roots to much. However. The tree responded with nice naturally different roots almost exactly as imagined. I was likely just lucky. No photos....several years ago.


The nebari isn’t bad, but the secondary trunk is too high. I think I saw @Brian Van Fleet do a zigzag layer on a trident so the roots came out at different points. I have also seen photos from Ebihara where he used chopsticks to give the roots movement after a layer.
 

leatherback

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Air layers, in my view, tend to produce flat unnatural roots from what I’ve seen in photos
I have often wordered whether people tend to put their airlayers in bonsai pots too quickly. I can imagine that lettign the roots grow and giving a few less of a trim you would get a more natural looking nebari. My airlayers tend to have very only a few roots and root tips when I separate them, and I find that after a year or 2 they start to differ from one another.
 

Tidal Bonsai

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For anyone who is still interested, I decided to grow this tree in the ground for the past few seasons and never layered it. All it got was fertilizer, and a little hedge pruning once in awhile. The flower color ended up being white, which looked really nice!!

I just dug it up this season, cut back the roots hard for future nebari development, and roughly chopped the top before putting it in a training pot. I left it to grow because I had a feeling that what the tree needed was for the secondary trunk to thicken so it looks like a trunk and not a weird branch. I am happy with the nebari and the secondary trunk just the way they are… it just took a few years to decide! 😂
 

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