Young maple development

[ysrgrathe]

Where next with a young maple like this? I acquired six of these as bare root seedlings from Bill Valvanis three years ago and planted them all at somewhat of an angle. I'm wondering now if I did this wrong because while they have some curve, I'm not exactly sure where the trunk line should go from here. I'm interested both in advice on how to better introduce movement on future seedlings (you can see some in the background!) as well as where to go next with this one. Thanks!

For my reference: acer40

 

[0soyoung]

There's little getting around having to just let it grow until the bottom section of the trunk is as thick as your want. I got about 5 years down the road before it occurred to me that I didn't want it to be arrow straight. You got that much pretty well nixed already. But what you do depends upon your aspirations.

If you want a thin sinewy feminine tree, you won't be worrying much about thickening the trunk nor making it taper - priority will be movement and you'll be chopping it soon and wiring the thin stem from it for movement If you want shohin, you'll probably want a thicker trunk and if you want to get to sumo proportions you'll need a trunk with a lot of fairly close nodes (which may exist somewhere along the existing stem that you can 'harvest' as an air layer sometime). And, yes, you can always air layer to at least double your trees, maybe think about a group or forest planting too.

Finally, keep in mind that every great work lies atop a huge junk pile. Masterworks are one of a kind, but not one-offs. Do what you FEEL like doing and see where it leads. Just don't do the exact same thing with everything you've got. That's the only real advice I have for you.

 

[namnhi]

I would let it grow for few more years then air layer the top and pick out the side branch that has the most interesting curve for the bottom.

 

[Forrestford]

You got good roots, I would chop just above the bottom brach and let that be your apex. If you want it to be thicker put it in the ground for a few years and let it get tall and thick before cutting it back

 

[Shibui]

Where next with a young maple like this?

The trouble with your question is there is no one right answer. Lots of possible avenues, all legitimate leading to probably good bonsai.
You have done a great job developing a really great root system on this tree. I can see a large, woody plate nebari in a few more years.

 

[Japonicus]

From everyeverything I’m reading here is where I would cut, then grow out.
Then Rinse and repeat or revisit plan prior to the next phase. The rinse and repeat method
to reduce to the next opposite direction is for the pine tree effect or zig zag trunk.
Of course there’s a viable branch below that,

 

[Deleted member 21616]

would there be any advantage to chopping higher up (temporarily), say, where the second photo gets cut off (chop #1) to encourage back budding and growth lower on the trunk (on the assumption that most of the foliage is high up o the tree right now). And then, chopping where one wants to finally chop (slightly above in actuality, leaving room for die back) for that first section of the trunk, now with strong branches well below this final chop line (chop #2).

My suspicion is that new growth below chop #2 will promote 1) thickening and taper of that lowest section, 2) prevent dieback when you make chop #2, and 3) provide you with a nice selection of confident branches to choose as your new leader?

have never done this myself - just thinking publicly

thoughts anybody?

 

[Shibui]

That mark looks like a viable spot to cut. There is plenty of active growth below so it should take off well. Reducing to the lower branch would be viable if you wanted to develop a smaller shohin sized tree but would lake too long to develop a larger size I feel.
Cutting at the marked spot will still stimulate plenty of new shoots which might be used as sacrifice branches if needed. One problem with thickening a section of trunk then cutting is the size of the scar which can take far longer to heal. Cutting smaller diameter early then using multiple shoots to add diameter is better because many smaller scars heal up far quicker than a single large one.
I'm not a big fan of zigzag maples but there are plenty of them out there so feel free to develop another.

I will be interested to see the summer growth on this tree. The shoots in the pictures appear to have quite compact growth and remarkably short internodes (unless my estimate of size is out). Maybe you have dwarf or semi dwarf variety by good management or accident?