Acer palmatum Katsura (5 trunks from cutting)

[clem]

hello, here's a project for long time, with 5 trunks of Katsura. Never grown Katsura before but it looks good.
I plan to let them grow so that the nebari will grow and fuse. I wish to have 70-80 cm high main trunk









In the green house to protect it from the wind (i live near to the beach in Normandy)




I will remove the wires in a few weeks to avoid scars as much as possible.
I water all my trees with PH6 water (corrected with acetic acid or phosphoric acid) because my water is normally 7.8 PH and i want to make my trees grow better.. better absorption of micro-nutriments with PH6)

The cuttings have been made by a very good professionnal : they have a lot of good roots as you can see.

 

[BobbyLane]

Nice project, they do produce lovely colours.

 

[clem]

thanks !
yes the leaves are nice, and there are short inter nodes. i'll do my best to make a good multirunk

 

[Gary McCarthy]

I like it! But, why such a big "pot"?

 

[clem]

Thanks. I had this wood box available, and the wood of this box is well protected to last very long.. For sure, the roots will grow easily in this pot.

 

[GGB]

I’m anxious to start a clump but I have to get the cuttings first. Katsura is one of my favorites

 

[clem]

If your cuttings are not good in term of rooting (just 1 root for example) you can use the technic of a peace of wood (or plastic) with holes Inside : you put the cuttings in each hole, and with time they will make new roots & fuse together.
That's what i wanted to do, but the cuttings had their leaves, and small branches that i didn't want to cut. By chance the nebari of those cuttings is good

 

[Canada Bonsai]

I like it! But, why such a big "pot"?

i agree

i don’t know what’s in the bags, but that also looks like A LOT of fertilizer @clem

It’s not just a question of aesthetics and convenience. These plants will grow better in a smaller pot

 

[clem]

Probably. But i also like to keep my young trees in the same large woodbox : i have the pleasure, when i take pics, to see the tree getting bigger as the woodbox is the same.
I will put a little "osmocote" (chemical long lasting fertilizer) on the soil surface as soon as i have pinched the branches well placed (exterior of the curves). I plan to let sacrifice branches grow and maybe clip & grow on the trunk (time will tell)

 

[AlainK]

Give peace of wood a chance!

Nice mispelling, but kidding aside I found this article from a now defunct bonsai magazine, mostly articles translated from Japanese. The cost of copyrights and translation was too high for such a magazine to survive at a time when there weren't so many bonsai enthusiasts in French-speaking Europe.

Nov-Dec. 1991, 3rd part of an article by Hatsugi Kato, Gantsuke Hamano et Yamasaki Kamae. It's in french, but the pictures are self-explanatory I think :













NB: "Jamais" means "Never" : never break the tile with a hammer, cut the roots underneath the tile. And : "WARNING: we won't remove the tile if the roots aren't properly fused".





Just ask me if you're interested in having more info on the text.

 

[clem]

One cutting died this spring, but the others are growing well. So next spring, i'll add another cutting to build my 5 trunk tree

 

[clem]

Hi, i worked on the nebari 2 weeks ago because some roots were growing on the soil surface, so i wanted to check the nebari.

The roots on the soil surface (there is a layer of 5cm akadama on the nebari) ->


After removing the soil surface, there are a lot of roots growing upside (not good for the nebari) ->


After cutting a few roots growing up, the nebari appears ->



A root growing up, before i cut it ->


I removed also the soil on the back of the tree ( a lot of roots grwoing upside) ->


The white arrow shows the little scar after removing a wire (anchor wire) ->



The next pics show the nebari after the work ->

 

[clem]

other pics of the nebari after trimming ->




The nebari is covered again with akadama & sphagnum moss ->

 

[clem]

In the end of october, i removed the soil again, to check how the roots have grown.



New fine roots have grown ->


After the cut of misplaced roots ->


The virtual of the futur. The blue trunkline is the new trunk i plan to add this spring & the yellow trunk will probably be the main trunk, because with the best nebari (placed on the front)->

 

[clem]

hello, i added 1 cutting to this forest, in oreder to have 5 trunks (better than 4 for assymetry)





the wire fixed on the wooden plate to maintain the cutting in position ->



The cutting is in position ->



I plan to cut like this later (clip & grow) ->


A few days later, i'm happy to see that the cutting is growing ->

 

[clem]

I worked on the nebari again, i enjoy to do it in the end of August because the roots grow in September.. so i can imporve the nebari after a season growth.

Back nebari before ->


Back nebari after ->


Front nebari before ->


Front nebari after (i removed the roots on the left, that strangled the little left trunk) ->


As usual, i made some virtuals in order to know which trunk i should let grow, and wich one i should trim to limitate the growth ->

The second tree from the right is the biggest one ->


The third tree from the right is the main tree (my favorite project) ->


this way, i know which tree i should let grow, and which ones i should pinch to limitate their growth.

 

[Stella]

this is such a nice project to follow

 

[BobbyLane]

Nice work. putting in the work, moving along quickly and making it look easy.

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Your maple projects are incredible. Such progress in such a short amount of time.

Following along.

 

[clem]

Your maple projects are incredible. Such progress in such a short amount of time.

Following along.

thank you, i'm very happy with the growth of my JM cuttings. They are produced by a good professional and so, they often have a lot of roots. So they make good nebari when they grow... If you have a cutting with just 1 root, as you can imagine, it will be more difficult to have a good nebari.