Dawn Redwood back budding question.

[Tofi_Bonsai]

If I were to air layer the top half of this Dawn Redwood off next spring...

Can I expect some nice back budding on the lower half of the trunk that I can use to continue growing a nice, large size Bonsai with?

The top half has tons of growth and will be great to create a bonsai from, but a second tree would be great too.

Especially because it has a great base already.

 

[rockm]

So. Pet peeve here. There is no real reason to spend the time air layering this.

I see this time and time again from people just starting out. I’m trying to get you to sidestep a time suck that is mostly useless.

The tree is a telephone pole with no interest. No taper. No real value in air layering other than you MIGHT get another tree — at the expense of your actual work to make a bonsai from the this broomstick of a tree. You will then have two boring uninteresting pieces to work on.

Fwiw there are no “free” trees here. Sure -you’re not spending money on another actual tree. But you are expending your and the tree’s time and resources for a mostly questionable or useless goal.

Bottom line is if the air layering if successful (and it’s not all that easy despite what you’ve read online) it will have no taper root flare or much of anything immediately worthwhile. It will mostly bore you if you keep it a few years after it soaks up your time and fertilizer and bench space. Been there done that threw a few trees like this out.

Now stepping off my soapbox and expecting garbage to be thrown at me.

 

[Tofi_Bonsai]

So. Pet peeve here. There is no real reason to spend the time air layering this.

I see this time and time again from people just starting out. I’m trying to get you to sidestep a time suck that is mostly useless.

The tree is a telephone pole with no interest. No taper. No real value in air layering other than you MIGHT get another tree — at the expense of your actual work to make a bonsai from the this broomstick of a tree. You will then have two boring uninteresting pieces to work on.

Fwiw there are no “free” trees here. Sure -you’re not spending money on another actual tree. But you are expending your and the tree’s time and resources for a mostly questionable or useless goal.

Bottom line is if the air layering if successful (and it’s not all that easy despite what you’ve read online) it will have no taper root flare or much of anything immediately worthwhile. It will mostly bore you if you keep it a few years after it soaks up your time and fertilizer and bench space. Been there done that threw a few trees like this out.

Now stepping off my soapbox and expecting garbage to be thrown at me.

Nah, no garbage need be thrown at you.

I'm a beginner and would rather someone be blunt, but respectful, both of which you were, then to be lead astray.

I appreciate the advice and can easily find other trees much cheaper to grow and work on.