hats definitely not what you want in bonsai. Crossing branches are usually wired so it’s no longer crossing or pruned out of the design. This tree has a lot of crossing branches and lots of long leggy growth. The man we bought these trees from is or was very sick with cancer unfortunately. He sold off his collection. My good friend bought this tree and another just as big. The seller mentioned they had been left untouched for a couple years when we got them.. no winter protection at all, no pruning or watering.. just nature.. remarkably his entire collection survived all on its own.
Ha ha, that's what I figured. I'm sure you'll find something very cool to do with this tree! Good luck and I'll be following along so I can learn from watching your process.
Sorry for the delay.. here’s a bunch I just took. I’m seeing this tree as a pierneef style. I really don’t want to do any major chops to the tree. At least not at this time. You can tell how the tree was growing in one position without being rotated to provide equal lighting by the direction all the branches are growing. I was given this tree last fall 2024. I repotted it a few weeks ago when it got hot here but have not done any pruning at all. It is exactly how I received it. What do you think?
You ever run into any issues with defoliating Brazilian raintree? Thanks for the advice. I agree on the lower branches, they definitely aren’t doing any good but I may use one for deadwood branch if I decide to go the pierneef route, that’s the only reason I haven’t removed them both.
As I said I have done it in March since that time of year a lot of foliage has yellowed and fallen off (from lower light levels inside) and never had an issue with a healthy tree. New growth appears in a couple weeks, but better to do it in warm weather with better light outside to get shorter internodes and back budding. Just make sure to leave the petiole.. If you're worried about it just leave a leaf node or 2 on the branch and also when you cut back leave a 1/2 inch or so, not too close to a leave node, to allow for die back then you can cut the dead piece off later. It's time consuming cutting all those leaves on a big tree. I have 2 about 27 years old..(pots are about 24" wide) and a number of smaller ones, Love them. Never tried dead wood on one but I might just for fun. I'm always making new cuttings to play with.
I appreciate your time and input. I actually removed those bottom branches last night, they were really too low to be of any use. When I go to Uganda I see lots of trees naturally pierneef and a lot of the time they will have an old branch low down on the tree that has long died off. That’s kind of what I was thinking with the deadwood branches I mentioned. I studied my tree a lot last night and thinned out a few branches that couldn’t be wired or would not be of use. The more I look at it the more I’m starting to think air layering one of the two main trunks to make a single trunk.. if I didn’t I would still have to cut the branches back significantly either way.
