Japanese Maple Trunk Chop & Styling?

[adamjcode]

Hi All,

This is my first post on this forum, but I've been reading for awhile. I originally got into bonsai back in 1998, but only recently got back into the hobby because now I live in a city apartment with a nice outdoor deck.

I purchased this Japanese Maple "Shishi Yatsubusa" from a local nursery this summer with the plans to cut it back drastically and repot into an Anderson flat this upcoming winter Feb/Mar 2015.

I'm having some difficulty figuring out exactly where to do the trunk chop. It may be tough to tell in the pictures, but tree is currently about 6 feet tall, the trunk is about 3-4 inches thick with a 6 inch wide nebari, and the first 3 branches are all quite old and about 1 inch thick. I'm thinking about chopping the trunk where I've indicated in the last photo, but I'm worried I won't get interesting taper or movement that way. Also, I don't think I'll be pleased with the thick first 3 branches and lack of taper.

I'm curious how you might handle the trunk chop and taper of the branches?

Also, I will need to layer some better roots eventually.

I've looked through many threads, but have yet to come across any Japanese maple projects like this one.

Adam

 

[vaibatron]

Adam it seems at though you could do multiple air layers giving you many different subjects to work on...

 

[vaibatron]

How far up the trunk is the first branch?

 

[adamjcode]

How far up the trunk is the first branch?

The first branch (on the lower right in the 2nd picture and 5th picture) is about 10 inches from the current soil line.

 

[Vin]

I wouldn't get to caught up in styling yet. It's obviously going to be an upright of some sort. Maybe this thread will help with chopping but you'll need to wait a bit if you decide to do it: http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?14033-Bloodgood-Question/page2&highlight=Japanese+Maple

 

[barrosinc]

http://bonsaial.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/maple-trunk-chopping/ that might help

 

[adamjcode]

http://bonsaial.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/maple-trunk-chopping/ that might help

Thanks for the link Max! Also thanks of course to Al (a.k.a. Smoke) for the blog post. Very good timing for me - I see it was posted the day before yesterday.

I'm now leaning toward making the chop directly above the first branch and hoping for some nice back budding below and around the trunk to start a new leader. I will definitely use some good cut paste to try to avoid branch/trunk die back around the wound. I will also remove about 2/3 of the total root mass at that time, and get it into an Anderson flat with akadama, pumice and lava in equal amounts.

I'm in Chicago (Zone 5b) and will plan to do this in late February or the first week of March. Does anyone have experience doing drastic pruning to Japanese Maples during that time in the area? I understand that JMs are not quite as resilient as Tridents, and also aren't quite as prolific, but I'm willing to take some risks.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks!