luvinthemountains Japanese Maple #3 (from stump)

[luvinthemountains]

I purchased this tree from John Chikasuye in November 2021, and have left it pretty much alone in the small wood box it came in until today, when I repotted it into a much larger box, about the same depth. I worked the roots very little.

This is the best view of the root flare:



Here is a shot of the chop scar, which has some time left before it will close:



And last photo, showing the big fat ugly root facing the camera. The root base is very poor on this side. I may graft cuttings here sometime done the road:



I have seen a photo by @Walter Pall of a big, broom-style JM that started from a stump chopped low like this one. I will be drawing on that tree for inspiration. Just need to track down that photo again!

 

[BobbyLane]

Looks more like Arthur jouras Acer rubrum. btw to see Walters maples you only have to google Walter pall maples and they all come up, some with links to this site!

American Bonsai at the NC Arboretum - Page 15

Thank you Brian for posting pictures from my visit with the Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society! Your group is as unique as the great old city for which it is na

ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com

 

[luvinthemountains]

@BobbyLane you were right! It was a cinch to find...

Japanese Maple #1 - update

Japanese Maple #1 - update We had a snow catastrophy last year. The greenhouse collapsed and hit off one third of the branches on the right. Now It looks like I can rescue the tree somehow.

www.bonsainut.com

In Walter's words, it was cut too high to be a multi-trunk and too low to be a broom. Many faults, but maybe I can make it a good tree.

 

[luvinthemountains]

@Shibui I just finished reading an informative thread - with several posts from you - about managing internode length when working on structure with maples. I still have a lot to learn, but that thread gave me a decent start or, as some might say, just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

As this tree is preparing for its spring push, it has created a number of buds around many of the internodes along the sub-trunks, and most of those buds are either too many or heading in the wrong direction, and would normally need to be removed. You can see that this same problem went unaddressed last year, when I was focused entirely on the tree's health.

But before I set to rubbing these buds off and trimming unruly shoots, I am wondering if I can bother you for your opinion. I think that maybe I need forget about that cleanup work for now, and plan instead on heavily reducing each of those sub-trunks down to within 1-2 nodes from the main trunk in late spring, with the purpose of rebuilding the structure to be denser and more pleasing in the future. My vision for the tree is a tall, well-ramified, naturalistic tree somewhat similar to the Walter Pall maple in the thread linked above. I want to be sure that I start out by getting the foundation right.

Can you help point me in the right direction? I would welcome anybody else offering input as well. Thanks!!!

 

[Hack Yeah!]

I think you'll want to go ahead and eliminate any buds or branches you know you won't need. Not your suggested plan but here looks like a reasonable single trunk design.

 

[luvinthemountains]

I think you'll want to go ahead and eliminate any buds or branches you know you won't need. Not your suggested plan but here looks like a reasonable single trunk design.

You're right, that was not what I had in mind, but hey not a bad idea! I will have to sit with the tree and see what it has to say about it. Thank you for taking the time to help me out!

 

[BobbyLane]

If you really want to emulate Walters one, I would keep all the trunks, even the long bare ones. Walters tree has long trunks with bare sections too but he has carefully arranged branches in the forground to fill in the bare bits behind them, so these sections appear much denser than they are. I guess this is where your grafting skills will come in handy.
Which side is going to be the front?
With guy wires you can now begin to get movement into the trunks.

 

[luvinthemountains]

If you really want to emulate Walters one, I would keep all the trunks, even the long bare ones. Walters tree has long trunks with bare sections too but he has carefully arranged branches in the forground to fill in the bare bits behind them, so these sections appear much denser than they are. I guess this is where your grafting skills will come in handy.
Which side is going to be the front?
With guy wires you can now begin to get movement into the trunks.

Good point on the potential future usefulness of grafting. I'm not so sure about those skills now, but I will be working with this tree for some time to come (I hope) so there is time to learn.

I envision the first image in post #1 being the front. Sure, the root base on the other sides will only improve with time, but so will that one and it already has a considerable head start!

 

[Hack Yeah!]

@luvinthemountains , I think it lends itself more to emulating Peter Chans maple than the one you selected by Walter. Of course with time anything is possible.

 

[BobbyLane]

I mean if it was mine, id begin to arrange the primary lines in their own spaces with no crossing branches. then step back, take a photo and look at the tree again and see when im at. The blue branch can be brought up into the space, its crossing over another branch at the min. Id snip at the red line, theres a bit too much going on in that area and its also crossing over into the middle branch.. plus snipping there gives that long straight trunk some taper right. the other crossing branches should be resolved with similar snipping and re positioning. Its the growing season now, making these adjustments now mean the trees sets within a few weeks.

 

[luvinthemountains]

@luvinthemountains , I think it lends itself more to emulating Peter Chans maple than the one you selected by Walter. Of course with time anything is possible.

Fair enough! I could certainly see it going that direction. Obviously, either result is something that I would be thrilled to come even close to. I did a quick sketch that lands somewhere in the middle. Am I going to share it here? No...but maybe later I can sketch something else that might be a little less embarrassing.

 

[BobbyLane]

That would be my front

 

[luvinthemountains]

crossing branches

I think you are on the right track there, and that is really the reason why I started looking at pruning back hard and starting over. I feel like too many of the sub-trunks are heading in similar directions and getting in each other's way. But to your point about utilizing guy wires, that may be a good alternative versus rebooting entirely.

 

[luvinthemountains]

That would be my front

You read my mind. That one definitely stands out as an alternative because of the more attractive arrangement of the sub-trunks. I just have difficulty getting past the obvious flaw in the root base. But again, many things can be cured with sufficient time, planning and effort.

 

[Shibui]

There's almost always a compromise between best roots, best trunk and best branching.
If you can manipulate those trunks to suit the better root side then do so, otherwise use the better trunk side and try grafting or otherwise stimulating some new roots to fill that side out better.

There's still some really straight sections with very long internodes on a couple of those trunks. I prefer to chop and regrow over grafting branches but we all have different preferences and abilities.

 

[BobbyLane]

@luvinthemountains , I think it lends itself more to emulating Peter Chans maple than the one you selected by Walter. Of course with time anything is possible.

View attachment 482005

Here's that one without leaves, its a really great tree. I also like the tree in the beginning he's working on, pretty similar but still raw

 

[Shibui]

That style is the natural habit for JM - Multiple upright sub-trunks that grow up and then outward to form the 'branch pads'
The standard horizontal bonsai branching is not even close to natural for JM

 

[Hartinez]

That would be my front

I love how this tree is looking! If only you had a slight bend, curve, or branch right here

 

[luvinthemountains]

Here's that one without leaves, its a really great tree.

Agreed, really great. The video is helpful, not just seeing the structure but also hearing about the background of how it became what it is now. Thanks for sharing!

 

[luvinthemountains]

If only you had a slight bend, curve, or branch right here

I agree. In fact, that is one of only 1-2 subtrunks that I now plan to cut back hard after first flush. The other is the one on the far right. But that one on the left for certain. It is too straight, and that internode too long.