My very big, very ugly, very problematic JM.

[Nybonsai12]

Looks great Brian! I find wooden boxes to be almost a magic bullet for developing maples. Moving forward my suggestion is to move it into a shallower wooden box and perhaps a bit wider on all sides.

Nice growing!

Thanks Serg. This is the second season in this box so it’s due for repot next year. In light of the other issues, at least the foliage is filling in.

Lol I’m not the only one that thought it looked like it was growing out of a pile of dog poop then! I act like the tree, it has character but that terrible shipping

believe it or not the dog poop is actually a dead section. It’s a turd alright!

 

[Mapleminx]

Thanks Serg. This is the second season in this box so it’s due for repot next year. In light of the other issues, at least the foliage is filling in.



believe it or not the dog poop is actually a dead section. It’s a turd alright!

I love the tree, it’s already come a long way since you freed it from the shipping nightmare.

 

[Nybonsai12]

more vibrant pic

 

[james]

Awesome color, and tree! Dig the girth, sweet movement. Agree with former suggestion, shallow wide wooden pot soon, branch development and you have a winner!!

 

[james]

Title of this thread deserves modification, maybe big, beautiful maple?

 

[sorce]

All of your other projects come along so well, I came to see what happens to "big, ugly, and problematic".

Maybe a longer timeline, but just as well progressed!

I really like the lean angles on the 2 visible parts of the trunk. They show taper well too. The future seems to be bringing a little more coverage of the top section of exposed trunk, that, and an equally well exposed part further up, is going to be proportionally perfect as far as exposed sections going up.

Looking good.

@MACH5 ...Babs Jr!

Sorce

 

[ATM]

Any new updates?

 

[Nybonsai12]

Any new updates?

Not Much to report. I repotted this spring, back into same box but a little lower, recut some calluses to help keep the wounds healing. Letting it grow unrestricted for the most part with an occasional snip of the long shoot that sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[Deleted member 32750]

The fall color from your November picture is great!

How is that big scar? Is it starting to heal over?

Also, Does anyone know if the Growing Grounds is still operational? I tried to reach out via email earlier this spring via the email listed on the website, and my email never went through as if the email address was no longer functioning. I also noticed that all the pictures were taken off the website

 

[Veebs]

This will work into a pretty nice bonsai, as the wounds heal and you get rid of those extremely messed up roots. A GROUND LAYER is a lot easier than an air layer to do. Basically, you wound the tree juust above the current mess of swollen tangled roots. The cuts can be extensive, like is done with an air layer, or less so, with smaller "windows" of bark and cambium removed laterally around the trunk. Then you just backfill the pot with a few inches of soil and keep moist. Ideally, the new roots will push into the new soil.

To accelerate this, you can repot the tree, removing some of the existing roots, then do the ground layer treatment before potting back up, ensuring the ground layer is below the soil on repot. The removal of the lower roots will probably accelerate the new roots from the ground layer...

If you're hesitant, seek help, in person, from someone that has done this--seeing it done makes the process less stressful for you.

I’m about to ground layer a Hinoki to get it off its graft bulge. I just heard about the “windows” concept earlier today and went searching for anything more on it. Trying to determine when this is best versus a full girdle.