Nice curves, frankenfoot.

[Nybonsai12]

Japanese maple, I like the movement in this little guy, 7.5 inches tall from soil. The nebari needs fixing. What's my best bet? Would it be better to try and graft a seedling to later remove at the base? Or try and remove some bark near the base, hit it with hormone and sphagnum?

 

[bumblebee]

What is he?

 

[Nybonsai12]

Sorry j. Maple.

 

[MACH5]

NY you can try removing the bark and apply root hormone. By no means a sure thing but worth a try. You can always resort to grafting or worst case air layer.

 

[sorce]

I really like where this one is headed.

Has it evere been out of the pot?
Looks like it still has a taproot.

I tried cutting and sphagging an elm. It just rotted.
I think they need a better reason to throw roots.

Its still young, I would layer it.

Killer start!

Sorce

 

[Nybonsai12]

I've never had it out of the pot. I will repot in spring at which time I will try do something to straighten out the base.

 

[Dav4]

I like this tree. Honestly, at least in the pics, the roots don't look so bad, and almost compliment the curve and movement of the tree. If the tree was planted a bit lower, they'd look better, I'd think. Personally, I'd re-pot this one while cutting back the roots hard and see what happens. Burying the existing rootage and placing rooting hormone and sphagnum moss up against the bare portions of the base might help. Good luck.

 

[Nybonsai12]

Approaching repot time and my attempt to get some roots to grow. As you can see from the pic, I can get the skewer underneath. As stated above, I will try to scrape some bark and apply some hormone. Looking for some feed back, the areas circled in red are where i was intending on making cuts/slits applying hormone and filling with sphagnum. The whole tree will be bare rooted prior to this and roots reduced prior to going in a colander.

Since I will be bare rooting, cutting back the roots, how much is necessary to remove from the top? If any? This will be a small tree and i've indicated in pic two what i thought of removing/light wiring. Wasn't sure if i was getting ahead of myself with the pruning/wiring/design portion and looking for some input. Thanks all.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

You won't know if those roots are keepers or cutters until you get all the soil off. Try to find a series of roots that emerge radially on the same plane. They might be lower than the exposed pair...in which case, you'll remove the exposed pair, and develop the more radial series below.

I tend to get brutal in this selection process...and the tree makes it and develops a nice nebari, or it doesn't and I have one less tree to water. The less I care, the better they seem to do.

 

[Nybonsai12]

I think i follow you, but from what I have seen, there is no more "trunk" underneath that chopstick to have additional sections of roots emerging radially.
It just splits into the three roots you see at the soil line sitting up like a tripod. Waste of time to try and grow roots from those spots in red? Try a layer just above them to correct?
Time to develop not a concern. It's 1 of 3 or 4 of my J. Maples so i'll try to make the most of it until i get better ones added to my collection.

 

[Nybonsai12]

unless you are referring to roots that may be emerging from the largest portion of trunk going into the soil on the far left?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

It's a game-time decision...get it bare-rooted and then refer back to my post above.
Here's what I do, and here's what I get.

 

[Giga]

You won't know if those roots are keepers or cutters until you get all the soil off. Try to find a series of roots that emerge radially on the same plane. They might be lower than the exposed pair...in which case, you'll remove the exposed pair, and develop the more radial series below.

I tend to get brutal in this selection process...and the tree makes it and develops a nice nebari, or it doesn't and I have one less tree to water. The less I care, the better they seem to do.

Lol that's pretty funny, I just did a large j maple and cut pretty aggressively as well

 

[Nybonsai12]

Ok I think i understand better now, thanks for the additional pics BVF!

 

[sorce]

If you're not concerned with time to develope, I'd give it a full ringbarking and MAKE it root.

A couple cuts are more prone to heal or rot than grow roots, especially if the ones present are strong (which they seem).

I wouldn't waste a season with attempts of futility. You and the tree deserve better.

If the big "tap" root really gets thinner as it goes down(Looks like it), you are not going to uncover any better flare.

I wouldn't even repot it, throw a Radialdisc ™, (I got the rights back), over the soil, and put a cut colander around the top of the pot.

http://bonsainut.com/index.php?posts/248992/

Just my .35cents.

Sorce

 

[Nybonsai12]

So in attempting to follow BVF's advice here is what I ended up with. Develop bottom first, worry about top later. Hope I followed it all correctly!

I got it bare-rooted. checked out where i had a set of roots emerging radially at the same level to work with. I was worried there would be anything on the same plane.
Sure enough as BVF said there would be, there were radial roots down further below the soil surface. I removed all unnecessary rootage, spread the roots radially and wired the tree to the pot. These pics are from a few weeks ago. I'll get a newer pic once this rain stops but it appears to have responded well and is leafing out. Now to let this sucker grow and get that spread at the base moving.

Any thoughts, comments, advice are appreciated.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

There you go! Water daily ad keep it or of the wind until the new roots really get moving...4-6 weeks. You'll be very happy when you repot it next. Good job.

 

[Nybonsai12]

So two years later with this one. I love the movement on this trunk. It just needs to be larger. So in the ground on a tile it goes. Radial roots are looking pretty good and heading things in the right direction. Thanks @Brian Van Fleet

 

[Nybonsai12]

Outside assessing things today before I completely forget about them for the winter. Still growing this one. It’s slowly getting some size. I really need to dig it, check in on the roots and chop down in the spring to a new leader. Bonsai takes time.

 

[Nybonsai12]

Dig day. Would you believe the thing grew another high root just like it had in the beginning? I chopped it off, rest of nebari below looks pretty good radially. removed lots of crossing roots, not all of them to play it safe. chopped the top and into a pot it goes Sitting pretty flat after all these years on a tile in the ground. hoping buds pop in convenient places.