Picea glauca styling

[Leo in N E Illinois]

If it were mine.

My first priority would be getting it out of the nursery pot and into a shallow growing out tray, I use Anderson flats. It always takes a lot of root work to get them into a tray, so I never take anything off of the top.

After the tree recovers, usually one or two years later, then I begin pruning the top. Yes, this is the slow road, but I have not lost any of my nursery spruces purchased in the last 10 years.

 

[Krone]

Not sure if i can get the Anderson flats in EU shops. But i would assume that the main point here is the shape of the pot? Low and flat?

 

[Vance Wood]

Not sure if i can get the Anderson flats in EU shops. But i would assume that the main point here is the shape of the pot? Low and flat?

Is there any reason you cannot build your own with a bit of lumber, a screw gun, some screws, and some screen?
Sometimes going somewhere in bonsai starts with the willingness to do things on your own.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Anderson flats are 16 x 16 x 5 inches deep, roughly 41 x 41 x 12.7 cm. The bottom of the flat is mesh, for maximum drainage. They are made from a heavy UV resistant black polyethylene, so they are durable, will last 10 to 20 years in the sun before becoming brittle.

You can make similar shaped flats from wood and galvanized mesh screen. Or any of several alternate materials. Actually specific shape is not important. Just a wider, more shallow container. It can hold as much or more media as the current pot, you want to continue to encourage growth.

 

[sorce]

I would assume that this kind of branch counts as a strong one?

Also, can i sut/shorten it above any of the two buds or it's safer to wait for buds to grow a bit?

View attachment 280372

I want to talk to you about that tip.

I'm just going to type my entire thought process.

"Wow, that's a lot of buds, why are they brown, those needles look messed up, maybe the top is damaged and that's why there are so many brown, tip looking buds.
Perhaps it's the "super green" cultivar, (Google search to no avail except it's dense) ok "dense" makes sense for the buds but have him check the tip for a hole anyway, please possible Pest, maybe mites. And explain, without hurting anyone's feelings, that we don't know enough about that tip yet to make any pruning decisions. We'll know after you tell us about that tip. But then, we still have absolutely no good hort or design reason to cut back to anything in that picture. Except maybe, learning what it will do if we cut it. But any other reason is foolish. That branch should be cut (no time soon) to 2 buds way way closer to the trunk than this. Or left as a fully operating sacrifice."

Further....

The tree looks healthy.

While it may be tempting to style the whole length of this trunk, it is possible to chop it back and add movement and taper in a long term game if you chose.
The sooner that choice the better.

Looks like you have a couple good branches within the first foot to use for a new lead.

We only get this one chance to allocate this energy.

Think think think.

Time to order a new prescription for the Future Vision Goggles and have a sit and stare.

Some people love a rainy night.
I love a healthy Spruce.

Sorce

 

[Krone]

Thanks for all the tips guys. Really helpful.

Is there any reason you cannot build your own with a bit of lumber, a screw gun, some screws, and some screen?
Sometimes going somewhere in bonsai starts with the willingness to do things on your own.

I am planning to build my own 'pots'. That is why i have been asking if the main goal is to have wide and shallow type of box/pot.
I actually like to build stuff myself if possible and if time allows.

 

[Marty626]

What’s up guys new to the site and pretty new to the art of bonsai I got this dwarf Alberta spruce from Lowe’s for $5 About a week ago and decided to do a repot this afternoon since from my understanding I should be on the safe side since there’s new growth and swelling buds right? If anyone can confirm this for me please that would be helpful, if I understood wrong then whoops atleast it didn’t break the bank, been about 6 years since I’ve attempted a repot, this time I hope I dove into it with all the correct information thanks in advance. I hope I uploaded the picture correctly

 

[Vance Wood]

These trees are difficult because they have so much growth. You need to open the tree up carefully so that you can see the trunk but on an Alberta that can be a difficult problem if you don't know what you are doing. I would suggest you go to Youtube and research videos from Ryan Neil, Bojorn Bojorholm, You will get an idea if you are patient.

 

[Marty626]

These trees are difficult because they have so much growth. You need to open the tree up carefully so that you can see the trunk but on an Alberta that can be a difficult problem if you don't know what you are doing. I would suggest you go to Youtube and research videos from Ryan Neil, Bojorn Bojorholm, You will get an idea if you are patient.

thank you for the reply and information, I’ve been collecting most of my information from Ryan Neil videos for the past few really dope stuff from him but I’ll check out the other videos thank you, also I was planning on letting it grow since I just did the repot yesterday maybe just thinning out a bit to let the sun in? I don’t wanna mess with it too much right now ima let it rest

 

[B.uneasy]

Do you think this would be very hard to accomplish? The artist did all this work and prayed it would work, and it did! Do you think most dwarf alberta spruce trees would die from this type of work? It is so beautiful. If you were doing a project like this, what steps and how long would you take to spread all of the work out to give the tree a nice chance of further life. Also after taking wires off alberta spruce, will the branches stay down or do they slowly rise up?

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Peter Chan just posted a video on his YouTube channel on working with these.

 

[B.uneasy]

Peter Chan just posted a video on his YouTube channel on working with these.

I have watched!

 

[canoeguide]

From what I understand, DAS take a long time to set wired branches. Branches may need to be wired/rewired for 3 years to get them to stay where you want them.