Prunus Incisa "kojo no mai" ground layer

[Lilliput]

Hello good people of BonsaiNut.

I want to ground layer this Prunus at the point of inverse taper. The tree was bought during a fall sale last year, and I want to repot it into better soil this spring. Would attempting a ground layer at the same time be possible? Does anyone have any tips for the best way to go about it? Do I need to purchase rooting hormone to be successful? Also, should I wait until the flowers are about to burst, or wait for leaves to come? Seems to be a little different advice and practice on this, from what I have read.

Any advise or help would be much appreciated. Also any tips for styling. I bought another Prunus as well, that I will be planting in the ground to grow, as I want a big Prunus bonsai as well in the future.

Thanks in advance

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I don't recommend any layering and repotting at the same time if you want your layer to succeed fast.

In this soil, it should be fine for another decade or so. I would not repot; there's no reason if you are making new roots anyways. But rather scrape the bottom part of the soil and put that same soil back on top to bury the inverse taper part.
Organics are good for air layering. Instead of cutting a ring of bark off, I would instead girdle it with two zipties. Above those ties a bulge will form that will contain enough cells to produce roots from just a little wound induction or maybe even from moisture alone. It's a safer technique, albeit longer. Even if you switch techniques after a year, the ring-cut will be way more effective due to the bulge full of cells and nutrients being there.

Cherries without scars are rare, and you should be able to just carve the inverse taper off. That wound should heal in two or three years, or even faster in unrestricted conditions like a large pot and unchecked growth.

Good luck!

 

[Lilliput]

I don't recommend any layering and repotting at the same time if you want your layer to succeed fast.

In this soil, it should be fine for another decade or so. I would not repot; there's no reason if you are making new roots anyways. But rather scrape the bottom part of the soil and put that same soil back on top to bury the inverse taper part.
Organics are good for air layering. Instead of cutting a ring of bark off, I would instead girdle it with two zipties. Above those ties a bulge will form that will contain enough cells to produce roots from just a little wound induction or maybe even from moisture alone. It's a safer technique, albeit longer. Even if you switch techniques after a year, the ring-cut will be way more effective due to the bulge full of cells and nutrients being there.

Cherries without scars are rare, and you should be able to just carve the inverse taper off. That wound should heal in two or three years, or even faster in unrestricted conditions like a large pot and unchecked growth.

Good luck!

Thank you for your thorough answer. Since I would like to have my tree as big as possible, I will try and just shave of the inverse taper, like you said. If I don't like the result, I can always try a ground layer at a later time.

Thanks again, this was a great help!

 

[shinmai]

A couple of observations: broadly speaking, the various prunus species are more forgiven for such faults as inverse taper, straight sections, bar branches, etc. While it’s nice when they conform to traditional bonsai strictures, they are really valued for two things—gnarly, craggy trunks if you want to spend a small fortune for an aged Japanese import, and as a showcase for the flowers. I prune and wire mine in ways that will make the best flower display.

A pot that size is essentially the same as planting in the ground. I would fertilize heavily with a high nitrogen mix throughout April, May, and June, and then a diluted 5-5-5 until late summer. In my experience this works well to develop rapid trunk and primary branch mass. Not sure if it would be similar in your climate.

That tree has a LOT of potential. Best of luck to you.

 

[Lilliput]

A couple of observations: broadly speaking, the various prunus species are more forgiven for such faults as inverse taper, straight sections, bar branches, etc. While it’s nice when they conform to traditional bonsai strictures, they are really valued for two things—gnarly, craggy trunks if you want to spend a small fortune for an aged Japanese import, and as a showcase for the flowers. I prune and wire mine in ways that will make the best flower display.

A pot that size is essentially the same as planting in the ground. I would fertilize heavily with a high nitrogen mix throughout April, May, and June, and then a diluted 5-5-5 until late summer. In my experience this works well to develop rapid trunk and primary branch mass. Not sure if it would be similar in your climate.

That tree has a LOT of potential. Best of luck to you.

Thank you for the advice, I will try that and see how it goes in my climate.

Have been thinking about cutting the long, straight branch at the point of inverse taper, since I don't think it looks too good. But I also want to keep it, as I like the full look it gives the tree overall. Part of why I want to grow the tree big is because I want to enjoy as many flowers as possible in spring. So I liked your point of perhaps being able to ignore more typical flaws like straight sections on a Prunus.

I also think this tree has a lot of potential, so I wonder, if this was your tree, do you have any thoughts about what your first move would be?

P.s: the pot is full of roots and if nothing else I do want to give it a new pot this spring. Though, nothing too drastic in terms of root pruning as I don't know this species at all yet.

 

[shinmai]

Since you say the pot is full of roots, my first move would be to repot into a training pot. I don’t know what substrates you have available, but I use Aoki mix for all my non-azaleas. In my experience straight akadama breaks down too quickly.

As to the roots, fear not. I have found that not only do quinces tolerate root pruning well, they actually respond pretty positively. To give you an idea, the tree in the pictures I posted was acquired last summer. Because of our strange spring weather, I repotted it in mid-February when the leaf buds were starting to swell. It was in a similarly sized pot, but sitting four inches higher. The previous owner had kept it in the same pot for nine years. I removed four inches depth of encircling roots before I even went to work on removing old organic soil and trimming the remaining roots. You can see in the second photo how vigorous the tree is now, whereas it was looking pretty tired before.

It’s difficult to know from the picture, but I would probably remove the two slender branches below the place where the trunk divides, as well as any scraggly interior weak branches.` it looks like you’ll have lots of flower buds. If they have not yet begun to swell, you might think about doing some light pruning to encourage ramification, but it might be better to repot now, and save any significant pruning until next year. That gives the tree ample time to adjust to repotting, and gives you more time to think about your design.

 

[shinmai]

I realize I mentioned quince when your tree is a Fuji cherry. I neglected to include a sentence to state that in my experience cherries and other prunus species are very similar to quince in their durability and response to root work.

 

[AshleyMammal]

@Lilliput I’d love to hear your thoughts on where this is headed. Kojo no mai in my opinion suit a sinuous wispy movement. A typical quince like clump could also be a good call on this - ground layering where you suggested. My kojo no mai, backed by people I speak to, indicate that they’re surprisingly slow-growing. In my opinion i reckon you could easily get rid of that inverse taper (it doesn’t look bad from the photo) with a bit of delicate carving - I’m a fan of deadwood/hollows on deciduous trees and believe cherry suits it well