Sapling Division: Dragonmaster's Sweetgum forest

[Dragon60]

A few years ago I dug up a small Sweetgum sapling that I thought was a maple (I recently realized that it was a Sweetgum). Where I collected it from there was a mature Sweetgum tree nearby but there were also maple trees in the area. It needed to be chopped so about a year and a half ago I cut the top off and planted it in the pot. It had three branches but one died. Now those two branches are becoming 2 trunks to form a double trunk tree. Meanwhile the chopped tree trunk grew five branches. I have cut off two and planted them in the pot to see if they grow roots. If they don't I will be doing more cuttings in the spring. The other three branches will hopefully grow into trunks. One has a branch very low that I'm leaving as a sacrificial to help thicken the trunk. I should end up with at least 5 to 7 trees - one with a double trunk and one triple (not bad considering it was one small tree about a foot high to begin with). Some of the leaves may be starting to die, but some buds also look like they are about to push out new leaves. At any rate it will probably be dormant by the end of December. I don't know a lot about Sweetgum but I guess I'll find out.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice. Sweetgum make very nice bonsai, though usually the better sweetgum bonsai are larger trees, at least 2 feet tall. The best I've seen have all been about 3 feet tall with 4 inch or more diameter trunks. The way to get a large caliper trunk, like 4 inches is to let your tree grow without pruning. You may have to let it get upwards of 12 feet or more tall to get the 4 inch diameter trunk. Then you will need to chop this 12 foot tall tree to roughly 4 to 8 inches tall. The back buds that sprout will then give you the next segment of trunk.

Forest can be done with smaller diameter trees. They do not have to be perfect stand alone trees.

Next spring, if these were mine, I would repot, to see what has roots and what does not. I would pot up separate pots, with combinations of 1 trunk, 2 trunk and 3 trunk groups. In these separate pots, the groups should be very tight together, so roots are permanently intertwined. Then, in a couple years, when you compose your forest, you will be able to have nice variation in distances between trunks, a few right against each other, and some that will be more widely spaced apart. If the spacing of the trees of a forest is too uniform, it makes it look like a pulp plantation, uniform rows of trees planted for pulp wood.

You might want to dig up more sweetgum seedlings, in order to get variation in autumn leaf color. Hopefully you are far enough north, or inland in Florida that you get autumn color out of your sweetgum. If it just goes from green to brown, without the brilliant pallet of color we get up north from sweetgum, if all you get is green to brown, they are not worth the effort to grow. Their principal "best trait" is their fabulous autumn color that develops in zone 7, 6 & 5. Hopefully you get good color there, otherwise, dump these and get some trident maples for autumn color in Florida.

 

[Dragon60]

Nice. Sweetgum make very nice bonsai, though usually the better sweetgum bonsai are larger trees, at least 2 feet tall. The best I've seen have all been about 3 feet tall with 4 inch or more diameter trunks. The way to get a large caliper trunk, like 4 inches is to let your tree grow without pruning. You may have to let it get upwards of 12 feet or more tall to get the 4 inch diameter trunk. Then you will need to chop this 12 foot tall tree to roughly 4 to 8 inches tall. The back buds that sprout will then give you the next segment of trunk.

Forest can be done with smaller diameter trees. They do not have to be perfect stand alone trees.

Next spring, if these were mine, I would repot, to see what has roots and what does not. I would pot up separate pots, with combinations of 1 trunk, 2 trunk and 3 trunk groups. In these separate pots, the groups should be very tight together, so roots are permanently intertwined. Then, in a couple years, when you compose your forest, you will be able to have nice variation in distances between trunks, a few right against each other, and some that will be more widely spaced apart. If the spacing of the trees of a forest is too uniform, it makes it look like a pulp plantation, uniform rows of trees planted for pulp wood.

You might want to dig up more sweetgum seedlings, in order to get variation in autumn leaf color. Hopefully you are far enough north, or inland in Florida that you get autumn color out of your sweetgum. If it just goes from green to brown, without the brilliant pallet of color we get up north from sweetgum, if all you get is green to brown, they are not worth the effort to grow. Their principal "best trait" is their fabulous autumn color that develops in zone 7, 6 & 5. Hopefully you get good color there, otherwise, dump these and get some trident maples for autumn color in Florida.

Thank you for this excellent advice. I will pot them into the separate pots and try to add more trees. I don't recall that they do get a good color change, but if I can get great ramification over time that looks nice while dormant I will still be happy. I do have one trident maple from an air layering which has so far been successful. I'll probably try more and perhaps make a trident forest as well.

 

[Dragon60]

Well a couple leaves have turned color - one red-ish and one yellow. The others have a lot of brown but some may yet change as well.

 

[Dragon60]

My original cuttings didn't take. And my second try didn't either. My Sweetgum clump grew more branches and I noticed some buds were starting to swell and turn green so I took more cuttings and hopefully they will grow. I like the way the clump is growing and will keep it as a separate tree. If even half of these cuttings take I will eventually be able to start my forest!And this Sweetgum will also be part of the forest.

 

[Dragon60]

I decided to go ahead and chop one of the trunks of the clump and add that part to the cuttings. Also chopped the other tree. That would give me thicker trunks than the other cuttings - if they live of course.

 

[MMJNICE]

I decided to go ahead and chop one of the trunks of the clump and add that part to the cuttings. Also chopped the other tree. That would give me thicker trunks than the other cuttings - if they live of course.View attachment 469185View attachment 469186

Oh wow you really took that back to a make or break point.. well being sweetgum they can definitely take all the beating anyone can throw at them.. well at least my sweetgum did.. it was marked for death 2 years in a row and still lived until I decided to make it into a bonsai. It was growing between the planter box and the driveway ,,, i cut it back as far as I could without removing the planter box two years in a row and kept kickin.. turned out to be one of my favorite bonsai subjects this year after wiring it up. Me trying to kill it two or three years in a row effectively thickened the trunk and gave movements to it.. anyway good luck with your project gotta

 

[Dragon60]

And this one is coming to life!

 

[Dragon60]

And here it is now.