Jrmcmich
Chumono
Looks like you made some good choices on air layers and now this base has cool potential!
Sean’s Japanese Maples
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SeanS
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I’d forgotten that this tree I posted last week was one of the layers. Also developing mature bark
SeanS
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Another funky little JM. It’s got some inverse taper down where the roots start so I’ll probably ground layer it next season.
Hack Yeah!
Omono
Nice, layer or maybe lean into it?
SeanS
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Fresh out of the ground, “metal plate” clump. After 2 seasons in the ground I can report that JMs don’t fuse and melt into one another as well as tridents. I’m hoping with time the roots will form a solid fused base, at which point I can reduce the number of trunks. Added a few more seedlings through some of the empty holes to fill in some gaps.
I’ll post a potted photo tomorrow.
Straight out of the grow bed
After root work and the addition of the extra seedlings
I’ll post a potted photo tomorrow.
Straight out of the grow bed
After root work and the addition of the extra seedlings
bwaynef
Masterpiece
I love when this thread gets updated. Thanks for sharing. I like seeing meager beginnings develop into something nice, and you've shown its possible several times in this thread.
SeanS
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Thanks for the kind words @bwaynef!
I knew early on that the low standards of locally available material (in South Africa) was at odds with my quickly developing high bonsai standards, so developing everything from scratch would be my only option (besides buying imported trees, but that was too costly). Luckily I quickly outgrew the “newbie instant bonsai” mindset and got into the groove of methodical, deliberate application of bonsai and plant growing techniques, which is starting to show the rewards in the short period of only 5.5 years.
SeanS
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Finally got this one ready for spring, only took 3 separate sessions over 4 weeks 
Life gets in the way sometimes
August 2020
Life gets in the way sometimes
August 2020
Last edited:
clem
Omono
Nice evolution in 5 years 
We don't see any trace (sequel) of past ligature, how do you know when it's time to remove the ligature before it marks?
We don't see any trace (sequel) of past ligature, how do you know when it's time to remove the ligature before it marks?
MMJNICE
Shohin
Just gotta say this is one of the best if not the best Japanese maple threads I've ever come across on b-nut you should be very proud of what you have accomplished. And know that you are definitely motivation for myself and others to achieve results like what you have done in well under 10 years, congratulations on a job well done so far.
badatusernames
Omono
One thing I've been curious about is how you get such tight internodes on your shohin.... and so many branchlets lower down the trunk. I seem to have bad luck with that!
clem
Omono
Yes, i don't see any scar/trace on the trunk of your tree, at the location of the old ligatures on the trunk (at most, discreet oblique gray lines where the ligatures were on the trunk).
What I find difficult is finding the right time to remove the ligatures so that they don't mark the bark and the position holds. Maybe you have a timing/method.
SeanS
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There definitely is some wire scarring on the tree, but over times it’s improved (mostly from cutting off the parts that have bad scarring).
I don’t have any special tricks to avoid wire bite, just the usual watching for the first signs of cutting-in and then removing the wire when I see it happening.
Having developed this tree from basically the beginning of my time practising bonsai if learnt the following 2 points:
• be diligent with watching for wire bite
• be diligent with cutting things off when you aren’t diligent with point 1 above
I’ve tried to save and salvage branches and parts of trunks where the wire bite is bad. It never turns out well and it’s almost always best to just cut those parts off and start over.
SeanS
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Dug up another ROR today from one of my grow beds. This was an air layer from January 2023. It’s spent 2 seasons in the ground and has thickened up nicely, the roots have started to fuse around the rock and are becoming a solid mass of root material in some places.
Bad quality screenshot from an instagram story of when it was separated on 19 January 2023
Bad quality screenshot from an instagram story of when it was separated on 19 January 2023
SeanS
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Dug another JM from one of my grow beds. This one has been in the ground for 3 seasons, screwed to a wooden board (which had disintegrated). Looking back at the photos of when I last saw the roots there were a lot more fine roots. My experience so far is ground growing JMs does not produce a good set of roots when you extract them. Sure they thicken fast but the roots are not great. Tridents on the other hand seem to produce a lot more usable fine roots even when in the ground.
Due to the less than stellar roots I added a bunch of root grafts, 16 in total. Holding thumbs they take and start this tree on the road to a great wide nebari.
The upper trunk (as it comes out of the thick lower trunk) and both primary branches are thread grafts from 2 seasons ago.
August 2022 when it went in the grow bed
As purchased in winter 2020, on the right. The one on the left is the bigger JM from a few post before. Both trees have produced loads of air layers, also all documents at various points in this thread.
Due to the less than stellar roots I added a bunch of root grafts, 16 in total. Holding thumbs they take and start this tree on the road to a great wide nebari.
The upper trunk (as it comes out of the thick lower trunk) and both primary branches are thread grafts from 2 seasons ago.
August 2022 when it went in the grow bed
As purchased in winter 2020, on the right. The one on the left is the bigger JM from a few post before. Both trees have produced loads of air layers, also all documents at various points in this thread.
snox
Sapling
With the young maples you have placed for roots did you scrape back the part attached to the main tree ? Have seen this done before but didn't know if you simply placed them where needed or scraped them back to help with attaching better in time
SeanS
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I cut grooves/channels into the main tree deep enough to receive the seedlings. I didn’t bother scraping the seedlings as the push pins are very firmly attached so they will have no option but to fuse with the main tree once it starts producing callous.
The trunk was too thick to thread graft any of the seedlings so all of them were approach grafts this time round. I’ve had decent success with both methods but still have had some failures with approach and thread root grafts
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
Is that a seed tray youre using there? In post #176
I'm looking for some shallow plastic trays, the seeds trays have the dimensions I want, but I dont find them strong enough usually.
Cool projects, all these are developing well. You definitely have an eye for design.
I'm looking for some shallow plastic trays, the seeds trays have the dimensions I want, but I dont find them strong enough usually.
Cool projects, all these are developing well. You definitely have an eye for design.
SeanS
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Yes exactly that. We have a few main plastic manufacturers here that all seem to make the exact same plastic pots and trays under different names but all the same size range. This one is 35x48cm. I’ve used them a few times for developing trees. They do need a wooden frame under them though to add some rigidity
