[Before]
[After]
Alright, one year ago we styled this Maple.
We took off a good part of the trunk, almost half of the trunk was taken off.
And then we pruned branches, wired them, set them in position
and that was pretty much it.
The tree responded by explosive growth, so a lot of new shoots.
And then, as you could just have seen, in last summer
or late spring, beginning of summer, I did a bit of pruning
just to keep the tree a bit more compact.
The only thing that I did not prune are these branches
because these are extending from the new apex.
And this new apex still needs to thicken, needs to grow larger.
And the more growth here, the faster the new apex will grow thick.
It is fall right now, so all these leaves will come off in a week or maybe two weeks.
So what I will do, because I am working on it today
is take off all the leaves, so that I can see the tree, can see the branch-structure.
And then prune it again, wire it again.
Maybe work a little bit on the big wound of the last time
just to make it look more natural.
The only thing I will not be touching, is this apex.
This growth, these leaves, they will stay on. Because this section, I just want to maximize growth.
So first step, take off all the leaves and then we'll see what's next!
That really helped to get a good sense of the structure of the tree.
As you can see there's a lot of new shoots.
A few of these upward growing suckers, all these can be removed.
And most of the other shoots can at least be shortened.
And then we can start working on the big wound here.
I begin with pruning branches that emerge at the same point on the trunk
and keep only one branch per section.
If you are not sure what branches to prune
begin with reducing the length of all branches
and then start making decisions on which ones to keep, and which ones to prune.
Deciding on the design of a bonsai isn't always easy
especially when a tree is as full and overgrown as this plant.
Try to apply the pruning guidelines we just mentioned to your own trees.
And if you are interested to learn more about these techniques
consider enrolling in one of our online bonsai courses.
Here, expert teachers explain the relevant techniques
and you can ask them questions.
For a free lesson, go to: bonsaiempire.com/courses
The big wound right now is flat and looks very unnatural.
To expedite the process, and make the wound look a bit more natural
we make it a bit more concave shaped by biting away the wood with a knob cutter.
It is important to make sharp, straight cuts in the living tissue
to help the tree callus over the wounds.
As you can see, I pruned the tree.
These are the branches that we are building for the design of the tree.
These branches are still used to just take a lot of energy
to grow significantly, so that this new apex will grow thicker.
But here we are already building the ramification
so that this is starting to look a little bit better.
And what I just did is work a little bit on the wound.
The wound was a flat cut, made with a saw.
And now we use the knob cutter
to make it look a bit more shaped and a bit more hollowed
to bring it closer to the parts of the apex.
Last time we kept a little space, so that we were sure that this would be still growing strongly.
Now we can take away a little bit more.
The next step is wiring.
Bringing these branches down, giving a bit more shape to these branches as well.
And this will just continue to grow upwards.
And at the very end I will use some cutpaste to close this wound.
And that's it for today
Next we wire the main branches
ting with the lower branches and slowly working our way up to the apex.
Try to wire two branches with one piece of wire.
Between these two branches make sure to wrap the wire at least once around the trunk for stability.
We aim to apply the wire at an angle of 45 degrees.
The wire should be thick enough to hold the branch in the desired shape once we bend it.
A rule of thumb is to use a wire of about 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness of the branch you are wiring.
Alright, I have finished wiring
and like I said, the branches below already show some nice ramification.
These are branches that we want to keep, and keep developing.
And the apex just continues to grow, no wire used
just to maximize the growth here, so that this section will thicken up over time.
Once this is a little bit thicker, maybe in a year or so, maybe even two years
then this section will be removed and everything here will be gone.
There's two branches here that I also left
this helps in the healing of the big wound here.
The more growth, the faster the wound will callus over.
So these will also be removed eventually.
And there is one more branch that I will remove, the last branch.
Because it was growing, there were three branches emerging from pretty much the same spot
So I decided to remove this branch in the middle.
Alright, that's about all that I would do today.
So what about the aftercare?
It's fall right now, so during the winter I won't do anything.
And then in early spring I will start fertilization quite strongly
to really maximize growth.
And keep checking the wires, because the branches are growing quite quickly
and I don't want the wires to damage the branches.
Early spring might also be a good moment to place the tree in a large bonsai pot
which will look much better than this plastic pot.
And then in late spring, or probably early summer
I'll prune back the branches that are growing here again.
Still I will not be pruning anything here.
And then in the next fall, so a year from now
that might be the moment when I start pruning this away and start building the apex.
But for now, just focus on growth
keeping this tree very healthy and happy, and that's it!
Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel
so you can see the progress of this tree over time.
As a last step, I apply the cutpaste over the big wound.
This will protect it and help it callus over quicker.
[Before]
[After first styling]
[Before the second styling - One year later]
Learn how to create your own bonsai trees
by enrolling in one of our online bonsai courses.
We explain techniques like pruning, wiring and repotting
and you can ask questions to the teachers.
For the curriculums and free lessons, go to: bonsaiempire.com/courses