Bonsai

[edinatlanta]

**** pines. Sort of. It isn't that the work is terribly hard but what you have to do you have to do in a period of a couple days. There's pine calendars around see for yourself, Julian Adams has the best.

TBH, just let the plum grow for a year, go to your local club meetings, see what they do, learn a bunch. Books are useful to an extent, you'll know what people are doing but you really just have to work on trees, man.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

I expect the learning process to be similar to my other hands-on hobbies such as woodworking. Books and the internet can only take you so far to build a knowledge base, past that it is a combination of doing the work and using reference to exceed past sticking points.

 

[edinatlanta]

Yup. You will probably learn more from killing trees than growing them

 

[lefty]

Very true. In my case, the lesson was don't move across country and leave all your trees with someone who promises to follow the directions to the letter.

lefty

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

 

[edinatlanta]

so here's a project for you. The last tree is that a hornbeam? Cut off all the leaves. Seriously.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Yes it is, I plan to let it hang out until next spring before I do anything aggressive. I will defoliate next year.

 

[edinatlanta]

OK if you're going to do that you need to be very mindful of the growth because some of the foliage is so much bigger than the rest

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

So, my reason is that I do not know what schedule of maintenance they have been on, so I would like to be able to get them down pat before I do anything more dramatic.

Agree the leaves are quite large. I trimmed all of the limbs that were out to five nodes down to two nodes, additional ramifications should help reduce the leave size on future growth. I am going in the right direction or thinking incorrectly?

 

[edinatlanta]



So, my reason is that I do not know what schedule of maintenance they have been on, so I would like to be able to get them down pat before I do anything more dramatic.

Agree the leaves are quite large. I trimmed all of the limbs that were out to five nodes down to two nodes, additional ramifications should help reduce the leave size on future growth. I am going in the right direction or thinking incorrectly?

The good news is that in the summer, you can defoliate up to four times, maybe even more. Even up north you could defoliate late into August. We can defoliate from mid-april to late Sept. Basically as long as you aren't re-potting you will be OK for whatever you do to hawthorns now.

Keep teh growth to two, is a good thing. The ramification is really what you're getting with defoliation. The reduced leaf size is just a by-product of that (you want it, yes, but the main thing to focus on is ramification).

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Thanks Ed,

On that same thread, how far along into the season can I keep trimming back growth.

Also, going for a broom shape with this tree, long way to go.

 

[edinatlanta]

From what I can see, the broom style might not be the best. It works well as an informal upright, as it is now. You gotta work with what the tree gives you. You could prune into September. You just want to be able to give it time to heal before it goes dormant so it can strengthen up. You can't worry about what the tree looks like now. Think about 10 years from now.

 

[edinatlanta]

Also, sg, if you can, head to Rochester Sept. 13-14. The US National Bonsai show is taking place then, I'll be there.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Makes sense, I can work with that. The nursery I bought these from seems to work most often in the informal upright, so I will keep building out the foliage pads and trimming.

That is awesome, I will put it on the calendar.