Alpineart's Blog

This is 1 of the J.Maples that were removed from my garden in Winter 2008 and potted up .They were naked chop top trunks with no branches .Original posted in Dec 2008 showing the start of the progression .Today i defoliated and removed unwanted branchlets and reduced the apex by 100mm .This trainer has been defoliated on average 4-5 times since ’08 .Whilst most people believe you can only defol’ once or twice at the maximum ,this is not correct .I have pushed Japanese Maples regularly 4-5 times per season , the timing is essentual . Six defol’s will definately kill the tree on most occasions . With so much energy going into the ramification the Chop scar will heal very slowly.I don’t used cut pastes on any trees however i did seal with Steri-prune ,  a bitumen based wound sealer .Cheers Alpineart

This is the monster i collected back in Sept’ 2009 previously post after collection .It was potted into a 400mm plastic pot then transfered into this 700mm x 500mm bonsai dish .This is its first season of actual training  .The Method of pinch and grow will be used on this tree , the others in my collection will be allowed to grow on and be trimmed back .I hope to somehow stimulate flowering using either method .Other regemes are in place and are varied to help determine if they will/which is the best , methods to use to aid flowering

This is well over due , layering my big Maple for the second year purchased for $15.95 on Ebay .Last year i set 12 layers on this tree , however a fungus attack killed all but 3 of the layers . This time around a  different approach to the set up using the ring bark method and adding wire to the section as per pines .I have also added the v cuts to increase the area to be layered and to guide the callous/ roots down towards the wire were they should spread away from the hardwood and sprout strong radial roots .When using wire set on an angle to suit the trunk movement a small “V”cut in the wood prevents it from slipping down ,  200mm pots and a mixture of 50% Spagnum moss 10% Quarts sharps and 40% Scoria  by volume . I have another garden tree which i will set approximately 2 dozen layers on then remove the trunk as a borer attack every year has taken its toll .With the section set the split pot is then attached and duct taped together, for added security a wire is used to hold the pot up whilst loading the mixture inside .A pot of this size weighs about 1.5 kgms wet so the wire will be left on . With the first layer set i move onto the other  remaining trunks .After 3 hours all 4 trunks were set and its off to the next tree . The trunks range from 60mm to 90mm so hopefully next season i will have some rather good large trainers to style .

Cheers Alpineart