Alpineart's Blog

This was my first big Bonsai at the start it was 550mm high with a 55mm trunk after 10 years of training and nurturing it is currently 850mm high with a a 120mm base , while it does look fantastic i have yet to stimulate good surface roots or “Nebari”. I have began to work on the root system to improve the radial surface roots by removing and peeling back numerous small sections of the bark , painting these areas with hormone gel and using a cut off split plastic pot or a terracotta split pot to raise the course, sharp mixture around the base of the tree. A small open wooden box will do they same job , i use whatever i can lay my hands on . You could remove the Bonsai from its pot and place it in a deep plastic pot , either way will produce the desired result. Due to the fact the soil level has been raised the top section will dry out before the pot so keeping a close eye on the top section is a must. The lower branch on the tree is only 5 years old grown from a shoot during development of the canopy , numerous shoots appeared in that year and i chose the best one to balance the tree . I allow the branch to grow on moreso than the rest of the branches to thicken and improve ramafication , however it is always in proportion to the rest of the canopy . Originally this tree was part of my landscaped yard until a motorcyclist being pursued by the law took a shortcut through my yard and struck the top of the tree snapping it off. At the time i was rather angry , however the young chap done me a favour as the root system on the tree would have managed to foul the drainage system on the house.

My old trident has been a pleasure to grow and style . Grown form a seed in 97′ i placed it in the ground for 5 years and left it as a feature tree untrained in any respect towards a bonsai . Whilst tending the garden in 02′ i noticed the masive radial root system and this was going to be a bloody big Bonsai . Well over 2.7m in height i decided to give it a shot at removing it . I recall taking about 4 hours to safely remove it , cutting most of the tree down to 600mm with full on agression and trimming the roots in the same fashion . I potted the tree and this was the start to a massive Trident . This pic was taken 2 monthes ago after defolinated and trimming the branches back to the first set of leaves on the new growth . It has been trimmed and trained for around 6 years , and after a visit from my Brother who inspired me to graft off the top and make a Raft Style , Formal Upright and of course my original plan a HUGE Sumo trident . The new flush of leaves complete i have decided to take Chris’s approach and graft the entire top off , the 2 outer forks will be the raft with a main tree and utilize the branches of the raft to create lesser trees , the center trunk will be an upright as the original and the base will in turn be the Sumo . The height of the Bonsai is 850mm x 650mm wide , the base of the trunk is 100mm with massive radial roots out to 350mm,however after the chop-top has been done i will attempt to layer a new rootball above but including at least 50%of the large radial roots . The angle between the raft and main tree will about 85 degrees a 30mm trunk and raft with the main tree being 400mm high . The Sumo Trident will have a trunk height of 250mm with a new base somewhere around 150mm