This was the garden tree used as one of my first bonsai .It was cut down several months ago and allowed to sprout .With a keen eye i watch a mini trunk sprout so i thought i would take a look at this one .It had also began to shoot , so with the help of my Wife i decided to carve the stubs back to improve the movement and taper .Moving around an carrying tools on crutches is like getting a 3 legged horse to win the derby . Karen even set up a camper bed for me to work off .Originally i was going to carve them out and hollow them for features .A close look at the growth and the stubs revealed he bark had already began to heal over , so i decided to carve them into a convex shape to blend in with the trunk once the bark has covered them . With over 60 shoots present , i removed the unwanted ones and began to carve the old stubs off .Using an100mm Angle grinder with 3 tungsten blades attached make for a very good powerful carver .Working my way around the trunk i blended the carved sections in so as to follow the movement of the trunk rather than fight against it .I have reduced the apex by around 100mm to a new shoot leader growing in the opposite direction to continue the flowing movement all the way to the apex .Several weeks ago i severed the 4-5 main stay roots to help with the feeder roots closer to the trunk . They will be shorten again in a month or two in preparation for digging out of the garden ..In the mean time it will grow on under a watch full eye to keep the shoots where they are best suited .With the job done its onto the next trunk .

 

Cheers Alpineart

« »