Japanese Maple rebuild

[TimS]

As is the way with growing deciduous, time passes without the impression of much really going on, so i often forget or don't put updating threads at the top of my list of things to do.

This old girl is going reasonably well, had some issues with leaf curling this year, not sure why but still seams healthy enough. Had one upper brach get snapped off when my garage door blew off its hinges and hit the tree but fortunately the only damage was that.

working on the apex of the tree as mentioned in the last post from august last year, put a few bends into the apex shoot it to give me some back branches and depth to work with, but a few more years yet before this tree is too much to write home about. Some autumn/ winter wiring will need to be done to bring a shoot back down into the negative space on the lower left side where a branch was removed by the previous owner.

Couple of quick photos

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[TimS]

A little early for repotting this one having not budded out yet, but the buds are swelling and i wanted to get in and have look at what was going on in the roots. If you've followed this from the start you'll know that i purchased it in extreme ill health due to a combination of a pot with virtually no drainage and a soil media heavy on coir that was retaining water badly and had turned effectively into a heinous clay type consistency.

So time to whip it out and take a geez.

Definitely could have gone another year without repotting, but having never once had an actual root prune from me since i picked it up i figured it was time to nose about and get a few things in order so it can grow happily for the next few years.

Working now mainly on rebuilding the apex which didn't take kindly to the wiring i had done on it, and has had a bit of die back up there, but hopefully not sufficient enough to be of any real concern going forward.

Still in the not great quality unknown maker blue pot, does the job of balancing ease of care taking in summer with not being too excessivly large for the tree as well.

Out of the pot and for the first time since i got it i'm seeing actual good root growth right the way round the tree hallelujah

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Here's a bit of a nebari shot to show the scale and size.

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Bit of a crap photo but there was this root growing over the top of the nice flat roots underneath that has bothered me since i got the tree. I had assumed it had already fused to the large root below and was just something i had to accept, but with a bit of careful cutting i was able to get it gone without creating a nightmare of scarring. The one above it is well and truely fused in, so i'll have a bit more of a think and see how this one recovers before i remove it and do a much larger scar. Bit of cut paste and away we go

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I'm just using Tien's mix here which is basically bark nuggets and a small grade gravel from what i can tell, with a handful of blood and bone and some slow release mixed through it. Just what i've got used to and have had decent results with and seems to retain enough moisture to make summer watering slightly less stressful than when i was using inorganics. My feeling on soil media is use whatever works for you and your trees.

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Back out on the benches and ready for (hopefully) a good next few years of growth. Still many years of rebuild left in this particular rebuild.

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[Trimmy]

How do you get the small internodes for ramification like the tree two back in the last photo? Or is that a species difference?

[TimS]

How do you get the small internodes for ramification like the tree two back in the last photo? Or is that a species difference?

It's a different species, Chinese Elm, much easier to get the fine ramification on Chinese Elm than Japanese Maple.

Two options for fine ramification on Japanese Maple
1. Find a plant that naturally has short internodes, or grow tonnes of seed to and then find those that genetically have small internodes
2. Keep on plugging away developing ramification across the tree, and as the energy gets spread out across the more and more ramification you slowly get shorter internodes, but they will never be like Chinese Elm

[TimS]

How do you get the small internodes for ramification like the tree two back in the last photo? Or is that a species difference?

This is another Japanese maple i have, one that naturally has very short internodes, small leaves and buds back freely on old wood. I discovered it at a bonsai nursery near me and while the tree was ugly i could see this little apex section on top and air layered it off and gave away the ugly base of it.

Very very easy to create fine ramification with this tree, and very very painful with the big rebuild tree just based from genetics

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[Trimmy]

How do you get the small internodes for ramification like the tree two back in the last photo? Or is that a species difference?

It's a different species, Chinese Elm, much easier to get the fine ramification on Chinese Elm than Japanese Maple.

Two options for fine ramification on Japanese Maple
1. Find a plant that naturally has short internodes, or grow tonnes of seed to and then find those that genetically have small internodes
2. Keep on plugging away developing ramification across the tree, and as the energy gets spread out across the more and more ramification you slowly get shorter internodes, but they will never be like Chinese Elm

Ahh I see. Great tree nonetheless. Can you prune it right back just before autumn so it has less energy to shoot out far, or will the internodes still be the same? Or starve it of water and sun? Or is that going too far?

[TimS]

How do you get the small internodes for ramification like the tree two back in the last photo? Or is that a species difference?

It's a different species, Chinese Elm, much easier to get the fine ramification on Chinese Elm than Japanese Maple.

Two options for fine ramification on Japanese Maple
1. Find a plant that naturally has short internodes, or grow tonnes of seed to and then find those that genetically have small internodes
2. Keep on plugging away developing ramification across the tree, and as the energy gets spread out across the more and more ramification you slowly get shorter internodes, but they will never be like Chinese Elm

Ahh I see. Great tree nonetheless. Can you prune it right back just before autumn so it has less energy to shoot out far, or will the internodes still be the same? Or starve it of water and sun? Or is that going too far?

This tree is resistant to all forms of attempted node length control so far I've reduced feed, tried keeping it drier, i tend not to do much cutting back in Autumn as i have had negative experiences with 'bleeding' where water just runs out of the wound site and weakens the tree when i have cut back in autumn.

So my method of node control on it is to pinch to 2 leaf pairs in Spring to control the initial first flush, then after the second flush in late Summer i cut back to finer interior branches at that time. Effectively doing an early Autumn cut back so as to avoid the bleeding. Meanwhile i keep feed up to it and just let it run it's energy out from first pinch through until the late summer cut back.

This way i have strong healthy buds back in the interior to cut back to, and the tree gets the return on the investment of an extended period of photosynthesis on the second flush to make up for the initial pinch. It isn't pretty when the 2nds flush shoots are 2-3 foot long, but i know the only bit i care about is going to be healthy and strong inside. With each cut back i divide it in 2 and the strenght next time is split and the nodes slowly reduce closer into the trunk

Keep in mind this is the only JM i have to do it this way on as its the only one i have that i struggle to control node length on due to the genetics of this particular tree.

[KIRKY]

For JM’s you need to ramify during the spring growth. As soon as the first two leaves are out you trim or pinch out the middle growth. That’s the only way to keep short internodes. And you have to do it pretty much daily as the shoots don’t all come out at the same time.
Cheers
Kirky

[TimS]

For JM’s you need to ramify during the spring growth. As soon as the first two leaves are out you trim or pinch out the middle growth. That’s the only way to keep short internodes. And you have to do it pretty much daily as the shoots don’t all come out at the same time.
Cheers
Kirky

Yep that's what i mean with the first pinch, miss it and i've lost control of the tree for the year basically. I'll be out every day checking for a few weeks from the moment i see buds first opening to the time i've pinched every single one (usually i miss a couple and i kick myself every time)

[Trimmy]

Thank you for the explanation. It does look vigorous. Must have been a trident maple in a past life.

[TimS]

This week i took this tree and a black pine i recently acquired to a 1 on 1 workshop with Scott Martin of Bonsai Matsu.

It has been on my mind more over the last 12 months that it really is time to make some big decisions about how to set this tree up for future greatness. With my own trees I tend to sit and look for years before finally actually making the decision that should have been made all along, so i bit the bullet and ponied up for some expert guidance.

No work was actually done on this tree (the black pine got a full restyle) which might seem mad after paying for a workshop, but a fantastic discussion was had that really gave me the confidence that I'm heading in the right direction with the tree and that i am right it is time for some big steps to be made now the tree is healthy.

First point of discussion what what the front of the tree actually is. For the few years that i've been fortunate to caretake this tree i have never actually had a front for this tree. There were flaws and problems and a massive gaping lack of branches one side that all added up to never committing to where the tree should be viewed from.

Scott quite quickly settled on the view with the lack of branches as the future front for the tree for several reasons:
A) It gave by far the best view of the nebari and really showed off the 'melting' look of the aged bark.
B) it hides the lowest primary branch that comes dead straight out of the trunk
C) There are few scars from this view though not none
D) There is a good opportunity for the new apex

Front decided on

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View of the aged nebari from this angle

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This is the void in the nebari, now to the rear. There are 3 established old roots on that side, though not sufficient to have the even flare occur on that side of the tree. I am reluctant to scar up the trunk doing grafts with young whips, if this were a 20 year old tree i would 100% do it, but i cannot bring myself to scar the bark anymore than i already have (next up why and how i did that!)

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In the post previous to this you saw me remove a crossing root on the nebari. This is one of those 'look at it for 3 years before doing what i always should have done' type decisions. It had not fused but it was very, very close to doing so. If i didn't remove it now i would be creating a massive scar across the nebari, so off it came. It has left a recess in the root, but i'd much prefer that to a massive scar across a root base that will be visible for the next 60 years. There is a small scar covered by the putty that is less than a 5 cent piece big, but i'm happy to trade that.

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Most of my photos i have previously posted of this tree have focused on the other side of the tree with the flat primary branch prominently on show, whereas that branch now with the new long-term front is now perfectly behind the trunk. This fits in with what I had been thinking for a long time, and Scott quickly agreed with, that the time has come (in fact was probably a good decade ago!) for the lowest primary branch to be removed.

To quote Macho Man Randy Savage "Wow! Man! Freak out!!" To consider removing a branch that would be in excess of 50 years old is hard to wrap your head around, hell it's been nothing more than an idea in my head, but logically it doesn't gel with the future of this tree. It's now very low on the trunk and almost perfectly flat which detracts from the overall aspect of a mature tree in nature. Rather than just hacking it off and wasting a piece of material with such age i of course will be doing an air layering so as to try not to just waste 50+ years of bark development. The added benefit being that since it is now perfectly heading to the back the scar on the trunk will not be visible, and in fact the first photo with the new front shows the effect of removing it perfectly!

The primary in question

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From here the next step is thread grafting. Again something i kind of knew and had accepted without ever committing to actually do it. Scott was kind enough to show me some of his thread grafting projects he has on the go to give me some ideas, as well as some phenomenal trees of course, and explain the process and the timing. The remaining old primary branches will be thread grafted next year, so for now it's pretty much the opposite of what i would normally be doing with an old maple and that is; feed the bejesus out of it and let the shoots run as long as possible for the rest of the season!

Here are a couple of examples of the primary branches that will be thread grafted next year to build taper back into them.

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Finally the apex and one of 2 main questions i had for him that prompted doing the workshop in the first place (the other being the potential removal of the lowest primary branch). It has a very stretched neck, and I was thinking I'd actually have to remove the entire top and regrow it from the next branch below. None the less I had done some basic guy wires of the stretched neck section to set up 3 shoots to begin the spreading apex were it to be kept even though i hadn't settled on a front at that stage. Scott and i ended up agreeing that I probably needed the length of the neck as the 'final' height for the tree should be even taller than it is now, so it stays.

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So future apex here. The red will be pulled/ wired/ directionally pruned to head to the right of screen which will give directional flow of the tree that way along with a slight angle change at repotting time in the same direction. The yellow arrow will be filled in in the general area there to possibly hide some of the neck. the rear branch to the left is for some depth.

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Also i will be doing a bit of wiring to start moving some of the younger shoots down more, I don't necessarily want them perfectly horizontal, but they don't need to be growing up at 45 degree angles either. So a bit of wiring to be done next.


Finally because i already uploaded it, here is a gratuitious photo of 60+ year old maple bark

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[Ryceman3]

Sounds like a very productive session with some great ideas conveyed/underlined to move this tree forward. With a tree of this age, obviously there is no rush but even so there is always benefit in assessing a tree, formulating a plan and implementing it. If your tree is not moving forward you’re probably not really getting a lot of satisfaction from it as it’s not reaching its potential, or at least working towards that. Good to settle on a plan and implement that with conviction. I look forward to the updates as it progresses. It takes guts, particularly on an older tree to sometimes bite the bullet. I think you’ll find it a rewarding journey mate.

[TimS]

I think you hit the nail on the head there that it can take a bit of a push or help with older trees to make big changes even just psychologically. You want to improve it, but its a long time to regrow something you regret removing too!

Certainly, it is easy just to accept something like the lowest primary branch remaining because of its age, but there is no doubt in my mind now after the workshop that the tree will be much better in the future without it.

Even though this tree is old, or at least old by Australian standards, it still grows strongly so it's best to take advantage of that now with the thread grafting than wait another 10 or 20 years when it does properly begin to slow down and struggle to get the results then. So though there is no rush necessarily, it cannot be just put off over and over again either.

I took on this tree knowing it was a 10+ year project as a minimum, and i'm thrilled with the progress made so far in 5ish given 2 years were just stopping it from heading to the great mulch pile in the sky. It will take more than 5 more years to get where the tree needs to go, but i'd rather be progressing it in a certain direction than just muddling it along. it deserves better than that

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Beautiful tree and love the detailed post.

May I please ask what factors into the decision of "the 'final' height for the tree should be even taller than it is now"?

I'm assuming: size of nebari, thickness of trunk, thickness of lower branches, but I'm not sure. Always keen to learn more about how design decisions are made - so I'm ready in 50-60 years time

[TimS]

Beautiful tree and love the detailed post.

May I please ask what factors into the decision of "the 'final' height for the tree should be even taller than it is now"?

I'm assuming: size of nebari, thickness of trunk, thickness of lower branches, but I'm not sure. Always keen to learn more about how design decisions are made - so I'm ready in 50-60 years time

You pretty much have it there with nebari and primary branch thickness, also a consideration height vs potential width ( the 'final' width if the branches is probably 3-5 inches wider than it is now and that wouldn't gel with a shorter tree) vs thickness if trunk to keep it balanced to appear as a mature tree in nature kind of how I have styled the Chinese elm to look like a miniature real tree

Further consideration is trying to avoid further scarring/ possible die back of the trunk at this stage