Very new to this….what should I do?

[Alexander24]

Mont Mare

Hi all,
I have recently been gifted this 28cm maple bonsai. I’m am unsure as to what to do first! Should I let it grow? Prune, or cut the trunk down considerably? I have no idea and YouTube has given me conflicting opinions. I’m keen to get a thick and shaped, twisted trunk.

Any opinions are helpful, thanks in advance!

hant Map

[TimIAm]

It would be really helpful if you could post a picture. Also, if you could update your profile to say where you are located. These will both be useful to give advice.

You can go to your profile page here memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=14623 and then there should be an edit link to add your location.

A common problem with gifted plants is that many of them are developing bonsai put into bonsai pots which make it tricky to water when you're just starting out and working out the best watering routine and can restrict growth due to limited space. We often develop trees with a long term goal of getting them into a tiny or beautiful looking pot but while we are waiting on them to grow we might put them into a suitable sized pot or even into the ground. Anyway, a pic will be helpful.

There's a lot to learn with bonsai because we push our trees to look a certain way or have them grow a certain way. Once you get past working out how to keep it happy and healthy, do a search for the same species and try and find a similar tree that will give you something to work towards. Then you can read some more and ask questions.

After you've posted a pic you can maybe ask more specific questions like:

- How can I thicken the trunk on this tree?
- How can I get a twist/bend/shape direction in the trunk?
- Should I chop this tree if I want to thicken up the trunk?
- When is the best time of the year to... for this tree?

[shibui]

I agree with Tim.
We need a bit more info to give considered and accurate answers.
One of the problems, especially for new bonsai growers, is that there's rarely just one way to bonsai. How to proceed depends what you want and even then there's usually 2 or more approaches that will lead to similar results.
First, lets see where your tree is now and what part of Australia (or the world?) you live. Both these will have some bearing on how to move on.

[Alexander24]

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Apologies legends! It seems that I thought I had posted pictures but it did not work correctly. I think I have fixed the issue. Any healthy and friendly advice I’ll take on board!
Very keen to give this hobby a solid crack over the long term and see if I can get some success and satisfaction from it.

I am based on the east coast, Newcastle, NSW if that helps.

Cheers!

[shibui]

Excellent. Now we have much more info to offer advice on.
You have a trident maple so a great choice to start out with as these are resilient and tougher than many other maples.
It is very young, probably 2-3 years but age is hard to estimate with potted trees.

As mentioned, there are many ways to approach bonsai. Much depends on what your vision for the future is.
It may be a little late to convert this tree into a really twisted tree as maple trunks tend to get hard and brittle quickly. Trying to bend this trunk with wire may give gentle bends but will require thick wire and runs the risk of snapping the trunk.
The best way of adding bends to a deciduous trunk is to chop the main trunk just above a branch which becomes the new trunk, thus adding a bend. Repeated grow and chop cycles add successive bends and also adds taper to the trunk.

Growth is the key to developing a thicker trunk so we often allow trees for bonsai to grow for a year or 2 without pruning to add trunk thickness. More growth = quicker thickening. Putting the tree into a larger pot will increase growth and trunk thickening. Planting in the ground will increase trunk thickening even more.
Unfortunately it is not quite as easy as it sounds and many fast grown trees just end up plain ugly. Do some research before committing trees to the garden. I would also advise starting several in the hope that at least one turns out better.
After the trunk has reached suitable proportions you need to start developing branches and a new apex for the tree.
Even a quickly developed bonsai is likely to take 5-10 years or more to achieve a good result.

Regular pruning small trees will produce better ramification (bushiness) at the expense of trunk thickness. We can achieve an attractive bushy little tree in 3-5 years but the trunk will still be relatively thin.

Both methods are legitimate. It depends what you want to achieve.

[Grant Bowie]

Shibui gives such well thought out , patient advice it is hard to go past or improve on. Put into practice, make you choices and keep us posted.

Cheers and congratulations,

Grant

[GavinG]

Maybe join a club, and ask people how they got from the beginning to the tree you see - if you can see the results of the process, and understand how they got there, it all makes sense.

Gavin

[Phil Rabl]

My contribution to the above advice is that to get a good structure of primary, secondary and tertiary branches (ramification) with a maple, you need to continually cut the new growth back - usually to the shortest available node (where a pair of leaves are growing). Leave a stub of half a cm or more so the dying back doesn't take out the dormant buds at the base of the leaves. A developing tree may look a bit bare after doing this, but you will quickly see the benefits. You may need to do trimming like this more than once a growing season, depending on the overall design you are aiming for.