Styling Advice

[EastsideBonsaidude]

Under sone sound advice, I cut my Fig in half as the style was all wrong. I had allowed the plant to grow to tall without any lower branches which, apparently was all wrong haha.

Now what;

To my surprise I didnt kill it and now am seeing some great growth and Im a little unsure what to do now. Do I simply let it go wild for a few years and let it do its thing OR should I be trying to identify the new shoots that I want to keep and remove the rest?


Thanks in advance.

Mark

[KIRKY]

Its really a case of what you are wanting to achieve. If you are appy with the thickness of the trunk then you can start to choose the growth you want to keep and start to ramify/cutting back to one or two buds once stems have hardened. By shortening the growth will encourage the tree to push more shoots be it branches or more shoots on the trunk. If however you want more thickness on the trunk then let it grow freely. However you still need to shorten the strong growth to encourage it to push more buds.
I noticed you have a lot of one sided growth, ensure you turn your trees regularly. In your case you should turn the bare side towards the sun to encourage buds.
Cheers
Kirky

[Max]

When turning trees, should that be a 1/4 turn, 1/2 turn and what periods between turns? weekly, monthly?

[EastsideBonsaidude]

I noticed you have a lot of one sided growth, ensure you turn your trees regularly. In your case you should turn the bare side towards the sun to encourage buds.

Yeah I noticed that too and was unsure why this was happening - ill turn the bare side towards the sun and see if that helps.

Ideally I would like the tree to be a little bigger - another 15 to 20 cm. In this case I guess i should select a leader and begin shaping it in the direction required.

Are you also suggesting I should remove all the unwanted new growth and leave behind only the ones that could potentially turn into something of value?

Cheers

Mark

[KIRKY]

When you say you want it another 15-20 cm is this in the height of the tree or girth of the trunk?
If girth leave all the branches. If height, select a leader and start selecting branches you want to keep removing others.
The ones you decide to keep once hardened off cut back to one to two buds to start your ramification. Also this is a Ficus start feeding to push the growth for more buds liquid feed are a good way to kick start your feeding regime.
Cheers
Kirky

[EastsideBonsaidude]

Thanks Kirky....

Yeah I want the tree to be a little bit taller so ill do as mentioned - Select a leader and other branches and discard the rest.

Ill have to get a good liquid fertiliser this week and start feeding my plants.

Thanks again to all your help guys.

Mark

[shibui]

Good advice from Kirky but I will add: don't try to grow new leader and branches to the full length in one season. There will be no taper or ramification. This advice

once hardened off cut back to one to two buds to start your ramification

is important. Grow and cut is the best development technique in this case.

When turning trees, should that be a 1/4 turn, 1/2 turn and what periods between turns? weekly, monthly?

I don't think there is any set rule for this but 1/2 turn seems to give all sides enough sun to stay healthy I aim to turn my trees at least once a week (but don't always achieve that ) I think monthly is better than never but probably still too long. Large bonsai can be difficult to turn and you'll probably find yourself coming up with excuses not to do it Some sort of turntable under the pot makes it easy and the trees may actually get turned more regularly Lazy Susan bearings and cake decorating turntables have been utilised by Ausbonsai members and there have been posts here explaining how, what and where.

[EastsideBonsaidude]

There will be no taper or ramification.

Thanks for the info. I have already noticed that the leaves are already really out of proportion and I wondered how to get them smaller.

I have to be honest, the few things I seem to struggle with is understanding how to achieve smaller leaves - through pruning - and how to prune to achieve a particular look.

Ahh all in good time. Plenty of good books and posts on here that I can read.

Thanks Again.

Mark

[dansai]

This tree is very much in early development. First you have to build your branches as has been noted above. It may take 2 to 5 years depending on what you want to achieve and how well you can grow the tree. As the branches develop you should get more and more smaller branches and the leaves will start getting smaller. At this stage there is no need to worry about there size. When you are happy with the branch development there is techniques to further reduce leaves.

At this stage I would only remove excess shoots where more than one is coming from the same spot and just leave the one with the best angle to the trunk. Leave everything else. Even if you think you don't want it, leave it. It can always come off later. This will help develop the trunk more, provide you with more options, and diffuse the growth so that you don't just get 2 or 3 long strong shoots.

[EastsideBonsaidude]

Update,

My goodness this little guy grows quickly. Last weekend I decided to remove unwanted branches and have kept the ones which I think could potentially grow into something. It has grown more since these images were taken too - new shoots shooting up all over the place.

cheers again for your input guys.

Mark