White Ash (Fraxinus Americana) bonsai - defoliation

[mashby]

Hi again everyone. I have a White Ash bonsai that I "inherited" from a nursery here in Perth that was closing down. I have had it for about 8 months and most of that time it was "hibernating" and had no leaves. When spring came along, the tree basically explded with leaves and I had to cut the leaves back to just 2 leaves on every stem (2 plus 2). On December 9 it was time to defoliate to defoliate the tree. About 2 weeks later, the tree had once again "exploded with leaves but this time the stems were longr and the compound leaves had as many as 12 "leaves" ("nodes"?) on each branch and it was basically out of control and looked really ugly. I tried every search engine on the internet I could think of to find out about White Ash bonsai but came up with absolutely nothing. So I have decided to cut the tree back to 2 leaves on each branch again and see what happens. At the moment, the tree stands 920cm tall. In one of the photos you may notice some foliage at the bottom of the frame but that is from a Trident Maple that was sitting behind the White Ash.
Has anyone else trained a White Ash (apparently they can grow to 100 feet tall in some States of the USA)? If so, will what I have done have any detrimental effect on the tree? What sort of fertilizer should I use - one low in nitrogen I suppose to limit the leaf growth? I would appreciate any information anybody can provide.
Thanks Michael

[anttal63]

hny mash; photo please it will help us to help you.

[Petra]

hi Michael, is this tree really 920cm tall or did you mean mm. What is the thickness of the trunk. This tree has some nice movement there also.
when i know the dimentions of this tree ill tell you what i would do iiwm. meanwhile some one may tell you something from their own experience.cheers!

[Grant Bowie]

Re the name of the Ash.
It looks very similar or the same as Ash sold as F excelsior and F angustifolia on the east coast.
Anyhow there is lots of information out there on Ash and it would all suit this tree.

Grant

[anttal63]

hi michael' my ash are in full sun. osmocote and weekly seasol + the monthly liquid; fish fert and nitrosol. i will be doing my 3rd defoliation later in the month. dont let them dry out. the trick is plenty of water and sun. the continuous defoliation creates ramification and windows of smaller leaves. if showing this tree timing for these windows is crucial. all that said they make great bonsai. if this were my tree i would trunk chop to the 1st back branch and make that my new leader. let the trunk and base shoot sacrafices to fatten and keep the taper in check while developing the tree. you are trimming back ok but you're better off completely defoliating. stay on top of the energy balance.

[mashby]

Hi Petra
Sorry, my maths is all over the shop at the moment, the tree is actually 95cm (or was but is now about 105cm). The trunk thickness is 7cm at the base, 3cm approx at the middle, 2cm 1/3 of the way up the trunk and the top branches are about 5mm.

Sorry about the confusion everyone. But it has been a long and tiring Christmas and New Year.
I hope you all have a great 2010.
May you be happy and find peace.
Michael

[Damian79]

Hi Mashby
If you are still using this forum I am very interested on how your Ash is going. I have just dug an Ash myself and have found this thread very helpful. If you have any info or tips to pass along that would be greatly appreciated. If you have any recent photos i would love to see them.
Regards
Damian