How to grow good bonsai stock like the Japanese nurseries

[Scott Roxburgh]

An update on some 2014-ish starts?

A couple came from Shibui.

I think they all need to go into bigger pots

[shibui]

Scott! Great to hear that you are still with us even if only occasionally.

The bends in those trees look good - quite random and natural looking. I see you have also started to add the beginnings of some shari. I've also been taking a little bark off each year to try to create more layered and natural looking shari.
No doubt that you would get some increased growth in these if they had a little more space to spread roots. I'm sure they would even appreciate being slip potted into larger pots even at this time of the year. I've done that a few times and they do respond. I figure I'll probably eventually prune the roots back to the size of the smaller pot anyway so it won't matter if some are tangled and going in odd directions around the edge of the current pots.

[Matt S]

An update on some 2014-ish starts?

These came from Shibui as well. You can see how they looked when I first purchased them earlier in this thread, back in 2015. They are now all tight little balls of crazy shapes but it's hard to get a picture of how the trunks and major branches are looking as they are buried under all the foliage. Sharis have been started too, and I extend them every 6 months. The trunks are about as thick as my thumb. The plan now is to stop wiring new shoots into place and just let the extension shoots grow as they want to thicken everything up, especially the lower branches.

I've got about a dozen of these, but here are two of them.

shimpaku1 dec19.JPG

shimpaku1 close dec19.JPG

shimpaku2 dec19.JPG

shimpaku2 close dec19.JPG

Matt.

[tropheus72]

What a fantastic thread.
I'm still fairly new to ausbonsai, but this has to be the best I've come across... (Even though many others have bee extremely informative)
Hopefully, there are more updates on progress from the guys that began it over 10 years ago, as well as the newer ones.

I'm inspired to try and source some whips to curl up into little balls myself
I'll post some pics when I get some underway...


Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

[shibui]

Here are a few more developing twisted trunk shimpku:

IMGP6938.JPG

IMGP6939.JPG

IMGP6940.JPG

IMGP6970.JPG

IMGP6971.JPG

More still in orchid pots to grow. Sacrifice branches galore to thicken lower trunks.

IMGP6941.JPG

IMGP6942.JPG

IMGP6943.JPG

IMGP6944.JPG

[shibui]

and a few more:
These were styled at Bonsai week last year (or maybe the year before?)

IMGP6945.JPG

IMGP6946.JPG

IMGP6947.JPG

Some more in grow pots with sacrifice branches......

IMGP6948.JPG

IMGP6949.JPG

IMGP6952.JPG

IMGP6953.JPG

IMGP6955.JPG

IMGP6956.JPG

IMGP6959.JPG

IMGP6961.JPG

And a couple that spent a few years in the grow beds. Now in 30 cm orchid pots

IMGP6964.JPG

IMGP6965.JPG

IMGP6966.JPG

IMGP6967.JPG

[boom64]

My tormented"Snow in Summer "with another rough wire job.

[Matt S]

Great examples Neil, thanks for showing us.

A few weeks ago Bjorn Bjorholm did a great 2 part video on exactly this technique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D__nos4lmiw

One thing he mentioned that I found interesting was that wild chinese junipers twisted both clockwise and anti clockwise on the same tree, and when putting in the first round of twists and bends he occasionally switches between the two. All mine are clockwise only!

Matt.

[shibui]

Bends all one way ends up as a corkscrew
It is possible to change the curve of the bends and prevent the real corkscrew but I learnt real quick to make some bends curve back the other way so combining clockwise and anti on the same tree. I've also tried to include some down and up curves as well. Plenty of change to make it look really random and natural.

[Matt S]

Yeah, corkscrews are to be avoided. My bends are all random-ish (up, down, back on itself etc) with no corkscrews but before I bend I always twist the young branches a couple of turns so that any future sharis can follow the twists that I created. I'll start introducing occasional anti-clockwise twists but keep bending the same way I have been.

[shibui]

I have not found it necessary to twist one direction or to follow the twist when making shari. There may be live veins and dead parts in older trees but no such thing on younger stock.
All trees naturally send sap the shortest way possible between root and branch but they also have the ability to adjust sap flow to adjacent cells.
I've put many shari twists across and around these trunks as long as there is some continuous connection between roots and the branches it is OK. The only failure was when there was an already dead patch hidden under the bark that I did not notice but which meant the entire living connection to the upper half of the tree was severed.