A few Trainers

[alpineart]

Here is a few of the trainers i have on the go

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I do have progression shoots however i haven't recovered then from the old Hard-drive .Cheers Alpinart

[jarryd]

they are all of to a great start mate,

i think you could loose the first left hand branch on the shimpaku. other then that looks like they are coming along really well.

regards jarryd

[alpineart]

Hi Jarryd , i have to disagree with you on this one .Loose the left branch and you end up with a right , back , right branch setup , completely unbalancing the tree . If both left and right were removed or jinned it would still be balanced . Maybe someone here could vert your thoughts to show the result .Cheers Alpineart

[Jamie]

hi Alpine

I have to agree that removing just the one lower branch wont work, it throws the tree off balance. removing both will work very well, actually making the tree somewhat more elegant i reckon

virt for alpine one branches removed shimpaku.jpg

not so great

virt for alpine both branches removed shimpaku jin.jpg

virt for alpine both branches removed shimpaku.jpg

actually I dont think it needs to be jinned either. hope this helps!

[Pup]

How about the first right branch, as jin and leave the rest, Jamie, lets have a look. This is a nice elegant tree.

Cheers just my 2cents worth Pup.

[alpineart]

Hi Jamie , thanks for the verts , nice looking tree . This leaves another delema the rear branch comes out between the first "right" hand and the second on the "left" .Removing the 2 side branches would require removal of the rear . The first branch starts 1/3 up , removal would mean the first branch would be 1/2 up the trunk .Who ever originally trained this tree has done a very good job with placement of the branches , i've just root pruned , rotated , tilted , removed 50% of the foliage and wired and against good advice to suit myself .

It would be a shame to remove the lower branches ,as this tree is quite old . It has a 55mm trunk , 450mm spread and 550mm high , next season i will drop it into a smaller pot and rotate it another 20 degrees. It is over potted in a 400mm x 300mm x100mm container .Maybe you could slip pot it into something that makes the tree look more aged possibly 30%smaller all round .Cheers Alpine

[BirchMan]

Looks like Shibui popped some trident seeds in as a bonus

[alpineart]

Hi Pup , worst case senario the right hand lower branch would go , but as a chopper and hacker i like it as it is too .With the foliage pads filled out again it will look full and bold rather than elegant as it is .

Hi Birchman , its a Japanese maple , self sown as all the pots here have , and the garden , lawn , paths etc .The Bonsai came from Noah78 i just turned it into a re-trainer .Cheers Guys .Alpine

[GavinG]

Just a coupla thoughts, for someone who has plenty of good ones anyway.

The shimpaku trunk is mature, graceful and very elegant. The foliage pads on the other hand seem to be very straight, at least at the moment, at least in the photos, and distract from the movement of the trunk.

Would you consider shortening the branches by a third, at least the low ones? Clearer flow maybe.

Another thought was to tilt to the right, bring the first left down, maybe lose the first right, and bring the next right branch back up nearer horizontal.

The Monterey is wonderfully mad - will you lose a bit of the dynamic movement if the trunk gets fatter? How thick/big is it? If it's quite tall, it might be just a matter of minimal foliage, crazy trunk.

Three thoughts, so 6 cents.

Gavin

[alpineart]

Hi Gavin , some very good observations there , branch position and placement is good , movement up and down is in need of work .I am trying to spread and distribute the pads , movement on the outer will come as the foliage regrows or be it manipulated gently ."Done bun can't be undone" , so i don't want to bugger what is a very good specimen ,yes i could bugger this with ease . Repositioning will take place , mate i have repotted it twice and still got it wrong , needs a rotate and tilt backwards , just to improve the overall look of the movement and placement it has .Can't rush an old fella nor an old tree .I will post up some picks after a few wedges are placed and blanket the pot .I must learn to do Verts !!!!

The Monty was a bloody good find , radical movement in all direction .Its grown very little in all the years i have had it .Under potted most of its life you could say and root pruned very hard to keep it so .Its only been rotated on its root-ball for different styles , it has been rotated continually allowing the foliage to grow up then rotate again and again approx' 700mm high with a 30mm trunk at the base probably 20mm when collected back in the late 90's.Another couple of pounds around the lower section will not effect the movement too much .I need to build some ramafication in the pad department . .Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

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A few Optional planting angles