AusBonsai

I decided to get this out of the pot and have a look. I found what the issue was and it wasn’t the mix. The pot I had it in features those excellent type of drain holes that are not at the lowest point in the pot

It’s not dramatic so I didn’t notice when I potted it, but essentially the tree has had a constant water reservoir in the pot which explains why the mix seemed like it was old and sodden.

I’ve moved the tree into a ploy box that definitely has the drain holes at the lowest pot now. I pinched back a bit two long roots that had grown and it now has nice new mix so hopefully it’s a bit happier for the next couple of years than I has been in the old pot.

Should have put a photo with the last post but here it is now.

I usually don't wire maples too much, but if i need to, Autumn is when i do it. This one needed quite a bit in the end because it has got a bit free with how gentle i've been with it since taking it on. Normally i'd keep primary branches much more upright on a maple, but i'm a boxed in a corner with the original primary branches being so straight.

As you can see on the left hand side of the photo there is a big empty space. There was a young shoot 1-2 years old growing out in that area directly off the trunk, but i removed it for three reasons. 1) The other primary branches around it are very thick and completely barked up, so it would take decades and decades for it to ever look like it belonged there. 2) If it ever did match them in size and bark texture it would end up looking like a bar branch being that it was not much higher than that first primary branch on the right. 3) There are already enough horizontal branches coming off the trunk at the base of the tree and another one in that area is unnecessary.

Instead i dropped a secondary branch down into that space that will eventually provide a bit of interest there. I can imagine a maple tree that gets so old that the inner branches do some odd things to reach light, and in so doing maybe i will soften the 'pine' style of the tree a little bit. Here and there i've directed branches to do some odd movements throughout the different levels of the tree, so I'll see if my idea actually works in reality.

The back of the tree is quite bare at the moment, that is why i've chosen the specific front seen below to hide that. Hopefully i get some dormant buds off the trunk back there are some stage and i can begin filling in that area.

Anyway here she is in her 60th year; 1961 being the earliest recorded date i have for it.

Here is a straight on shot of it in the box

Here is a photo from my proposed front

And a shot of a bit of branch detail.
Finally here it was Autumn 3 years ago for a bit of comparision what i've done in that time (mostly trying to stop it from kicking the bucket!)

Excellent work Tim; impressive progress.


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Thanks Mark, she’s been a roller coaster, but now on the right path. I’m pretty happy with this progress when my first, second and third priorities were just saving it and getting it healthy again

This has been in an out of more pots in the last couple of years than i can remember, to try to keep it happy and healthy.

Well i decided im sick of poly boxes, and really it should go in a pot and stay in it for at least a couple of years, so here it is potted up in this cream oval i had kicking around. Hopefully this time it will stay in it and not need to be shuffled out to something deeper due to me stressing about if it is okay or not.

Hard to see from that shot, but I feel pretty confident in saying it’s a step up from a poly box…
they seem like more trouble than they’re worth so better out than in!

Absolutely better option than polystyrene. They served a purpose for me for a few years but like many I've almost completely phased them out. Just too messy once they start degrading

It’s an unsigned Japanese pot, but certainly a better option than polystyrene. I’ve too many nice pots on shelves and too many plants in polystyrene, about time I righted that wrong.

I’ve kept a couple in case I find some amazing piece of material and I don’t have a spare suitable pot, but other than that I hope my poly box days are over

Can you build ramification in such a shallow pot?

I’m not anticipating too much of a problem with ramification building tbh.

I’m not trying to do a quick development method with it as the bark is so mature it will be impossible in my lifetime to get any significant scars to blend back in. It already has some odd transitions and scars that need work so I don’t want more.

I’ve been leaving some longer internodes to speed the process up without having to go as far as doing big branch chops, so I’d be happy if it slowed down from here

It’s got a nice trunk. Very impressive.

I don’t have a maple near as old - how do you find its vigour?

Vigour wise i've been pleasantly surprised with it, though it has been consistently slightly over potted to let the tree run since i took it over. Also i've not root pruned it until it went into this cream oval either, and even that cannot really be called a root prune, i just shortened a couple of roots that had become excessively long. If it can establish firmly in this pot over the next 12-18 months i'll be sure it's well and truly recovered from the neglect it did have.

The first year when it was in a very poor state of health it really struggled to get more than 3-4 pairs of leaves in an extension, but that was unsurprising given how sick it was. Since moving into a well draining mix it has bombed away and will happily grow 30cm extensions like any young JM will. I've been letting it go for maybe 15-20cm (say 4 pairs of leaves) for the last year to let it get healthy again, but i will start to control it further from this year otherwise the silhouette will be enormous.

In my reading i've come across the reccomendation that old maples should be given a few years off from heavy pinching in deeper pots every 10 years or so, and i kind of tried to replicate this over the last couple of years to regain heath, but if you let it go rampant you'll just be cutting back hard and creating big scars so it's a balancing act. Realistically this tree is probably at the back end of a midlife crisis around now at 60, so i will have to be more aware of that as the next few decades pass and it becomes and old man.

Brilliant read! A testament to your perseverance. Awesome to have the history documented like that, has I spired me to go and collate all the pics I have and sort them out to have something similar.
Definitely worth saving, you can't produce the look of 60 years of age on a tree, well done.

Thanks for the kind words, very much appreciated as I’ve been pretty much over bonsai in the last month or two and wondering if I just sell everything up and move on.

The lockdown has stopped me offloading plants so I’ll give it some time and see if I get enthusiastic about it again.

Finally making a start on fixing the apex of this tree.

It's hard to see in the previous photos but it had two branches like a slingshot that went almost flat at the apex. One had only foliage very far from the trunk which really ruled it out of long term use, while one was a bit more suitable.

The leggy one got the chop and will be removed eventually unless it throws buds, and the stump of it now serves to anchor the beginnings of pulling the other one up to serve to build the canopy from.

Realistically I'm sure I'll end up eventually having to do some kind of grafting, probably thread grafts, to do it properly, but for now at least i'll make a start