AusBonsai

Hey guys,

I thought I'd start a thread for those of us mad enough to continue with Liquid ambar bonsai projects to leave some tips for each other and relate your experiences with the bonsai cultivation of this species.

I keep going with mine because they give me the best autumn colour in my garden every year but like others I have found ramification and leaf reduction a challenge.

So I'll start us off... As I said I grow mine mostly for their Autumn colour and I'm not overly precious of their winter image. I have found that letting wire bite a little more than is probably acceptable for a deciduous tree can stimulate back budding on up to 5 year old wood. These trees will throw suckers from the base and new buds from the trunk readily but dont like to back bud on branches. Especially lower branches.

Hope this helps some of you who are stuggling with this on your trees.

Ok. Thats mine. Now you guys. Lets give these challenging trees a good ol' bash at it.

The tree below is not mine but I believe provides enough inspiration. I took the image from the web so if someone knows the trees owner please attribute it accordingly. Great colour on this one but mine seem to go an even deeper red, almost purple.
Cheers,

Ces.

Good idea for a thread
Hope we get some good ideas coming out but in the meantime, here is a link to my progression thread for my small twin trunk

viewtopic.php?f=129&t=13727

Ken

Great thread, Ken and really nice tree. I hope to see it in the bark one day. Gotta be satisfying to have grown that from seed.

Alright, I'll throw in another one. Its less of a tip and more of a plan. After watching Bjorn Bjorholm's 'Maple Masterclass' video the other day, I figured it would be worth trying his suggested technique for pruning 'shishigashira' Japanese maples. The internodal length on healthy 'shishigashira' maples is very short and so after the intial spring growth hardens off you would cut back to the second set of leaves and remove the first pair of leaves. Note how this is different to the normal refinement pruning techniques for tridents or standard japanese maples, where you would generally let growth extend to 3-4 sets of leaves before cutting back to one set (tridents) or pinching out the soft, second buds of early spring as they open (palmatum).

In 'shishigashira' maples the suggested technique creates short but useful (i.e. not too short) internodal length for branch creation and refinement. If the tree is very dense (probably not a problem if you have a Liquid Ambar), you would also remove one of the leaves of the remaining pair. This technique of removing one leaf from each pair would only be performed on the outer canopy.

Next season, I will attempt this pruning technique with my Liquid Ambar's (& Taiwan Maples) as they put out a whorl of growth with very short internodal length. Ideally, I will leave a pair of horizontally oriented leaves.



Ok. who's up guys?

Cheers,

Ces.

Interesting idea and be good to gice it a try.
I trim back the new tips just before bud burst and that slows them up too.

I did that last winter, and have only had to defoliate once this year and the leaves have reduce well. Whether that is because of the early trimming, or just being quite potbound
I will be repotting this winter so next year will be the test.

I will get an updated photo tomorrow if I can as it looks quite nice with a full set of leaves now. I am also hoping for a good colouring this spring

Ken

kcpoole wrote:Interesting idea and be good to gice it a try.
I trim back the new tips just before bud burst and that slows them up too.

I did that last winter, and have only had to defoliate once this year and the leaves have reduce well. Whether that is because of the early trimming, or just being quite potbound
I will be repotting this winter so next year will be the test.

I will get an updated photo tomorrow if I can as it looks quite nice with a full set of leaves now. I am also hoping for a good colouring this spring

Ken

Couple of good points, Ken. I also leave winter editing and wiring until right before bud burst as I have experienced a fair bit of die back when attempting this during full dormancy. This year will be the first year I'll be trying your method of knocking the strong terminal buds off, when they start to swell.

I havent fully defioliated any of mine yet. Do you experience any die back when you do this and how many times have you defoliated a tree in one growing season?

Ces

Here are a couple of pics of my liquid ambers . Not only is the autumn colour good but they have a habit of forming interesting exposed roots . The larger tree was trimmed hard early in the season and leaf size on it is reduced a fair bit , a sibling (no pic) was defoliated around Christmas but has not reduced leaf size nearly as well . The small tree is trimmed regularly , but not well . All these trees are pot bound .

I really love the liquidamber (LA). I have a life size tree infront of my house. No tips here but if anyone wants free stock there's plenty growing on the side of comenarra pkwy, South Turramurra. Some good slender meter long plants.

Watch out with seedling liquidambers , there autumn colour is pretty ordinary .

Ces wrote: I havent fully defioliated any of mine yet. Do you experience any die back when you do this and how many times have you defoliated a tree in one growing season?

Ces

I have done about 2 or 3 full defoliations before no issues, but would not do that every year unless really vigorous growth.
Mostly i continually defoliate as the leaves get too large. This year I have not had to as it has slowed down really well as you can see in these shots of today.

There are a few burnt edges, but have left them on this year to see how good the colour will be hopefully

Ken

I also have one in the ground I am growing on to be larger tree.
I have trunk chopped it several times over the 4 years or so it has been in.

Ken

Just posting a photo of my Liquid Amber. The photo was taken last year (May) at a exhibition. Its a bit on the dark side. I have 3 Liquid Ambers and they are around 900mm high.
Will post some photos of the other trees in the next few days..

Ces wrote:Hey guys,

I thought I'd start a thread for those of us mad enough to continue with Liquid ambar bonsai projects to leave some tips for each other and relate your experiences with the bonsai cultivation of this species.

I keep going with mine because they give me the best autumn colour in my garden every year but like others I have found ramification and leaf reduction a challenge.

So I'll start us off... As I said I grow mine mostly for their Autumn colour and I'm not overly precious of their winter image. I have found that letting wire bite a little more than is probably acceptable for a deciduous tree can stimulate back budding on up to 5 year old wood. These trees will throw suckers from the base and new buds from the trunk readily but dont like to back bud on branches. Especially lower branches.

Hope this helps some of you who are stuggling with this on your trees.

Ok. Thats mine. Now you guys. Lets give these challenging trees a good ol' bash at it.

The tree below is not mine but I believe provides enough inspiration. I took the image from the web so if someone knows the trees owner please attribute it accordingly. Great colour on this one but mine seem to go an even deeper red, almost purple.

sweet%20gum.jpg

Cheers,

Ces.

That is a fine tree Ces. Congats! My experience has not been very good. I am working with 2 dwarf varieties (Gumball and Jennifer Carol) They defoliate well but I do get some die back. We can't expect very fine ramification with this species but your tree shows it is worth persevering with. The last couple of years I have had a very disfiguring disease on all my liquidambars.(Including the garden trees) It attacks the leaves and distorts and browns the hell out of them. Last time I defoliated and sprayed with chlorothalonil and that helped a lot. Anyone else see this?

Nice trees guys. Thanks for posting. Ken, you're little twin trunk is looking very nice at the moment.

Regwac, I find that my LA's also fill their pots with root very quickly. I try and repot mine at least every second year.

Treeman, unfortunately that is not my tree. As mentioned, I pinched it from the web for inspiration. I dont know who the owner is but would love attribute it if someone does know. I'm assuming the tree resides in America as it was listed on google with their common name for LA's (i.e. sweet gum).

I thought I better put up one of mine. This tree was purchased from another Ausbonsai member around 2 years ago. They were reducing their collection and had lost interest in the tree. It was heavily rootbound, pushing itself out of the pot 3-4 cm. Since purchasing it I have repotted it, reduced its height and worked on branch ramification. The original owner had styled the tree in the classical bonsai style and I decided to continue with this image. The trees I have in development and in the ground will be styled with a more natural feel.

Anyway, the tree... Apologies for the poor quality images. Phone was just easier at the moment.

The tree still needs a lot of work. Next spring I will be working on the nebari in particular.

Keep coming with the tips and trees guys.

Cheers,

Ces.

Nice bones to that tree Ces.
It will develop nicely as a more slender elegant tree

Ken

Very cool thread guys, many thanks for the creation of it.
I have recently been gifted a small Liquid Amber myself as the owner did not know where to take it.
I have only owned this about 5-6mths so not sure about its Autumn colours in NQ as yet, we are still pushing mid 30's with a hot wind.
I have always wanted one of these as its one of the few that will give us Autumn colours in NQ.
I will be following this thread for tips about back budding, ramification, de-foliation and the like, likewise would like to input any "findings I have on the subject".

So having put the wire on around 2-3mths ago and started shaping, I present; look forward to much progress on this subject,
Watty