AusBonsai

Finally a few cold nights and the leaves have fallen from most of the maples now. Time to start on the winter maintenance pruning. There's lots of crowded areas, especially near the top of the trunks and a few long shoots have grown up through the canopy unnoticed. Definitely time to thin out and cut back a little. Also a Japanese maple multi trunk style.
This one has been allowed to grow a bit later in the summer to build up strength and thicken a little. It is especially important to thin out shoots in Japanese maples. They put out lots of clusters of buds and if you allow all of these buds to grow on the branch will thicken too much at that point. You'll be able to see a spot on the main trunk where that has happened on this one.
Next summer I hope I can control the growth a bit better and start to build up ramification with fine twigs.

That is a seriously nice group.

Agree, stunning forest

Your works in progress are coming along beautifully Neil.

So cool Neil.

Hi Shibui , mate its amazing what a difference 30 odd klms makes . My maples are just turning although a majority are still growing . I have just done a drastic Autumn prune last week on all the grow bed material hoping to get a head start and a bit of colour over the next week as a result . It will be a big job here doing a winter prune might have to turn a blind eye to some of the grow beds and potted material .

Cheers . Alpine

alpineart wrote:Hi Shibui , mate its amazing what a difference 30 odd klms makes . My maples are just turning although a majority are still growing . I have just done a drastic Autumn prune last week on all the grow bed material hoping to get a head start and a bit of colour over the next week as a result . It will be a big job here doing a winter prune might have to turn a blind eye to some of the grow beds and potted material .

Cheers . Alpine

Alpine
Agreed im proberly 40km as the crow flies from you and my maples have lost there leaves about a week ago . Last 3 nights at my place were -1,-2.1 and 2.3 .

Neil love that little japanese maple . Is that the airlayer i was eyeing off 2 years ago ? I wouldnt mind getting up this winter material wise . You got a dig date ?

Love the Trident group. Leaving the fallen leaves gives a real sense of the season. I can picture myself walking through the trees, breathing the cold air and hearing the crunch of the leaves underfoot.

Matt.

Lots of the tridents in the ground still have leaves and a few still growing but all the ones in pots are now bare enough to see what needs pruning. A couple of good cold nights here too this week so that should stop all the others and make them drop leaves.

The palmatum is certainly a layer Matthew. Not sure if it is the same one that you saw. I can't keep track of all the trees everyone who comes here has lusted after . It is not so little now- That's a 20 cm diameter pot so it stands around 40cm tall at the moment.

Thanks for all the positive comments. The trident group is about 15 years old, maybe a bit more Years seem to slip away quite quickly now. I also have an older one but have not had time to tackle it yet. It will probably take twice as long to trim. I did clean out some of the fallen leaves Matt. I'll get the rest of them when I have some time.

More time spent pruning this week. The older they get the more twiggy they are and that takes longer to trim.
Here's a few after shots: and finally a real monster:

Love your work Neil!
The mini is particularly cool. Do you keep it in a gravel tray?

Regards,
Steven

Nice work and thanks Neil for being so forthcoming with your knowledge and experiences.

Small tree or super sized battery? Love it either way

You can see the algae on the base of the pot from sitting on the gravel tray during warmer months. In winter I put large floor tiles over the gravel tray to sit the pots on so they don't stay too wet (gravel tray is too large and heavy to move). When I tried to pick that one up to prune I found it was frozen onto the tile - cold mornings this week, finally

That's the smallest one I have Theo but starting a few more that size.