AusBonsai

Hello, beginner and first time poster here.
I recently bought a relatively large umbrella tree, that I chopped and trimmed down to the size in the picture. Do you think at this age and size, it can still be trained as bonsai? Would the next step be trunk chopping? Thank you!

Welcome for sure Killakari.
I have a big sucker in the garden that I ponder on giving the shrink treatment.
They air lay so easily like a weed you can't get rid of.
Root off a cutting dito.
Problem is they never seem to bud out where you want them.
That said the yard tree I have gets a hedge trimmer prune and I have found that with multi branch/leaves combo plants if your branch tips have say 5 or more tips. (your tree seems to have from 4 to 8) pick (3) tips and all above horizontal clip out right at the node.
They will bud out between the gaps say 7 tips 4 gaps and 3 mature tips.
When they fill the gaps with a live bud cut back the remaining mature tips the allow new shoots to grow and remove 1 bud to keep the uniform excepted 3 shoots..Stem length will reduce significantly taking that 'leggy look' out of the tree.
If only i could put into practice sometimes what I say
Good Luck with it.
Steve.

Hi, and welcome.
I think as this is your first you should water it, fertilize it and love it. When starting out everyone needs a plant to "play" with and this is perfect. When it gets too big give it a trim but until that the care factor is the most important.

Watto wrote:Hi, and welcome.
I think as this is your first you should water it, fertilize it and love it. When starting out everyone needs a plant to "play" with and this is perfect. When it gets too big give it a trim but until that the care factor is the most important.

agree.
That was the first thing I should of said.
Steve.

Thanks for your advice and welcoming me! Actually this is not my first, I am learning using mostly nursery stock, however this is the first grown plant that I want to try "downsizing" into a bonsai. Reading that umbrellas are super hardy, I am really tempted to give it a trunk chop for it to develop new branches+leaves, unless it is not advisable to do so at this point?

Or instead of trunk chopping, should I defoliate the entire tree?

killarkai wrote:Or instead of trunk chopping, should I defoliate the entire tree?

A big question.
Me I would..'but'.. I have a lot going on in trees and don't rate value of one tree against another..Meaning if I loose one I don't stress as at my age the trees will see me out by decades.
I do this for the moment and if what I do lasts for years then I'm way in front.
If this is a new tree that has not yet lived a life then just be a little careful knocking it about.
I agree entirely with Watto.. feed it ,enjoy it and let it have a season or two.
Casual observation tells me it's only a recent pot up just by the soil strata looking really fresh..Shock may be still evolving or I might be way off.
Give it attention via the eye for a while and not the snips.
Steve.

Firecat wrote:Casual observation tells me it's only a recent pot up just by the soil strata looking really fresh..Shock may be still evolving or I might be way off.
Give it attention via the eye for a while and not the snips.
Steve.

Ah yes, I did just did pruning of leaves and roots, repotting, as well as sawing off one of the other trunk. Might have went a little bit too aggressive. You are right, I should wait for a while to see signs of recovery. Thank you for the advice.

Welcome killarkai,
May like to have a look at this thread for inspiration. It's a great thing to aim for.


viewtopic.php?f=104&t=6366&hilit=Schefflera#p73150

Thanks for the link! It's inspiring indeed!