OK, so I shall try again. Hopefully Telstra wont go down again, causing me to loose this effort.
First off, we accept Bonsai as a tree planted in a pot or tray. Some will say it is a styled tree planted in a pot and I will get to that bit later.
Now, what follows is something my Bonsai friends in Bali have taught me. I have photos of some of these Palms somewhere, but as I have no idea in which shed or other place they may be, sorry but, right now I can't post them up for you. My Bali mates tell me they have tried a number of Palms, but the only ones they have managed to control properly are the Coconut Palms. In Bali there are 2 types of coconuts growing. One is the common one we all know, growing to heights around 7 or 8 metres high over there, same as the ones growing at Bagara here in Qld and I think the ones up in FNQ, but there is also another type up which only grows to around 3 metres. The frond on these grows to about 1.5 / 2 metres long as opposed to the monsters which grow on the other sort. The other difference is in the fruit. Whereaas the big Mumma has the large round fruit with the smallish round nut inside, the dwarf one has a fruit which is about the size of a kids football and the nut roughly the same football shape, not round. The fruit from the dwarf one is also more yellow. I have not seen the dwarf Malay Coconut here in Queensland, but then haven't looked either. I know they are available in Darwin, so if ever up there maybe worth a look for.
Anyhow - training. This starts from the very germination of the Palm. Once the palm has shot and the tap root has cleared the husk of the nut the nut has to be removed. Dangerous to do and I have lost a few at this stage, but it gets easier from here on in. Once the nut has been removed from the shot plant break the tip off the tap root and plant the palm into a large pot and allow the first frond to grow naturally, allowing it to open normally. This will help set the trunk growing properly. By the way I have trained Coconuts from trunks which shot and grew into the ground, normally, but the root sytem is very hard to manage with these types of palm. So, after the first frond opens your work begins. Allow each subsequent frond to grow to around 2 to 3 inches (50 to 75mm for Imperially challenged
) and then taking a sharp knife slit the membrane up the inside of the new emerging frond. I used a scalpel and worked very carefully as you want to only slice the membrane and not the frond itself. This has the same effect as twisting the sheath from a Ficus leaf, in that the frond is forced to open as an immature frond, not growing to its full length before opening. The cut has to be made very carefully as any damage to the actual frond will stay with the plant until that frond drops from the plant, same as breaking a leaf on the before mentioned Fig. The open frond will be slightly longer than it was when cut open due to the spreading habit of the fronds as they open out, so leaving the frond spike until it is 4 inches long would result in a 4 1/2 to 5 inch frond and so on, meaning that as the palm grows in height they could, if desired, be left to grow longer if a bigger appearing tree was desired.
Now to form the trunk, allow 5 or 6 fronds to grow from the top of the palm and then taking your scalpel again, remove the lowest frond from the trunk. Continue to remove the lowest frond after 2 or 3 new fronds have grown. This allows the trunk to start forming and looking like a true trunk earlier than if allowed to progress naturally. Never allow less than the 5 or 6 fronds to remain on the palm or the trunk becomes to narrow and weak. You will also find from time to time a frond will get nicked while the membrane is being cut, so a good number of fronds on the palm will help cover the fault. As Taffy said as well, if while cutting the membrane you happen to cut off the terminal frond and you also damage the next shoot, which will be starting inside the frond, just throw the palm away as it will die and there would be very little chance of saving it. Having said that, I have seen palms have the centre core frond removed and the palm survived because the next new shoot hadn't been damaged. Problem with a Bonsai Palm is that there is such a small crown to the plant the next shoot is always to close to the crown.
Once the trunk starts to develop you can decide if you want a straight trunk or a trunk with curves. Obviously for a straight trunk just leave the palm to grow naturally, but if you want to induce a few (or one) curve allow the palm to grow a few inches in height and then push it over a bit in the pot. Over time the trunk will curve up again so the crown is growing vertical again. The trunk can be given any number of curves by repeating the above over again.
Although I have seen Coconut palms planted in soil so heavy the water just sat on top of the pot, I found they seem to like a well drained potting mix. They seemed to like almost all types of fertiliser, although they do enjoy the occasional sprinkle of salt over the soil surface. Reporting is a yearly venture and root pruning is done as with any other Bonsai, taking out the thicker roots and developing a finer fibrous root system, which believe it or not happens - and fairly quickly.
Are Coconut Palms Bonsai or a potted oddity? You make your own mind up, but I have seen coastal scenes made up of Coconut Palms, trees/plant material, rocks and sand that looked every bit as good as any tray landscape using conventional trees. I also reckon if the Balinese can stick Coconut palm 'Bonsai' in their display for ASPAC then they should be considered Bonsai, but that is my opinion and as I always say, "I respect your right to disagree with me".
the upper hand is mine again!
