AusBonsai

Hi all

As I begin to understand more and more about growing and styling Bonsai, I’ve come to the natural point in my journey where I’m curious about shaping branches.

As you can see in the image I’ve provided, I’ve got several branches on my fig which have rather ugly protruding branches - rather than single, smooth and continuous branches. I've circled these.

This is likely a total newbie question, but is there a way to cut and style the branch into the ideal shape with what is shown in the photo? Or is it really a matter of growing the branch to the length you want, cutting it, and then refining the ramification around the cut branch?


As always, appreciate the advice and guidance from everyone here

I would remove the close in shoot going up, then cut back the branch to where you would like to start the ramification. Usually about 1/3 the way from the trunk to the tip of the foliage

Ken

Ah OK, so you're saying to remove the shoot going up...? Then, I'm guessing, remove (or cut back) the other two shoots on the tip of the already clipped branch - and let new shoots grow on its tips?

Am still not clear on what the best course of action is here... anyone...?

Hi mate,
the way I grow a Fig, once I have the bare trunk I like, is to only keep the shoots where you want a branch. That is one shoot in each position.
By removing all others, the trees entire energy goes into the shoots you want to keep, without wasting its energy into shoots that will be removed later.
This way you get maximum growth where YOU want it, in the minimum time frame.
From what I see in your pics, you have allowed more than one shoot in each area and now must choose to remove the excess.
Pick the front of your tree and determine which of those multiple branches is in the best position. Keep that one and remove all other shoots from that position. By leaving more than one in each position, you will ultimately create thickening around the trunk at that point and subsequently reverse taper.
When you wire a branch, bend it BOTH horizontally and vertically to make it look more natural.
Without being critical, your wiring need s to be done tighter, it should just be making contact with the bark. When you bend, the wire is what bends and the branch moves with it. Those gaps you have between wire and branch may lead to that horrible cracking noise we all dread, because there is no support for the branch at point of impact.Always have wire on the opposite side to the point of the bend.
I always allow my selected branch to grow unrestricted after wiring (with large leaves as well) until it reaches the desired thickness. Then cut back to length and with a defoliation the ramification (side shooting) will develop
Hope this helps and good luck with the cyclone ( hope my package arrives before the storm)
cheers
Dave
ps just revisited your pics, there is always the possibility of removing ALL branches and starting your branch placement again. 18 months and you'll have a new tree with branches in the correct position.

Cut at the red lines, then wire down wire down the green part.

Next season cut back harder to force new buds, if the tree is healthy.

When wiring out the sub-branches always follow the main branch for a while then curve away from it, this practice makes the branch structure flow together. The more often you can cut and re-grow the branches the better, try to bring them out slowly. If you do it in a hurry you will end up with long straight and untapered sections, having said that you need to let them grow between pruning to maintain the vigor of the tree but when you do prune be sure you cut hard enough to eliminate the boring parts.
Happy to elaborate if this doesn't make sense
Craigw

Thank you everyone, that is really a lot of help

From what I'm hearing, I think the best course of action is to clip the upgrowing shoot and then wire down the two side shoots to start developing the ramification. I might clip back the two side shoots a little too, though someone please stop me if you don't recommend this!