Mike423

Hey everyone just thought I'd share one of my new ventures to take place next summer. I purchased a "Inaba Shidare" Japanese cut leaf maple this summer at a nursery. The tree stands 34inches with a base trunk circumference of a little over 2 and a half inches. I included a picture of some of the pruning and corrections I am looking to implement on the tree and was wondering if anyone might have some input or suggestions to add.




The red lines indicate the branches I wish to remove completely

The blue line Is where I was planning on doing some air layering to give the tree a new root system do to the fact of that the tree not only has a poor nabari but that its a grafted nursery stock and the bark color differs from the rest. I was thinking about maybe just planting the tree in a deeper pot and then making the graft cut on that section and allow new roots to grow that way??

The orange line is where I was planning on doing some more air layering to produce another tree and remove a less aesthetically pleasing branch. I would ideally then like to start a small section of branches on the top section after wards that I can then try to ramify over a few years to produce a little "top" dome for the tree.

I was also wondering if it might be a good idea to shorten the remaining branches the following year to help promote more ramification and to give the branch system a more "zig zag" sort of aged look?

Mattbonsai

Hey Mike.

An alternative for the Airlayer, might be up by the green tie about halfway up the trunk, just before a grey patch on the bark?

While you're waiting for the Airlayer to take, I would plant the tree in the ground, with grafted maples, they're usually grafted because their own roots are weak and slow growing, so it may take a long time for the airlayer to take, even up to 2 - 3 years.

When the airlayer has struck and you're ready to seperate it from the tree, then I would cut the branches back by 1/3, and leave it potted up for a year before doing anything else to it, then you can start working on the branches.

Hope this helps a little.

-Matt-

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Mike423

I was thinking about maybe making the airlayer higher than originally stated. I was thinking somewhere between the bottom two green ties.