As title says. Im only familiar with chinese sweet plum and ficus subspecies for bonsai, but ive been growing some jades to bonsai them. This one is promising so far, i wouldnt like to mess it up, but im a bit lost on what to do with it. Should i trunk chop in the empty section to make it shorter? Should i wait and hope that new branches will emerge there and fill it up?
by BigSadSamurai
7 Comments
What are your eventual goals with it?
You’re almost guaranteed to get at least 2 new shoots wherever you chop to, but if you want to make it much thicker, I would let it run for a few years.
i wouldn’t do a trunk chop. i’d look at it and see what it wants to be and just do selective pruning to shape it
and if you do trunk chop choose one of the side branches as the leader and go from there. because it could completely die if you cut back all of that at once
No. You will kill it
keep this height – Seems like the better choice. You have decent taper and movement in the mid-upper portion. The empty section will fill in over time.You have a bar branch, so one should be removed before you get inverse taper. Just be patient/ buy some more material to work on.
Trunk Chop – seems like kinda a waste. I think the attributes of the top are more interesting than the bottom. It would end up like a weird broom style with a thick leader. Still cut one of the bar branches, unless you want to chop right above them.
https://preview.redd.it/nrlpavfd19vg1.jpeg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ec54b8bc67abdca194e7e98194330b2a9946ed4
You need to cut off one of the two first branches. You’ll get a swell there if you dont and you’ll lose taper. My suggestion would be to cut the leader and another of the first branches, leaving only one to become a new leader. Then let it rip for a year. Lots of sun, fresh air, supplemental nutes and love. Built from there. It’ll be fine with a big chop. Ive grown ports for 15 years — they are tough. Good luck.
What is with this subs fetish with trunk chops??????????
Yeah, there isn’t really anything going on here, so I would chop back to one of those first two branches. Probably the right one, as it has some more interesting branching going on, develop that as the new trunk line (red line). Maybe chop it hard again, just past that first small shoot on the right branch (orange line), and focus on developing taper. You could wait for it to recover, or do it right away, won’t make much of a difference.
https://preview.redd.it/dnorm6rhuavg1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bcf2db4c560fa7e823fca6e87f40495a9fa9ff1
The mistake people usually make with P. afra is that they don’t treat it like a typical bonsai species. And then they end up looking more like a house plant than a bonsai. Ignore the people who are afraid to prune their trees. Chop chop chop!
If you want to develop a more extreme taper, you can chop back a node or two below those two branches as well. P. afra don’t give a fuck. It may take a while to send out new shoots if you chop all the branches (like several months), but it will get there. Just make sure not to overwater it, because it won’t really need any water once it’s completely defoliated.