名媛直播

Hi there just a quick question really, touching back to one of my previous posts. I have a young japanese maple of which i am learning as i go to growing it (I've never grown a deciduous tree before). I am growing it in a nursery pot rather than planting it in the ground as i cant at my location. my goal it to create a thick trunk ready to turn the tree into someting special in a few years or more time. As things stand the branches are really long and stragaly as I have not touched the growth or done any pruning at all as i want trunk growth but as the months go past and the leaves eventually fall off should I.
A. Leave the tree alone to grow naturally and not prune anything back or touch it at all just keep the tree healthy. But obviously next year when growth starts again it will get even longer branching.
B. Do some form of branch pruning this year that may aid in the process of thinking the trunk via different branch structure next year.
As I said before I've never grown a deciduous tree before and I don't really know what to expect with this tree as the seasons change with my goal of trunk thickening in mind.
Any help would be a bonus thanks.

Here is a few upto date pics so far

Hi,

Good of you to think about the route to the future. This tree is currently quite unpleasant to look at, and will not make a great bonsai, unless some steps are taken.
If this were mine I would:
- Now: Thin out the lowest branch to the extend that at no junction more then 2 branches occur, and non of the branches are 'paralel' as shown in you last picture. Ech branch on there should be a side-branch to a main leader branch which you also get to pick now.
- Now: Remove the lowest 5 leaves on all other branches. This pushes more light to your first branch, giving it more strength
- Early spring: Put a wire on the first branch, giving it some curves (Or lick your future trunkline wisely, and you might not need wire; Note: Maples in winter rest, so without leaves, are VERY brittle and snape VERY easily. You could also consider wiring now, but that might cost you leaves; Depends on your experience wiring)
- Next spring: Airlayer/groundlayer to get a better rootflare. From what I can see, you have 3 thick twisted roots and not much else at the base. This is done in early spring; A good spot would be a few cm (say, twice the current thickness of the trunk) below the lowest branch).
- Next summer: Once it has created roots, plant in a shallow, wide container
- 2018: Trunk chop the plant just above the current lowest branch. Do this the year after the layer, as all the branches you have on the tree now, will next year help you get roots faster during layering
- 2018-2020 Growing out the trunk & roots of the tree from the lowest branch, using a lot of to-be-formed low branches; You want taper in the trunk, which requires low branches, rather than branches in the top.

Hi thanks for the reply I understand all the advice you have given apart from the section on airlayering/ground layering I kind of understand the processes but it's where you would carry out these techniques on the tree that has confused me you say "A good spot would be a few cm (say, twice the current thickness of the trunk) below the lowest branch)."

what confuses you about it?

Do you mean a few cm down from the lowest branch which wont give me much of a trunk after or the cuts in the airlayer to be a few cm on the trunk but somewhere below the lowest branch like a Third of the overall finished hight down from that lowest branch

This would be a direction to take it. Depending on the ultimate size you want, you could just double the thickness, or spend a decade and create a trunk of 10+cm, with a 50cm tall tree..

Interesting what would you say would be the finished height of the tree If proceed with your plan of action

20-30 cm, which would be for a trunk of about 3cm thick. As said, you could go beigger, but you would need to seriously grow the trunk. trunk diameter * 12 = maximum tree height for realistic moyogi.