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I bought a 3 year old juniper recently, shaped it a bit and have really enjoyed taking care of it.

I had a terrible day at work and needed to go look at some tiny trees afterwards and ended up bringing home a cutting from a japanese maple. I have a daughter on the way and planting a tree for her seemed like a great idea.

It's already rooted and is growing some little branches out, but the trunk is VERY tall for my taste. I have scoured youtubes and Google all evening and am now posting here at 1a.m. hoping maybe I'll get some sort of answer.

What do I do? What can I do? Its still extremely young and is essentially just a green twig with other twigs growing out of it about 12" up.

Can I cut it back down to say....6" or so? Will the?meristem cells do their job and create new growth? Its august in Houston, Tx and I havent found much about growth seasons on this tree.

Thanks in advance!
I attempted to attach an image but not working on my phone.

Will get one up tomorrow before we head out for baby shower.

Welcome to the empire!

I suppose you have to decide.. Do you want to grow a tree for bonsai, or do you want a nice tree in your garden to celebrate the arrival of your baby?
In either case.. Just let it grow. For bonsai, you need to take it out of the ground in spring, and organize the roots so they spread evenly all around the trunk. Then let it grow for a few years. Read up on "trunk chops", which is the technique you will be using if you decide to go for a bonsai.

Let ne clarify, I bought this for the sole intention of creating a bonsai Japanese maple for the kiddo.
Trunk chop is a new one for me. Will look into it!

htxbonsai wrote: Let ne clarify, I bought this for the sole intention of creating a bonsai Japanese maple for the kiddo.
Trunk chop is a new one for me. Will look into it!

Here's an article:


Do note that growing a good bonsai from a cutting will take longer than raising your kiddo.

Here's the progress I've gotten out of the trunk as of the 19th.

I'll go grab another picture, because the buds have really opened up since then.

Today, after work:





I kept it inside for a few days after I chopped the top of the trunk off, because I was worried about it getting burned by the Texas heat. Looking at the post now, I think I will let one of the little buds coming out of the bottom grow nice and wild as a sacrifice branch? Seems like a good idea.

Then I decided that it was a tree and as long as it wasn't getting destroyed by torrential rains it would probably survive. (as long as I could get the maple the shade it deserved)

And then it rained. and rained. and rained. and rained. I had the trees on a glass patio table that was partially under the roof of our apartment, so they didn't get destroyed by the rain but they definitely got more than enough water.

I had actually commented to my wife on the 12th that I thought I had killed it and was going to have to replace it. We ended up going to the hospital Friday to deliver our daughter (Saturday AM) and when we got home the tree was budding. It's a sign!

Why did you cut it?

名媛直播Learner wrote: Why did you cut it?

Because people think bonsai are created by keeping small plants small...

htxbonsai wrote: We ended up going to the hospital Friday to deliver our daughter (Saturday AM) and when we got home the tree was budding. It's a sign!

Congratulations!

leatherback wrote: For bonsai, you need to take it out of the ground in spring, and organize the roots so they spread evenly all around the trunk. Then let it grow for a few years. Read up on "trunk chops", which is the technique you will be using if you decide to go for a bonsai.

I think LB meant that you should have done things in the above order...