Turning young Japanese maples into bonsai - the first steps
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- In this video, I work on several small Japanese maples from nursery stock. I start them on their journey to becoming bonsai trees in the future using several techniques including wiring and pruning.
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Watching one of Tony’s videos from time to time, makes me always smile. 😊 Thanks for sharing so many awesome videos. RIP Tony. ❤ Cheers to your family and friends 🙋♀️ Martina
As always you demonstrate what great movement you can achieve with early wiring. A year on those look fantastic Tony. As I always seem to be saying...I just wish I had been as bold with the 80 maple saplings I obtained back in 2015. There ok having used clip and grow, but i know they could have been so much better. Just keep showing people that wiring is easy and produces great results. Cheers, Xav
Cheers Xav. Yeah clip and grow is good but most maples need some basic interest adding early on if we want interesting trees.
This title caught my attention immediately! I am going to enjoy watching this.
Thanks Margaret. You know I love an enticing title!
For me maples are the best , love um . Hope ya recovering well mate .
Cheers mate. They are gorgeous, and in the spring, the colours are just fantastic. the eye is healing up really nicely thanks and apparently the surgery went very well.
@@TonysBonsai good to hear mate 🙏
Morning Tony working on your maples whilst on my bike so thank you for entertaining me, the maples should develop over time. Keep videos and I’ll keep watching.
Cheers Joe. Watching my video while grinding away on a bike. Double pain 🤣
Nice twisting Tony and you've set them all up nicely for the future. I agree with you that spending time looking at and thinking about different possibilities for the tree is invaluable. I have left mine outside my back door and looked at it over the period of a week before doing any actual work on it. I wouldn't recommend looking at it whilst downing a couple of cans though as some strange shapes suddenly appear sometimes which can be a bit off-putting! 👍👍
Guy. You absolutely should make a video when you are steaming drunk. Viral hit right there mate! 🤣🤣
Hi Tony, thanks for this little journey through your maples. I have got a few of such little JM‘s, on which I made some cut backs before the winter, now waiting for the spring to see them regrow. Interesting to see your approaches, much aligned with mine, except I have not applied any heavy wiring on the main trunks, exactly for the reason you have explained. I share your experience that those wire scares may grow out on younger plants, but this can take years in the worst cases. I love watching your videos, as there is always something to take away for my own work. Keep going Tony 👍🏻. See you next time 😊
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. We are lucky having access to cheap little plants like these, and I always thing whenb I;ve not paid much that I am happy to really push them. Even if half are no good, hopefully the other half end up nice or at least with potential to be nice.
Sounds like we're both looking forward to spring!
Great video Tony. I am interested to see how this vet tape works in comparison to raffia when you take it off for the first time.
The trees are looking magnificent! Look forward to watching these grow in the future. Thank you for sharing!
Cheers Matt. I'm really looking forward to exposing these trees in a few months to see how they did under the tape too.
Your Maples are looking good Tony, i have ordered some vet tape to try and hope to take my shaping to the next level of extreme! It looks like your blinking well and the surgery has helped..i hope your healing continues to be a positive journey mate. 👍
Cheers mate. you'll love working with the vet tape. It seems to do the job for me anyway.
I went and had the stitches in my eyelid removed today, and the surgeon said he was really pleased with the eye and my new blink, so it all seems very positive so far.
Great news Tony, that will make things easier for you and keep your eye healthier.. I'm unsure weather you where having to use eye drops during the day and a patch to keep it closed at night..i went through that for 18 months before my muscles strengthened enough for my eye to close itself so i understand how happy you must feel.. i prey its all behind you now and you enjoy a long and fulfilling bonsai journey..🙏
Keep bending brother.
Cheers mate. It's not looking like I'll ever have a fully closing eye, but at least the blink is good and I should be fine out in the wind which is the main thing. I'll probabaly have to tape my eye up at night for the rest of my life, but it's no big deal to me really. I'm more interested in the finctionality of my eye which is a lot better.
I'm glad you got the movement back in yours though and now that my eye is a lot clearer without all the ointment in it, I can see my bonsai a lot better!
Very Nice Tree . The Bark is Amazing . Love it . Merry Christmas to you and your Family .
I've been taking cuttings from my neighbors different types of Jap Maples. I'm looking forward to spring to see what I've got. I've found that Jap. Maples tend to snap after around 3/4", but anything less thick are super easy to bend, and always leave at least a 1/2" for dieback when clipping branches.
Hopefully you will have a load of nice material in the future with all those cuttings. i hope they do well Robert
Awesome explanation of your decision making, thank you !
I am so happy to have found this video! Having multiple examples helped me understand the options better :)
I agree on ur decisions on the last tree. U def gave some great pointers on that one. I have a few jm that have really long internodes and it sucks that they wont just bud between the length so i think im going to start grafting on them with the same branches and see how that works out. Have u ever tried to graft in between these internodes?
Hi Chris. Grafting is something I have yet to try, but those approach grafts I've seen on that Japanese channel look very workable in the right circumstances. The key seems to be grafting a bud into the branch or trunk and then removing both ends, otherwise they kind of look weird.
@@TonysBonsai i dont have many of the same trees so i was going to try some side grafts where u just take a small branch and graft it right into a branch. Only thing im worried about is what the scar afterwards may look like . I feel like since we know how to manipulate these tree may as well try. Its winter here in nyc i think the time to do them is now
You'll have to let me know how you get on. I would have thought it would have been better to wait a month or two, but that's just a guess.
@@TonysBonsai i hear ya. Maybe better before spring but have seen it done in winter. I follow mrmaple on yt and they show grafting with them doing it now. Its a good channel u should check out to learn about maples. They sell all diff types of maples also but dont sell overseas but have some great info on their channel.
@@TonysBonsai sorry its called mr maple show. These guys are good. Check them out
Classic Tony , I really enjo y his videos. Also follow Xavier with Tonys legacy trees. Great entertainment & knowledge. Love how he explained his thought process.
How’s the eye doing Tony hope you will be able to blink it again.
I'm actually just in hospital now waiting to get the stitches removed. The surgeon was very happy and my blink has been restored which is great. I still can't fully close it, but it's a lot better than before
@@TonysBonsai great news you will be able to wink at the girls with that eye now.
It might be more of a wonky blink, but that will have to do 🤣
Man I hear a cracking on the very first bend not really on the second bend
I just had a listen, and I think that was my microphone wire, well I hope so anyway! 🤣
Really like your pragmatic approach and the way you explain it. Those trees will be fine. Don't know if you follow Aussie Bonsai Bloke (Sam Doecke), but he's fallen silent since November. Any ideas?
Thanks David. Sam's channel is actually one that I have never really followed to be honest. I have heard that he's been silent and I hope he is ok and just taking a break.
35min with Tony today. Happy-go-lucky when I saw that at work today. I feel that everything I do when I do bending with wire. It all becomes a s shape. Or Cork screw. Do you feel the same 🤣😆
Definitely when working with maples it is hard to do much else if you want it moving in more than one direction. With other trees like pines and junipers we can really get creatives but acers really limit what we can do. As I said in the video though I don;t mind a cork screw as this is only the very first step and down the line we can chose branches ets to make much more than a cork screw.
@Tonys Bonsai I try to mix up the styles on my acers I did a cascade one last year. Going to remove the waiers before spring on it. So you can really bend this suckers. But don't try to do big bends on olive. I have tried 4 trees now. Everything has broken. But they live on ,
Feist
I have a handful of these myself to work on later in the year - “green ball” or something similar. They look like “going green” but slightly smaller leaves - B&Q had loads to get rid of in autumn. I plan to re-attempt fusing them together in a clump/kabadachi style.
I have also toyed with the idea of fusing several different varieties together to attempt to give some kind of rainbow coloured tree - I’m sure others have tried and I don’t know whether this would be successful or doomed to failure from the outset. Since many are successfully grafted to different root stock I imagine it could be successful - the resulting tree would be interesting and either a monstrosity with different size and colour leaves and bark, or look very interesting. In particular it could be interesting to have the colours change from one side of the tree to the other, going from red, orange, green.
I would try that - it would make a great thumbnail with your 'rainbow' fusion...
@@XaviersBonsaiRetreat I might need to wait about 5 years for the thumbnail… 🤣
Or do some digital “magic” click bait…
I am pretty sure that it would be successful, but I seem to recall Peter Chan making a forest of maples of different varieties, and it didn't really work for the reasons you mentioned.
Worth doing for fun, and the bigger it is the better it would work I think.
@@TonysBonsai I’m thinking a fusion rather than a forest of seperate trees. Some of the potential issues are differing leaf size and different bark colours and textures but I reckon it would be a worthy and interesting experiment. I would expect, if successful, the more vigorous growing parts would eventually take over.
Yes I think you will have to carefully select trees of different varieties with very similar leaf shape and size.
I'll look forward to the video in ten years time when you have a wonderful clump style tree and you wish you'd used the same variety 🤣🤣
Great to see you back Tony. Hope you are healing well. I only grow JM so I really enjoy when you focus on them.
Keep up the good work. Hope the surgery was a success
Thank you. The surgery appears to have gone well and my blink has definitely improved which was the goal. I love jm's too, but then again I'm a fan of most species.
You make wiring look easy! You'll have some nicely shaped trees when these grow. Hope you're feeling okay after your operation - best wishes. 🇦🇺
Cheers mate. I'm definitely getting more proficient at the wiring.
I'm actually just in hospital now waiting to have the stitches removed and the consultant said he's very happy with the surgery. 🙂
Great video Tony......mat
Cheers Mat. Glad you enjoyed it mate
Good video Tony I’ve got my acer’s coming up Tony. Just bought 2 acer Palmatum ukigumo can’t wait to see them in spring. 👍👍
Great minds think alike! I planted two of those in the garden a few months ago. Their leaves look really beautiful.
@@TonysBonsai defo fella unusual definitely 👍
Enjoyed the wiring tips , take care
Cheers Wullie
Great video. I’m going to give that contact wrap a try!
Hi Patrick. You really should. I find it works a treat and I've yet to snap a branch or trunk with it on.
Salam kenal, iam from Indonesia, bonsai is good
Thank you
You’ve really gotten very proficient at your wiring techniques. Interesting tip on that first tree getting the wire to secure both at the base instead of sticking it into the soil and the top branch. Great improvements on all the trees. Thanks, keep growing
Cheers Matt. I suppose considering how long I've been practising bonsai, I've done a lot of wiring, and I definitely feel like I'm getting better at it.
It will be interesting to see how these trees do with the use of vet tape in terms of wire marks.
What gauge wire did you use on the first plant?
Hi George. I'm not certain, but I think it looks like around 4mm aluminum wire
Wow that was marathon session, I had to watch you in two parts. I have a katsura that needs looking at in this way you are a great reminder. Went to greenwood's today got a few pots and another tree my first hemlock. Keep growing.xx
I hope you bought a cornetto at the interlude!
Great news on the hemlock. I just love them and I'm sure you will enjoy working on yours
I have some acers myself young once as well
Hi Tony , been watching your RUclips channel for a long time now , your a person that has fantastic ideas you try all different ideas & stuff , you are a awesome funny bloke ,, I,m retired & been doing bonsais for 40 years ,, when I do root over rock bonsais to keep all the moss wrapped around it I use gutter guard large plastic mesh you can buy it in a roll from your hardware store ,, I,m in Australia so I buy it from bunnings it is 7 " tall comes in a 2 or 3 metre roll , so much easier wrap it around & tie the ends with a little loop of aluminium wire , works a treat & so much easier, keep up the great bonsai work , brilliant, Billy
Thanks Gregory. I just did a root over rock today using muck. It's the first time for me, and it was quite a tricky method.
thanks for the tip of the wire mesh. that sounds like a nice method of attaching the moss. I'll have to pick some up thanks.
Well done bud more trees going in the right direction, literally.
Cheers Kevin. Gotta keep moving forward mate.
Tony another good video ..what i love about the way you work is that you read what the tree is saying to you and use it to do your twists and bends its a great technique.and i love it .happy pottering on.
Cheers mate. I suppose even at a very early stage a trees structure dictates our decisions to a certain extent, and I like the idea of working in harmony with nature.
Thanks for the video, I like that you explain your thought process, we all have to make decisions and it's nice to hear BEFORE someone cuts what they were thinking. I too have a maple I left the wire on too long but it's healing. I hear the problem with vet tape is it's like duct tape, it's hard to get off when it's old, sticky and tears the bark, maybe not bad with maples since they are smoother bark.
Hi Steve. Thanks for the information about the vet tape. It's lucky that i'm tight and bought the cheap tape which doesn;t appear very sticky at all, but if I have an issue with it, I will switch to using it sticky side out which could be a good work around.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
I use duck tape, but it's the 'wrap-fix' type that only sticks to itself (It has no adhesive) and seems to work fine....
I've searched You Tube for hours trying to find the answer to this ? NOWHERE to be found. How young can you start training a Japanese Maple for Bonsai? I just dug up a large seedling which is 21 inches tall. I don't know what age it is because I just started reading about Bonsai 2 weeks ago. So I hope somebody can answer my ? Thanks
I just saw a video of a guy that wires his seedlings that are like 1 year old and 6-8inches tall. He gets some awesome bends in the little trunks because he started them so young. Another method was to put a light screen over the top of the pot that a bunch of seedling were growing in. Forcing the tops to bend as they grow if that makes sense
Tony thank you so much for telling us what your thinking and why or why not you are doing
How long does it takes for tree to set in that position
I will be removing the wire from these in a few months, and they should hold most of the new position. I'll do an update on them when I take a look in May/June
@@TonysBonsai 🙏
Nice one Tony. I've lots of 3 year old seedlings which we grew from seed in the garden. I seem to lose loads to the "black death" hopefully the ones left will be a little hardier and stay alive. They are a stunning variety of tree
Fingers crossed for your trees. Hopefully at least a few end up being nice bonsai in the future!
I can't wait to do some bending, nice work Tony
Hey Tony, i have a blood good maple that really needs some pruning. However i would like to take some cuttings to root from it. Is it too early in the year to do that? I have a tent i start my tomatoes in that i can keep them in rather than being outside in thr cold. Lemme know... Thanks
Hi Andrew. Apparently, red coloured maples are much harder to air layer and grow from cuttings than green coloured maples, but by no means impossible. I believe it is possible to root them at this time of year using hardwood cuttings, but your best bet will be in late spring using this years growth when it has hardened off. I am by no means an expert though and my results so far rooting JM cuttings is abysmal.
@@TonysBonsai thank you for the advice! I might just screw around and take a few now and then wait and take more in late spring. I also want to air layer it as it's a twin trunk thats rather boring. ( but I'll wait to do that) Really i just want to use my new bonsai tools 😆. I'll give it a go and let ya know what happens. Thanks again
I had a go at air layering my red maple this year and it failed. A lot of people mentioned that it often takes two years, so I re applied the moss and it's sitting there waiting for spring and summer when it will hopefully send out some roots.
Let me know how you get on, and hopefully, you have more luck than me.
@@TonysBonsai well that's interesting. I never would have thought it takes 2 years. I know evergreens take a good while to root but i just thought all maples are created equal. I really bought the tree thinking i was a great specimen to do such work and more or less sacrifice a good portion to turn into multiple trees still leaving enough to be a stand alone bonsai. I really splashed the cash on it so I'd hate to see it go to the big planter in the sky.. But nothing ventured nothing gained i guess.!
👌👍🙂
Cheers Bruce
Them young B&M maples are great to work on ,well done tony.
Cheers Brian, and at a quid a pop you can't go wrong.
Your processes and your courage equally inspire me. Thanks and cheers.
Cheers mate. I just try to do the best with what I know and hopefully they will end up looking nice in a few years.
What's the tape called good idea
Camo tape
Tony, the man with the strongest fingers and an over paid barber. He never has a hair on his head over 000.3 mm.
Stay golden and have. fun making your videos. It shows. Spring is settled in Indiana USA so I reworked some old trees, and potted 2 others ive had for 2 years. Lots of fun much needed work. I was in the hospital also. On a positive note the time away from my 6 trees did the really well. We are all healthy. I think my trees and I are competing for who looks the best.
It's good to hear that your trees are doing well, and more importantly I hope that you are doing well Andrew!
As for my hair, I have been cutting it myself since I was 20. Always seemed waste of money paying a barbour to remove 1 oz!
I have one of the tree seedling plant that I want to turn into bonsai but it's so long. Now, I've heard that cutting the top off is not recommended. So, how do you make this plant shorter naturally without cutting the top off? I d on't see you cutting the top off on any one of your Maple bonsai?
I don't like Japanese maple... I have probably close to 50 tree's now and not one Japanese maple.. they do nothing for me in general but every know and then I see one that catches my eye but cost too much for my hobby level of investment.. I think I feel like it's cheating to make a bonsai because of the super short internode spacing or maybe because I just don't like the leaves that much although I have two I put in my Japanese Zen garden I did last year 🤷🏿
That's the beauty of bonsai Marcus. There are so many choices, and if we all liked the same trees and styles etc it would be pretty boring. I do get what you mean about cheating though. Some trees are almost naturally bonsai anyway, although the very best mature Japanese maples are pretty spectacular I think.
When those trees in your zen garden thicken up, you can always collect them and turn them into bonsai! 🤣
Brilliant, thanks Tony. I've quite a few young jap maples now so will try this on a few if them.
Good man. I know so many people acquire this kind of material and so I thought I'd show what is possible.
Loved watching you bend theses maples. Do you have a size guide on the thick and thin wire? I have a couple of b and q maples from last year that I’m going to attempt to bend now. Thank you for your explanations. X
Hi Karen. I use wore ranging from 1mm all the way up to 6mm. For most applications though I think1.5, 2.5 and 4mm are very good choices.