Japanese Maples

Creating large trunks

         The preferable time for Japanese maple and creating large trunks on them is winter and the plant would be better then to be around 30cm in height and just before the buds are ready to burst. One of the things to look for is that the plant has a good and even distribution of the root system as this will help your Japanese Maple to create a strong trunk.There are two ways you can accomplish this. You can choose to use a very large container of bucket, although I feel the best results are to place the plant directly into the earth. Find a position in your garden where it has good compost and will drain quickly. This is to help the plants root system has plenty of good soil to promote quick growth for the Japanese maples Large Trunk.

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        Choose a front for the Japanese Maple and then proceed by taking off the top buds and then cut down two healthy side ways growing buds, making sure that the tree is well watered for the first 12 to 14 weeks and feed with fertilizer making sure you do not place the fertilizer over the root system of the Japanese Maple.

        Your Japanese maple should then show a very quick spurt of growth and you should also be able to see an enlargement of the trunk and two leads where you originally cut the side buds of your plant. this will be around the six month from your date you started with this project, then decide how you want the shape to go and allowing for the natural curve cut one of the lead buds back to around to buds and the other you can just leave on the Japanese Maple to grow wild.

Dwarf Japanese Maple (acer palmatum 'kiyo hime') Rare Dwarf Japanese Maple in the 'Yatsabusa' group. Slow growing with small leaves that have a soft delicate texture. Lots of twiggy branches. Leaves have a thin purple/pink edge in the spring. Most desirable for bonsai. Deciduous. Keep outdoors. 32 years old. 18" x 18" x 20" tall Potted in an 8.5" red/brown unglazed rectangle container as shown. Suitable 10"x8" humidity tray is recommended.

              The next thing that needs to be done requires you to have some self discipline regarding the necessity for you to completely be able to ignore the wild leading branch and considerate on the one you cut off and creating it to what you eventually hope will be the middle of your Japanese Maple Bonsai while creating the large trunk.

              This meaning that if one side of the Japanese Maple says pruned just as if it were already a bonsai then this will maintain the low growth and plenty of branches to work at a later stage. The next thing to accomplish is to figure how thick you would like the large trunk to become as you can wait another year for more growth as this is where your personnel choice begins. If you decide at this stage that the trunk is sufficient for your liking then you can now cut the remaining lead branch that was left to go wild and by now you may need a small saw to do this and to be sure you cut it cleanly as not to damage the bark. If you intend to place the Japanese Maple into a container then leave it until you have transplanted it. Japanese Maples have strength and a knack to start over again and this is why we have not mentioned trimming the roots the Japanese Maple is in the ground.