Peter Tea—“Building Bonsai from Within”
Bonsai Structure from the Ground Up. PTBonsai.com
Green Atlas Cedar is more common, but is a random variant and selected and pan and suck up water. Most BAC are grafted.
#1 goal of a tree is that it wants to grow big—manage that behavior to your benefit
Graphical change in number implies a pair of branches at the division—one a new leader and one a branch
Lower branches to get bigger—let it grow out, but the outer branches will later be sacrificed.
Apex may compete with lower branch (manage shoots/runners to focus growth lower)
Best to divide or ramify closer to the trunk, compared to further out (can always sacrifice one of the branches)
Outer growth competes with smaller, inner branches and slow inner growth. Once outer growth is cut, the inner branches may suffer from lack of sunlight—if the top canopy shades out the lower branches. Prune and tighter apically to allow sunlight below.
Canopy of foliage is at the outer thin region, where inner branches are shaded out.
Goal: target branch width to be 25% -35% of the trunk at that point. If the branch width is greater, it may become a second trunk—as it is out of proportion to be a traditional branch.
Tilting the pot to orient the (lower) branch towards the sun to increase growth—not found to be more effective than just lengthening the branch and bending the end pointing up.
(Pointing to the side grows slower than up) (pointing down grows slower than to the side)
Terminal ends grow stronger (like apex), so if you prefer stronger inner branches it will compete—may die off and result in a leggy branch.
Attempting to let light in by thinning over time counteracts—encouraging canopy growth due to more pruning
Defoliation is used to weaken a specific area (technique) — similar to cutting back to weaken
When you have a highly ramified branch. If one large leaf competes with the weaker pair leaf—defoliation will protect the weaker branch
Trees do not like leaves touching—and highly ramified forces leaves closer—a tree will Ki no naturally create space by dying off branches.
Alternatively put under a shade cloth to slow down growth
If dense (e.g. tridents) in summer is a ball of leaves. If you desire a prettier summer tree you may thin our ramification or partially defoliate
Don’t always cut off branches you don’t want—they may be sacrificial as being there competes and weakens general growth—cut later
Swirl or reverse taper due to more than 2 branches—swells. If you let each grow long it will swell, don’t prune one out but pinch all to weaken and split off
When you prune or break a branch—the new secondary branch will grow—the base of that branch will not grow wider until the secondary branch gets closer to size of the base of the branch—balance
Challenge is that early movement in the trunk or new leaders often get enveloped by growth—as a tree naturally grows cylindrically.
