Growing Bonsai in the Ground

Mother Earth

It's Tuesday afternoon and school's out!  In my bag I throw in some bonsai wire, my cutters, a banana, and head up the mountain to visit my bonsai stock.  This is a picture around the corner from where 70 Taiwan Juniper trees are growing in the ground.  My plan is to fatten them up and hopefully make some worthwhile bonsai in a few years time. 

The winding road is always a treat.  The scene below is the suburb of TienMu.  I live 15 minutes from where I have taken this photo.

I have decided to wire some trunks of my junipers before they become too thick to bend and shape.  Last week Annie and I also shortened some side branches.  I didn't want these branches becoming too heavy.  I also wanted to open up the tree and let more sunlight reach the inner areas.  This way more side branching will be encouraged.  

I choose the thickest wire I have, jam it into the ground and wire the trunk.  I then add movement to the trunk.  I have been told this will restrict the growth of the trunk but I want to try it out for myself and see what happens.  

Before wiring I take a sharp knife and remove some bark to add what is known as shari.  Good shari should have a little movement as well.  I didn't do the best job of adding movement here.  Far too hot to be messing around this that!  I just wanted to add some character to the trunk - make the tree look older and weather beaten.  I cut the tree slightly and then ripped the bark down.  This doesn't harm the tree too much.  The water still finds its way up the other side of the bark.  Do not remove all the bark - ring bark -because the tree will die.

Some more shari - I tried making it look as natural as possible - rough and ready - as if lightning struck this guy but he is still tough enough to live!  Now it's up to the wind and other elements to deal with this section.  Summer is a good time to make cuttings and develop some shari as the wounds will heal quite fast.

I reduce the length of the long side branches because I don't want them getting too thick.  I also want some back budding to occur - I don't want all the growth at the tip of the branch.  You can see that I leave the lead branch uncut.  This will be allowed to grow untouched.  A thicker trunk will be the result.

Tearing strips off!  

Some side branches developing.

I wired this guy and reduced the height almost by half by adding bends and turns throughout the trunk.  If I leave them to grow too much thicker I will not be able to bend the trunk at all - especially at the base where I want my first turn.

More wiring.

Allowing the lead branches to grow freely.  

I can't wait to see this tree in 3 years time.  I will check up on these trees ina  few months and remove the wire as it will be biting into the trunk.  I will then let the tree grow freely for a while (recover) and rewire once again.  Another option is to leave the wire on the tree until it really bites hard!  Then remove the wire - what will happen is the bark will come away too - developing a twisting shari effect.

I do not wire all trees (some trees have grown so well that it is now too difficult to bend them at all).  I will observe the difference in thickness compared to the wired trees over time.  I can also use these straight trees for a forest planting where most will grow straight up.  The important part is that the tree must have nice side branches and balanced taper from trunk base to trunk tip.

Take care out there!