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Coast redwood development update

July 14, 2023 by Jonas Dupuich

Three years ago, I wired a shoot on a coast redwood to create a new trunk on a multi-trunk composition (see “Coast redwood cutback” for details). The shoot grew well, and it’s now time to cut it back.

Before cutback

Coast redwood – before cutback

Coast redwood

After cutback – 31″ to the top of the cone-shaped trunk

The trunk on the left has good size now but no branches. By reducing the top of this trunk, I’m hoping to stimulate lots of new growth that can be used to create the future silhouette.

The middle trunk has a few branches but not many as it was shaded out by the sacrifice growth on the left-hand trunk. Meanwhile, the trunk on the right has a nearly full silhouette as it received good sunlight for the past few years.

The lower branches are mostly shaggy as they’re growing freely until they reach the desired thickness.

One fun thing about redwoods is that the same tree can have several things going on at once. It’s not always easy to keep after all of the new growth, but I have enjoyed pursuing different development goals at the same time.

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Redwood

Previous Post: « Wiring at decandling time
Next Post: Setting up redwoods for bonsai work: step 0 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kurt Kaiser says

    July 15, 2023 at 2:01 pm

    Hi Jonas, I’ve got 3 coast redwoods in large grow boxes, I chopped the tops and wired last fall, they’re doing great! My question to you is it ok to trim the branches and buds throughout the summer as they grow like crazy? Is it ok to cut this years green growth or only back into the woody part? Thanks!!

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      July 15, 2023 at 5:29 pm

      Hi Kurt! If the goal is to thicken something, let it grow. If the goal is to increase density, you can pinch or prune throughout the growing season.

      Here are example of this:
      https://bonsaitonight.com/2022/04/29/creating-redwood-bonsai-step-1/
      https://bonsaitonight.com/2022/08/05/creating-redwood-bonsai-step-2/

      Does this help?

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