When healthy satsuki finish blooming, it’s a great time to thin trees that have grown dense.
Normally this work happens earlier in the growing season but I didn’t get to it on time and I know that the dense foliage will weaken interior growth and invite insects if I wait any longer to prune.
Here’s a medium-sized tree before and after cutting back to two leaves per shoot and removing the old leaves.
Kinsai satsuki azalea – before pruning
After pruning – 15″
The main difference to note is that it’s now possible to see through the foliage which means plenty of light can make it down to the lower branches.
Here’s a close-up of a branch on an exposed root satsuki to show the density I’m aiming for.
After thinning – branch detail
And here’s a shot of the tree from above.
Tree from above
The density looks greater from the front as the pads are relatively flat.
Exposed root Kozan-no-hikari after thinning – 17″
The next step for both trees is to refine the silhouette. Now would be a good time to do the wiring, as would fall or winter so the tree will have a good shape before next year’s foliage fills in.
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Vance hanna says
Jonas,
Well done as usual.
Thank you
Vance hanna
Claudio Bagni says
thanks for sending me the posts a very important site for those who love bonsai … thank for existing
Claudio
Robert Miller says
Jonas, is the first azalea in a Sara Raynor pot? The shape and coloration are wonderful. You have a great match with the tree and the pot.
Jonas Dupuich says
It is a Rayner pot – thanks!
Jason says
It looks like you leaf cut the leaves on the lower branches. Is this right or an optical illusion?
I just got an imported massive trunked Kaho’ and the apex is a little weak. I’ve been pruning vigorous growth from the lower branches but realized from this post that I could leaf cut too.
It’s a balance right now of letting the tree re-establish itself by pushing growth everywhere but I also want to protect the apex and balance energy.
Great post! Thank you!
Jonas Dupuich says
Hi Jason – yes, though it’s inadvertent. On the first pass the tree was sheared and some leaves were cut.
Weak apex on satsuki is tricky. There’s a chance that there’s a portion of the rootball that’s not in good shape which is making watering difficult. That’s great the lower part of the tree is healthy which suggests that the basic care is good. Until you can repot and check the roots, the one thing that comes to mind is foliar feeding the weak apical branches.
Jason says
Hi Jonas,
Thank you for replying!
This is my first bonsai, what do you recommend for foliar feeding?
A few more details…
I’m currently feeding with GroPower Azalea formula. I’m using 1.5 tbsp in teabags in six location around the tree. I’ve been swapping this out monthly. The nebari is ~18inches and the pot is 24 inch round. The trunk after the nebari is 9-10in in diameter. It was barefooted in February and potted in Kanuma when it arrived. I probably under watered a little at first, I was waiting for the very top layer of Kanuma to turn white and now that I’m water a little more frequently it seems to be responding better.
I bought the azalea book with the yellow cover from you a few weeks ago. Thank you for the super fast processing and shipping. I’ve enjoyed it so far and if I can keep this thing alive it will come in handy when I try to style it after it has grown out. It’s just a stump with primary branches and I think it will be a year or two before I have enough secondary branching to work with.
Jonas Dupuich says
Hard to recommend a specific fertilizer for azalea as I don’t have great experience with fixing that problem. I use a lot of organics with azaleas in general.
Related, there’s a great book on satsuki from Rick Garcia. If you want more details on the species, it’s loaded with them:
https://nasbc.com/collections/books
Jason says
Thank you for the recommendation. I have a copy of Rick’s book on order.
Thanks again for taking time to respond and so generously sharing your knowledge on this blog.