On May 6, 2012, I defoliated my Korean hornbeam. Here is what it looked like after removing the leaves. Defoliated – May 6 (the few leaves in back belong to an escape branch) One of my main goals for defoliating the tree was to expose the interior buds to more light (see Decandling a Korean […]
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Defoliating a Korean hornbeam
I’ve been defoliating and partially defoliating my bonsai for years – particularly my trident maple bonsai. Somewhere along the line I picked up a Korean hornbeam, but this tree I didn’t defoliate. I hesitated the first several years because I was working on developing basic branch structure. I hesitated the last few years our of […]
Decandling projects
In my ongoing effort to develop interior buds on two of my black pines, I tried decandling them in fall almost two years ago. I decandled them again last year, and to really push these trees, I cut them back heavily after decandling. The result has been very vigorous growth and a number of new […]
Decandling a shohin black pine
The last of my pines to be decandled this year are the smallest of the bunch. Giving these trees less time to recover helps keep summer growth in check and needles short. I removed all but the smallest spring shoots, and then removed extra needles, leaving around 5 pairs on each branch. Shohin black pine […]
Treating a successful approach graft on black pine
Here’s how to treat a successful approach graft on black pine. The first step is removing any tape holding the graft in place. Tape holding graft in place After removing tape Next, remove the stub with concave cutters. Removing the stub A chisel can be used to further gouge out the stub to ensure that […]