ok i am going to show you tho pics of before and after the ferst part of styling a shigitatsu sawa as a bonsai. ferst i defoligeated the maple to look at the structrue it will leaf back out. and cut back the internodes. and then i dicided on a front of the tree and cut off the second trunk. and then planted the tree in akadorma and in a bonsai traning por and dicided on the posstion and braching. i will show pictures when it has lefed out thanks. James
Hi James, Great pics. I look forward to seeing the outcome. I like seeing your pruning and choice of the tree trunk line. It is nice to see something from a starting point. Too much of Bonsai show only end results. Do you ever grow any out and trunk chop? I love maples and look forward to learning Bonsai and applying it to Acer palmatums. I have been using cheap nursery stock for practicing and collecting cultivars. I was just gving some great lessons on grafting from Dale and look forward to starting some Bonsai with Maple stock soon. If you have any tips, especialy regarding Bonsai and maples, please let me know. Thanks Mike
hi mike no i never use trunk chop as u call it unless i have to most of the bonsai i grow are Acer plamatum. i like to get insresting culivars these are my faerate tree i work for harry thomlinson if you khow of him who trained me about bonsai. but maples are very easy to grow as bonsai but grow theam in akadorma it u are going to cut theam hard back. most of mine i will gorw from a yong graf and train it that way.
Is it an 'Aka Shigitatsu sawa' or a 'Beni Shigitatsu sawa' ? Do you have some recent pictures ? Thank you
Re: hi mike Sorry, but I'm not familiar with anything called 'akadorma'. Is this a special potting soil? Do you know what it would be called in the U.S.? Wanda
Re: hi mike AKADAMA is the japanese for "red clay". It's a kind of soil very used for bonsaï. You can see how it looks here : http://images.google.com/images?q=akadama
Aha! Thank you Andre! Wanda By the way, have you looked at the new photos I posted of my sister's Acer palmatum? I'm becoming quite sure it is Chisio (or Chishio) Improved.
i used to akadama my plants until I found out that I had to water my plant twice a day and fert on a hydroponic schedule. So I went full circle and returned to bark, lava and dirt with poop for my bonsai.
Hi I live in Canada and find Akadama very pricey. I use a product called Turface as my potting medium for my bonsai trees. It's a terra cotta colour baked clay used on baseball fields between bases. I find it to work just as well as Akadama at a fraction of the cost. $15 Can per 50 lb bag. It works great for rooting cuttings also.
Hi, Turface seems interesting as a soil additive for bonsai and even general use. I did a google and came up with this site that repackages it and sells it in 2lb. bags. 50lbs. is a lot. http://www.shbonsai.com/graphics/products/Soils/Turface.htm I also found this one that sells it by the pound or 50lb. bag. http://www.orchidmix.com/cat2.htm Another one that sells by the 50lb. bag that's cheaper. http://yardgeek.com/other_view_prod.cfm?SKU=3660 Usual disclaimers apply. Layne
