Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Prunus Mahaleb progress

I collected this Prunus Mahaleb in spring of 2011 and in the first two years the tree made nice progress. I hope it will continue to develop with the same pace so it can be exhibition ready in the next 5 to 6 years.

Prunus Mahaleb after collection 2011-02

After a year of rest I started to style the tree in spring of 2012. Unfortunately I broke one of the main branches, but what is gone is gone and the good thing with Prunus Mahaleb is that new branches can be developed quite fast so in three to four years a new branch with a similar diameter will be developed form scratch. 
After the styling the tree was completely defoliated and re-wired in June 2012.

In spring of 2013 I transplanted the tree in a training pot, changed the angle and the old soil with a new substrat and made an additional styling focused on deadwood and branches structure. My goal was to develop a good basic branch structure with the right dynamic movement of each branch and especially  start the development of branches with natural proportions.

Prunus Mahaleb 2013-03

Despite that the tree was transplanted and styled in spring the growth was strong and vigorous so I decided to defoliate the tree completely in the June 2013 and make some new adjustments to the branch structure. 

Prunus Mahaleb 2013-06
Styled deadwood

Prunus Mahaleb 2013-07
The main structure of primary and secondary branches is done for the moment. The focus of the future development will be mostly on developing stronger branches and maintain the good structure, proportions and branch movement of each single branch.

I strongly believe that a quality deciduous tree needs to have, next to all other characteristics that make a good bonsai, a natural, mature and proportional branches structure compared to the trunk and of course with the same design principles of proportions for all additional branches (secondary vs. primary, tertiary vs. secondary and so on).

Progress from 2011 to 2013


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