When pre-bonsai are in the trunk-thickening phase, the work is simple – prune to avoid unwanted swelling and wire new shoots where you want movement.
I’ve been doing this work on a batch of crabapples I started from seed for several years now.
Young crabapple
Trunk detail
To encourage new buds along the trunk, I removed the two main sacrifice branches.
After removing the sacrifice branches – 5″ tall
I don’t know where the front will be at this point, but I’ll have options as long as the trunk has movement.
A candidate front
The work was similar on the tree below.
Crabapple with sacrifice branches
Close-up of the trunk
My goal for this tree is to thicken the top part of the trunk. To do this, I’ll remove the sacrifice branches that emerge from the lower part of the trunk and let the apex grow freely.
After removing the low sacrifice branches
I also wired two small branches that may become part of the final design.
After pruning and wiring – 4″ to top of wire
I expect to do similar work on these trees in spring and again in fall.
This cycle will repeat until the trunk reaches desired size. Once that happens, I’ll move the tree to a smaller container and start refining the branches. Depending on how large I want the trunk to become, this work could begin within 3-5 years.
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