Thickening the Trunk of your Bonsai

today we want to speak about the question how can i thicken the trunk of my bonsai [Music] hi we are here in my greenhouse south of munich germany where i store most of my broadleaf deciduous trees over winter today we want to speak about the question how can i thicken the trunk of my bonsai well if you ask that simple question on the internet you get answers like well put it in your garden let it grow come back in five years and then we speak about it that's not very helpful because that's not your real problem unless you have to stick in the pot and then you may want to do that but normally people have the following problem they have a nice looking tree which they really like and they want to know how can i thicken that drug i do everything possible i i feed it and it does not really grow thicker okay first of all we will have to understand why a trunk thickens most people think that it's because he's fed like if you feed a dog it grows thicker if you feed yourself you grow thicker and if you feed yourself more you grow even thicker and they think that happens with the tree no it does not happen the tree feeds himself how does that go well the the roots take up water with some ingredients which come from fertilizing the bird is not feeding the word is fertilizing so and with these ingredients the water comes up to the foliage or the needles wherever something is green and there with the help of sun and carbon dioxide from the air they wonder of photosynthesis happens and this creates energy in the form of of carbohydrates sugar starch etc would okay and this is the energy that the tree takes and lives off so the tree then puts all this energy down uh in and and stores it in in the twigs in the branches in the trunk and in the roots and then the roots can grow and bring up some water again so it is the other way around it is not the roots that feed the tree it is the tree that feeds the roots if you understand that then you will also understand that there is an engine which creates energy and and which the energy is stored and that fattens trunks and branches and roots okay the more of the engine you have the more storage happens and the the more thickness growth happens okay so all you have to do is increase this engine make it bigger get more foliage uh and this is by just letting the tree grow so the book tells you to pinch back and keep the tree nice every day so you really like to look at it unfortunately that's only for finish phrase now your question was asked about it a tree which you want to develop for developing you can't forget the idea of always having a nice tree you must do some things which actually make the tree look pretty ugly for a while but are helpful and later on it will be much better so you have to sacrifice momentary beauty for future quality okay so you let grow the green you don't pinch it you let it grow about eight to ten weeks after the buds break open in my area that's usually by the end of june beginning in july and then you catch back and then you let grow again and then you cut back if you do that you have much much more energy that's created and that is stored in the branches in the trunk than than you had before and your trunk all of a sudden will start growing so if you continue this over a couple of years you will have tremendous growth like this thing for example that was a stick in the pot like one and a half fingers about 15 years ago and now it's about four times that width which is okay it's not sensational but it's okay so you see it can happen but you have to develop that tree one thing which you have to understand is if you do what i told you you will create thickness of the trunk at the same time thickness of the branches and also ramification however the tree usually has the habit of growing much stronger on top than on the lower part so if you just like grow and hang back like grow and hack back after a while you will have a much thicker trunk but unfortunately the lower branches will be thinner than the upper ones because up there all the strength goes into the upper branches and they grow much stronger than the lower branches so you have to work against this okay you have to let grow and cut back first on the top let's say after four weeks or so and then let and down here you let grow totally out as far as possible over the next 10 weeks or so and then you cut back everything and then you do the whole thing over again so you have to work against what is called epical dominance of the tree fine if you however have a tree which is already very nice the proportions are nice and really all weight needs is thickening of the trunk then you use a branch on the back side you let this grow up two meters seven feet and freely for one year two years and that will pump up the trunk and leave the rest alone because the rest you you treat like you always used to okay so that's about the methods you have i spoke about a broadleaf deciduous tree which is a field maple hedge maple as you call it and it's a european tree which is used for bonsai and it's a very nice thing well this is not a world-class tree and never will be but i'm happy with it and it just still has about 10 years to go okay and then it will look pretty good what what i said before is mostly true also for carnivers so also conifers you can treat just the same way let grow cut back let grow come back only it's much slower so instead of 10 years it takes 20 years anyway i wish you good luck thank you very much

Channel: Bonsai Empire

Views: 120,672

Keywords: bonsai, Walter Pall, bonsai trunk, thicker trunk, thickening, sacrifice branch

Id: -Cpc-ivdCXU

Length: 7min 25sec (445 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2020