Thank you for the feedback. I’m hoping I can get an apical leader growing strong next year! 🪴 🍁

I’d love to check it out! 🍁

@@acer_p_bonsai under community and shorts mate.. would be awesome to get another person on board :)

@@acer_p_bonsai feel free my friend :)

@@acer_p_bonsai i have messaged you may be under requests mate

Yessir. There was a good one at the national show last year too! 💪🏽 Time to get digging!

Thank you Xav! Merry Christmas to you, and a happy new year! 🎄

The taper on that chonker was impressive!

@@acer_p_bonsai And no sign of a trunk crop either.

If you look again at the video, there’s a 1-2” scar healing in the back. Quite small considering the scale of the tree!

@@acer_p_bonsai Never even noticed!

You’re welcome, Nigel! I tried to get a good look under the hood so we can examine the structure. 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁

@@acer_p_bonsai I noticed that, a sneak around the back of the tree!!!

Totally! Sounds like you made good use of your break time on the East coast though! 🪴 🪴 🪴 💨

It was in Kannapolis, near Charlotte, NC!

Sergio is the best deciduous artist I know. Excellent skill/technique, decades of experience, and true artistic talent as a fine artist. Triple threat! 🔥 👨🏻‍🎨 🪴 🍁

More shows yes! More video, unfortunately this was all I had time to capture between tree talks, vending, and enjoying the show.

I made the decision to skip the black bag trick on these because I collected them right in the heat of summer, and was worried about them cooking in the bag. Was it the right choice? 🤷🏻‍♂️ The wider diameter tree did not even try to push a single bud. The slightly smaller (but still huge by bonsai standards) stump is alive and well. I think I have a small feature of it with new branches in another later video. 🙏🏽

@@acer_p_bonsai let's hope they push trough! I've got some beni maiko maples wich my neighbour wanted to throw away so i decided to make them into a clump style. They're pencil size and didn't got alot of roots left. It is midst of winter where i live but the temps won't go below freezing point so i hope they make it🤞

Thank you for the kind comment!! Check out the full video for more on this tree, and my plan for next year!

Sure I will! Thank you for your answer

Thanks for stopping by! 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁

You’ve got the technique down for sure, working with Shishigashira! It can be a bit of a balancing act, but I love the density they create! There was a crazy thick shohin Kotohime at the silhouette show. It was a rush before open, so can’t remember if I was able to capture video of that one. (Video to follow, with what I caught!)

I remember now, it was Rodney Clemmons’ cool little tree.

For maples we have a few conventions on how the wiring should be done, but any general rule should be overridden by the condition of the branch. With maples, we almost always want to avoid wire bite. One exception would be for maples that have a corking bark texture that will eventually hide wire scars. 1. Late Autumn/Winter wiring: generally this is applied at the end of autumn within 1-2 weeks after leaf drop. The wire is kept through winter and removed prior to buds opening in spring. Branches are usually set after a full winter of wiring. Remember, with any wiring, depending on the branch stiffness you may want to bend slightly past the true bend-goal, to allow for some recoil after the wire is removed. 2. Spring wiring: during the active growing season young flexible branches can be carefully wired, often resulting in more drastic movement than is possible during the autumn/winter wiring. This is done on very young shoots that are actively growing and must be done with an open coil wiring technique. Depending on the growth stage of the branch, movement can be set in as little as 2 weeks, usually not longer than 1 month. The sweet spot is to do the wiring on young branches a few weeks before they start hardening off (in May for many northern hemisphere climates). The branches hardening sets the movement. It can sometimes come down to uncoiling a branch to “test the setting.” 3. Summer post defoliation: mid summer is another popular time to wire but can be dangerous. New leaves come out within a few weeks, so it can be more difficult to assess the status of the wiring on more developed trees. Usually this is done only on branches you are comfortable keeping wired until the leaves drop. During this time, I usually do only minimal wiring for necessary branch moves that may stiffen too much if I wait longer. Think of it as a last chance to move a new or 1 year old branch before the vascular growth (branch thickening) of early autumn. You can check the status in autumn, and if they have not set you can leave the wire longer through winter, or uncoil and rewire the branches for winter with a slightly different wire placement to minimize scaring. Some professionals recommend wiring in the opposite direction each time you wire to break up the pattern of any incidental wire-scarring, so you will need to judge the best way forward branch by branch. I hope this quick summary helps! Maybe I need to do a full video just on wire timing. Thank you for the kind feedback and great question! 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁

Thank you for your kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed the video.🙏🏽 🍂🍁 After visiting the National Arboretum, that inverse taper wouldn’t stop staring at me! 👹

Glad you liked it! Thanks for tuning in! 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁

Thank you! I’m in Yorktown, Virginia.

Thank you, Nigel. My long term goal is to get one of my trees into a National level show…clearly I have a long road still ahead! 😂🕺🔥

Yeah, I may eventually remove one. Thanks for watching and sharing your input! Currently they pose no risk of inverse taper because the lower trunk is so robust, so I can make that decision later. Slowly working back the structure should help to prevent an excessive reactionary growth. Probably a decision for next summer, or possibly the year after. Even some of the higher skinny branches are quite long and straight so will need replacement in the future. 🍁

Thanks for taking the time to watch and provide feedback, Nerina! 🙏🏽 Have a great day!! 🍁

Thank you! I’m looking forward to when I have enough recorded footage to do some longer horizon Timelapse transformations. I loved your video featuring your old ground grown pine! Excellent!!! 💪🏽

@acer_p_bonsai thank you man! Yes those videos are great!

Thank you! 🙏🏽 Maybe the fear on my face showed I’m still a bit of a novice 😅 but I relaxed after the cuts and the tree looked better! 🫡

Thank you for the feedback! I’ll definitely keep that on the episodes priority list for next spring. 👍🏽 🪴 🍁

I feel the feels bro. I had a feeling this was coming, from day one when I unboxed it 2 years ago, but was worried about the fabled apex crash I’ve read about online, so I decided to play it slow and work the larger branches back a few at a time. I’ll stalk out your IG to look again at your Katsura. 👀

⁠@@acer_p_bonsaisadly I don’t share as much as I would like to. But I’m not “camera friendly” looking and have been teased so my ENTIRE LIFE. Also, I’m not as knowledgeable as you are and have nothing worthwhile to contribute. Bonsai is all I got and I deeply appreciate what u share!

It makes sense that you feel shy/reserved about posting online/on camera. Being a rural/homeschool kid for a number of years I have always struggled with self esteem and confidence. I guess I’m editing out enough of the ums and verbal stumbles.😅 My day job has kind of forced me to get comfortable speaking in front of people, through brute force and repetition. Glad we have the trees to come back to for clarity, for all the reasons. 🙏🏽 🪶 💨

I think you’ve got the right idea. One of the best things about the Ed Clark trees is we know that they are juiced to the gills. I made way bigger chops on the newer kabudachi and Shin Deshojo trees, they handled it like it was nothing. Looking forward to seeing your trees through next season!

@ lol true, and I hope so 🤞we shall see!

Thanks Callan! Looking forward to another year with this fatty!!

I was honestly surprised on a few of them! 😮

You’re welcome! Glad I got the chance to capture some of it!! 🍁

I think this is my favorite tree at the garden. 🪴 🤩

Glad you enjoyed it bro! Was glad to that I captured some of this color in 2022. This autumn was far less exciting.

Swing by my humble garden on the way! 🍁

​@@acer_p_bonsai just wondering but do you have any beni chidori you can sell? Or know who and where I can find beni chidori? Bc I cannot find any online

Canada Bonsai has a waiting list. I’m considering bringing 1 or 2 of my rooted cuttings to the Silhouette show next weekend, but they’re still too delicate to risk putting them in the mail. I hope I don’t come across as gatekeeping. I have my two small mother trees that I intend to keep, and will eventually gift or sell all of my props. I’ve had many people reach out inquiring about them- too many to fairly assign buyers rights. My medium term goal is to make them more readily available for all serious bonsai enthusiasts in the U.S. I’m honestly kind of expecting for Mr. Maple drop a bunch on one of their 10 at 10s. If and when I have any up for grabs, I’ll announce it on my Instagram page. Good luck on the search. It took me 2 years to find these. 😓

@@acer_p_bonsai would love to! But yeah, I also looked on the Canada Bonsai website for some Beni chidori, probably gonna wait till I move to get anymore though….not that they had any of course lol 😆

Thank you for taking the time to watch! 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁 Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for an update on this tree for autumn cleanup and a few chops that made me sweat 😅

Thanks for stopping by, Nigel, I’m glad you liked it. Have you ever made it down? We met briefly at the U.S. National show last year, no worries if you don’t remember- goofy dude in overalls. 🤣 I appreciate your positive attitude! It’s inspired a lot of people to get into the Bonsai practice. 🍁

@@acer_p_bonsai I remember, I hope to see you again next year at the Nationals!!!

It’s interesting to see the differences in leaf form between the American and European sweet gums. Funny how we tend to appreciate our local species less than the imported exotics. 😆 I’m trying to up my native tree game, I’ve got a few red maple’s, and collected an American hornbeam last spring. My favorites so far are the 3 pitch pines I was lucky enough to collect while living in the Hudson Valley NY a few years back.

Nice! I've got some young Red Maples for future bonsai. American Hornbeam is also one of my favorite natives for bonsai, a lot of potential I think and would love to see more in the U S. use them.​@@acer_p_bonsai

🤣 I guess I’ll get to chopping 👏🏽 🍁

I'm glad you enjoyed it! 🍁 💥 Hopefully this inspires more people to make a visit!

Thanks for stopping by bro! Still waiting on the leaves to drop for autumn work, down this way.

Glad you see it too! 👏🏽 The age on this tree runs circles around the “perfect form” we seem to always chase on our younger bonsai and prebonsai.

I totally agree! The Mochikomi on this maple is incredible!! 💥

I know right?! This tree has been in training since 1946, so at this point I think the provenance wins vs. structural conformity. 😅 It wouldn’t have the nerve to cut it even if I wanted to!

1946?! Wow! Knowing that now…….. I agree, leave it as it is! What a beauty!! I would give my left hand for that maple!!

That’s a great question. Based on the added detail that you don’t see any other signs of disease, particularly that the leaf transition looked healthy and normal- I think you might be right, but it could be a few things. The black appearance you’re seeing is from dying bark. This could be from sun burn, cold damage (probably too early in the season for that), mechanical/physical injury, pests of some kind, or fungal infection. At a minimum the damage goes down to the CORK CAMBIUM (The living layer that produces your bark cells: Cork, the Phellogen itself, and Phelloderm). Japanese maples have very thin outer bark, so it basically looks like 1 layer. The injury could also go deeper to the PHLOEM and inner CAMBIUM. If it goes this deep, surgery would reveal disruption of the greenish layer (dead and brown) and possibly you could see the dry cambium cells (healthy would be slimy and clear, dry could be invisible or flaky like dried egg white on the breakfast counter.) In any case, if this was my tree, I would probably probe and reveal the injury with a clean razor blade, out of curiosity. If you want to do that, cut away the dead tissue, then cover with cut putty. If you have it you can apply some wood hardener to prevent rot before covering. Alternately, you could wait until spring to perform the surgery, or do nothing and allow it to heal naturally. When you said it is not fungal, what led you to that conclusion? Did you pop the tree out of its pot to see healthy root tips?

I always appreciate how thorough you are with your responses and thanks for taking the time to help me. I didn’t mean to seem as though I concluded it wasn’t fungal because I really don’t know. I just didn’t see any other signs or symptoms that were coming up in my research on VW/Pseudomonas such as tip/branch dieback nor did I see any sudden leaf scorch/leaf drop. I heard to perform a scratch test on the bark with a finger nail to determine if the layer underneath was dead. In doing so, it looked dry and white compared to a normal lime green appearance. I always assumed black meant death to the area so didn’t really understand why a scratch test was necessary but I performed in none the less. That’s really as far as I got with any noticeable signs/symptoms the tree has been displaying. I didn’t even think to pull the tree out of its pot to look for healthy roots. If I were to pull the tree out of its pot to look at the roots would I still see white healthy roots this late in the season? I’m so nervous after reading about VW and pseudomonas as I heard it can spread to my other maples. It said to burn my affected trees and I’m trying my best to determine if this is something I should destroy or if it is a more benign injury and time will heal it.

Ah, okay. Thanks for the added context. Feel free to DM me on Instagram or FB if you’d like to have a longer convo. Is this Jimi I saw earlier in the comments? It sounds like whatever it is happened to all your trees. For now, I’d make sure you move them to another area of the yard away from any other maples. I had some concerns about a few of my ‘Katsura’ air layers, so I moved them over to my conifer bench where they couldn’t infect anybody else. Good news, they have been looking healthy since mid summer and threw on some second flush growth. You’re right about the scratch test; that shows you the damage went down into the vascular system. If it was something like VW, there is no known cure, but you can try to treat it by cutting away any dead tissue, improving the soil conditions, and treating with fungicides. Regarding pulling the tree out of the pot. Usually if a maple has been growing strong for a year in a bonsai pot, the roots have fairly well established themselves into the soil mass, so you can generally unwire them and the whole root ball will lift out in one go. The root tips should still look fresh until you start getting hard frosts. It’s not foolproof, but good healthy roots is a good indicator of health. If you find a bunch of black dead roots, then you probably need to address the soil conditions and/or watering protocol, and it could indicate a fungal issue. Cutting out the dead roots and compacted or overly organic soil may help. Although not the optimal time, maples can be gently repotted in autumn, but will require winter protection. A gentle repot means that you are minimally disturbing the healthy roots, no cutting the live stuff.

Yes it is me! Okay I’ve moved them to the other side of the yard for now and will do my best to check out the root system without disturbing the soil. Keep up the great content!!

Sure thing. Good luck with your trees!

Thank you, Xav! Cheers! I’m loving all the guest videos you and Jelle have been up to. 🍁

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you’re having a nice autumn in Greece!! Next spring, I plan to try some pine approach grafts; your process videos were quite helpful for mentally planning it out. I’ve got a little Kotobuke I will use to graft over some of my JBP prebonsai. 🌲

​@@acer_p_bonsaisound very exciting! I'll wait for that!

I appreciate you following along - there's lots more to come! 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁

Yeah, Pink Princess is a great maple cultivar! 🙏🏽 🪴🍁 Would like to add a few more thread grafts this spring. Will be sure to capture it on video next time!

Thank you for following along bro! I will admit, it takes a lot longer to work on the trees with the camera on, but it’s really rewarding. On more than one occasion, explaining what I’m about to do has made me stop and question my thinking; then I end up deciding to go a different route. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress down the line on these trees, in a few years. Post-leaf-drop work coming soon! But autumn is very late and warm here in VA this year! 😭 🤣 🍁

I was very fortunate to get my hands on some older (80s-90s) production pots. Nothing too fancy, but the quality of everything was so much better then! 😅

They are my favorite pines in my collection. I have 3 total, collected while I lived in NY. So cool to have a few pines with nice age to them. Good luck with finding some!!

Thanks for watching! 🙏🏽 🪴 🍁