PUNICA GRANATUM NANA - BONSAI

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I'm surprised that no one has replied as yet.  I don't have the experience of others on this board when it comes to shaping so I'll defer to them.  I have grown P. nanas now and then (mine is now only two years old) and I am aware of how long one of these takes to get some girth which your tree has. I do like your tree.  I wonder if the nebari (seen in the little inset photo blown up) needs some work though.

The problem with all the "nana varieties "is that the trunk and the bark will never have the characteristics of age (motchicomi)

Hello Pavol
Nice tree with lots of good, well placed branches. With the branch structure you have, the possibilities for design are wide open. Barry's suggestion to start by looking at the nebari (where roots meet trunk, the base of the tree) I think is sound. Right now I would not cut off any of the branches. I would think more about improving the base of the tree. What angle do you want it to emerge from the ground? I would plant it a bit lower into the soil the next time you repot. I am not familiar with your climate, but I think the ideal time to repot for you would be early spring. If you winter the tree in a greenhouse or other controlled environment, fall repotting might be okay. Talk with someone who is in your area about how they handle pomegranate.

If you were to do any pruning on the tree at all. I would only trim back the foliage on the upper most branches and apex of the tree. This will encourage more gowth lower down. The pomegranate is somewhat apically dominant, to keep lower branches one needs to be more aggressive pruning the top branches.

However. I would not completely cut off any branches until after you have the tree repotted, and the nebari (roots & trunk) situated to develop into the future. The trunk and where it meets the soil is one of the focal points for the eye when one looks at a tree. It is important to start there when designing stock with lots of possibilities open toward future design.

Don't plan on a fixed design this year. Grow the tree a few years, time and familiarity will make a good choice obvious. Work out the planting angle and improve the nebari first. Then think about the design of the rest. Keep as much foliage and branching now, these will help improve the thickness, diameter, of the trunk and the roots.

Nice stock to work with. Good find.

abcd wrote:The problem with all the "nana varieties "is that the trunk and the bark will never have the characteristics of age (motchicomi)

Not entirely true, but it is true it will take longer to develop an aged look. But this can be worked around. The right design and this becomes a minor complaint.