Yamadori Douglas Fir in training

Here is a Yamadori Douglas Fir that I found on BaldBonsaiGuy website and I loved it. It has great trunk movement, lots of branches to work on, and really nice taper (with base 2" wide and height around 8.5"):



And here is the same tree after some initial wiring and some leggy growth removed.



The future plan is to let the foliage fill in. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,
AH

Yesss! Another fir fan!

It's quite hard to distinguish the finer points of the tree because the photo is quite dark. It looks like a good start so far.

There is a really good article on fir and spruce care somewhere on bonsai4me, but here has what's helped me:

Give it a balanced fertiliser in the spring once the buds start to extend. Pinch back the tips of the new growth in late spring, up to 1/2 off strong growth and 1/3 off medium growth. Weak growth or buds that are slow to pop should be left alone.

Once the needles have hardened off in summer and turn the same colour as the older growth, give the plant some fertiliser with a higher proportion of nitrogen. Give it a bright, airy spot but don't let it dry out completely in the summer.

In the autumn/fall, firs will set groups of 3 buds on the tips of strong branches, remove the strongest bud to leave 2 weaker buds.

On the tips of medium branches, you will see groups of 3 smaller buds. Remove the weakest bud on those branches.

Weak branches will only have 1 or 2 small buds on the tips. Leave them alone! Don't wire weak branches either

In a couple of seasons you can then look at pruning it again.

Cheers

Sorry for the picture quality. The picture was taken in the winter quarters so there was not much light around. I will take another picture in spring when it is outside.

Thanks for the information. I found very basic information on Douglas Fir but not much online. I think Douglas Fir has some true potential as a species for bonsai, and I am really excited about this tree's future.

Thanks,
AH

Here you go:

All Abies (fir) have the same care requirements. Here's some great info:

http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Abies.html

Pruning Picea (spruce) is the same for fir. Spruce and firs are very closely related in their care requirements:

http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATPiceaPruningstylingandwiring.htm

Where do you live? Firs should be outside at all times. They actually need a few weeks of freezing temps to go fully dormant and prepare for next year.

Thanks for the links....

However, Douglas Fir is not a true Fir (Abies sp.). I think common sense (and some growth observation) should be the best knowledge that I can apply. After all, masters like Kimura didn't learn bonsai cultivation from books, internet or clubs.

I live in a southwest suburb of Chicago and winter temperatures occasionally go below -5F for a couple weeks in a year. My winter quarters maintain a stable temperature of between 30F to 35F. There is also some ventilation that enters the cold house which according to Yoji Yoshimura, is essential during dormancy.

Thanks,
Aman

Hm!

In my humble opinion I would let the first branch grow with the intend to jinn it at a later point. The same I would do with the third branch on the right (in the photo/right side of the tree). And lastly I would lower the present apex with the intend to create a flat cone apex: to do so I would bend the present apex down to the right and let the second last shot on the left become the new apex - given that the present front is chosen for the future development. I hope this makes sense to you, sinse I am running out of battery power...

I was doodling with the images of this Douglas Fir, and I realized that the top portion of the tree (above the first branch) abruptly changes taper, so I decided to continue the trunk line along the first branch in a semi-cascade style.

Also, the old plated bark is more focal now that the top portion will most probably be jinned.



Let me know what you think. You can see some of the new foliage as a result from the chop.

- S

I like it. Really makes the tree more compact and visually interesting. Highlights the bark which on doug firs can actually get quite platey and nice. I would fertilize a little less heavily until the needles have hardened off.

I will reduce the fertilizer (though it is slow-release pellets). Does someone know how well Douglas Fir backbuds?

Here is the virtual I have in mind.



- S

As the title says, great-looking one. Your idea seem quite ok.

Aaaaand here's my young tree of D.F. It is very weak, since it was living on a very bad kind of soil for the species. i must say here that our location (me and the tree) is Serbia, believe it or not.



I am total beginner, so here are my thought of what i want to do with this youngster.

I thought to cultivate it to grow in informal upright or, maybe if that does not turn out like i imagine, to loose some branches due to sever pruning and make it look like similar to your tree, which you are lucky to have in natural shape it is.

Maybe it can not be seen very well but it has some very very small branches right at the bottom of the trunk, and my idea was to let those grow freely so I could get way better nebari. What do others think, will it do any good.

Also i would like to thank for links to pruning info.

Hello Pepsis,
Welkom to the IBC.
To grow a moyogi the trunk should be bend to get some interesting movement.
Specially near the roots bending has to be done as soon as possible later on it will be difficult.
Bending in wintertime means that the tree would need a greenhouse for protection.
What about those plants in the background with nice movement, are they not suitable for bonsai, is it grape?
Sunip

Jest, it is a grape - not suitable for bonsai. Though iv'e seen some nice bonsai made from some other species of vines.

Well, you made good point. Maybe you can see, if not i will provide picture, that i have placed a piece of wood between trunk and this pole that i have tied it to, so the snow would not damage it before i decide it so. So i tried to straighten up that part, somewhere around middle. BUT there already is a little curve right at nebari. I was thinking to make that curvature bigger, to bend it a little more, but the tree was just potted, as you can see it is still weak (though it made some progress on getting better colour this week, winter was not that harsh till now and i think it is still active) and i didn't want to hurt it. It is very young, and is easy to bend it, so thought to do it next year. By that time the curvature at mid height should straighten up, and i could proceed wtih everything else.

Also the shooting growth is young. It seems that this tree progressed greatly last and year before, so i would like to let it "set" well, before severe changes were made. One more thing is that i want to experiment a bit with it. Particularly on pruning, back budding, following the instructions given in those links from above in this topic. I want to know what are the limits of this species, in looks of ramification, and to see if i can advance that nebari in looks of taper.