Acer Palmatum

Hey there. First post here. I had seen this acer bonsai for sale at my local garden centre, and decided to buy it. I got it for half the price as i said there was not much growth visable. and its a definate graft, but for the price i paid, i'm happy. I've managed to take some pictures of it and would like to know how to go about styling it. i.e what branches to cut and shape.
Feel free to 'doctor' the images to show what could be acheivable. The bonsai is now in the garden under my larger acers to protect it from the sunlight. I have read about backbudding and decreasing the internode distance but i would really appreciate advise from you guys, as i would hate to cause stress to it by improper training.
Thanx
Frog

In this country it is easy enough nowadays to get maples for bonsai on their own roots without bothering with a graft. I should think you can in UK also. But this is what you've got now. Is this your first bonsai? Do you know what variety or cultivar it is? Let's hope it is one that will grow on its own roots.
Depending on that information, you will have to air-layer it, either above the graft so you get rid of it altogether, or just below the graft so it is inconspicuous.
You also need to get rid of the catapult effect (what we on this side call a slingshot) by eliminating one of those two trunks coming up from the middle. Some of the other experts can tell you exactly what to do.
Never mind about the internodes right now. That can come later.
I'm not familiar with the details of your geography, but you should try to join the closest bonsai club.
Iris

Hi Frog, welcome to the forum.

Have you defoliated this recently? You only seem to have two tiny leaves on the whole tree

Paul

Paul B (Scotland) wrote:
Hi Frog, welcome to the forum.

Have you defoliated this recently? You only seem to have two tiny leaves on the whole tree

Paul

Thinking the same thing Paul.
My acer is in full leafe and maybe will be overhauled on sunday.

Peter

no i havent defoliated it. my other acers are also in full leaf. i am hoping it will begin to leaf as it will be outside. there are buds there

Looking at the type of growth it could be a "Bloodgood" one of the varieties of Atropurpureum.
If it is it will be the devils own job 1. to reduce internode size and 2. to reduce leaf size.

The last one I tried with now resides in my daughter's garden in Redditch.

Hi Frog, I don't know, i'm just not getting a UK feel from your pics or your wording in your post. Are you in Birmingham, Alabama? The tree has large bones and that would indicate it also has large leaves. Dave may be right on the variety, hard to say without seeing some leaf, it might also be one of the dissectum types. These, in my experience, are difficult to grow without grafting to a stronger variety. You said you hoped it would leaf out as it would be outside. Has the tree been kept inside? Very bad for Acer and may be why it has not leafed out yet. If and when it does leaf out we can be a bit more specific as far as how to proceed.

hey.

Since i last posted the acer has now started showing some growth since it was put outside. its amazing what a couple of days out of a garden centre does! so anyway looking forward i have decided i will prob air layer above the graft and chop everything beyond the red lines. this will make it a small tree, shohin sized. what are your guys thoughts, a step in the right direction? when are the appropiate times to do this?

I'm hoping this is not the bloodgood cultivar in this case then
soon as it becomes in leaf i will take pics to verify what kind of acer it is.

BTW RKatzin im from UK.

Ok, I wasn't certain where you are. I would wait until you see the size of the leaf and can determine which variety you have. It's very hard to create a convincing shohin with a tree with large leaves. The leaves need to be in proportion to the size of your tree, so a tree with larger leaves needs to be bigger, not smaller. You can only do so much with leaf reduction and your other option is to make a tree big enough to accommodate the size of the leaf. Either way, wait till you see what's there before proceeding.