On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 11:44:52 -0600, Neal Ross
wrote:

I think it depends upon how well your trunk is developed to
begin with. If
you are happy with your trunk size I would go for it myself.
But if you
still have your trunk to develop or if you plan on doing a
trunk chop I
would still give it the larger sized pot to allow for free
growth of a new
leader. Then once I had developed my new leader I would start
selecting
which branches I intended to keep for the final design. After
I got to about
2/3 completion of that part, then I would put it into a
shallower pot. But
that is just me and I am only going by what I have read and
heard others
talking about. I am still in the trunk development stage on
95% of my trees.


Neal:

When you say larger size pot do you mean a larger Bonsai pot or
larger
clay garden pot? Does larger mean width and length or depth?
Also,
how much larger to promote trunk growth?

Thanks, John


I don't think anyone can answer those questions for you.
However, generally, you don't put a tree in a "bonsai pot" until
you are ready to call it a bonsai and display it -- or at least
do the "finishing" touches on it.

As for priorities in bonsai design, the trunk is always the first
priority. Always. (Or, as "always" as things can be in bonsai,
anyway.) Until you have a trunk with a base that holds it up --
including a well-developed nebari (surface root system) -- and a
decent taper from bottom to top, there is absolutely no way you
can think of doing any work on the branches.

And it is YOUR decisions as to what you want the trunk to look
like, slim and juvenile (or feminine) or heavy (and masculine).
THAT in turn probably depends on the species and then the style
you want to develop. In any event (except for literati) you want
a tree that is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top and a
generally even taper bottom to top. None of this evenly fat
lower half then sudden constriction to a skinny top that you see
on so many hastily chopped trees. (See
www.evergreengardenworks.com for excellent articles on proper
trunk development methods.)

As you do this, you generally let branches grow helter-skelter,
since the branches you have now may not be the branches you want
when you start to design the top. The branches grow at this
point only as tools to help you grow the trunk you want --
branches that are longer and unusually thick at the bottom, to
promote girth, and fewer and shorter and thinner at the top
(which is kinda basackwards for the finished tree which generally
will have a greater number of upper branches). This phase can
take one to 10 years, depending (on all the above and your
patience).

Frequently, when you finally have a trunk you like, you will then
remove ALL (or most) of the branches you've been using to help
develop the trunk, letting the tree sprout new ones (while it
heals the scars from the branch removal), keeping only those new
branches that you need for YOUR vision of the finished bonsai.
Here is where you choose the lower branch to the right or left,
the second branch off to the other side, the third branch to the
back, and then upper branches in proportion (but not necessarily
in the same rigid order as the first three).

These are the branches you pinch, prune, wire and shape to
whatever vision you have (hopefully) had for the tree. This
phase should take you 5 or more years to "finality" (whatever
that is in bonsai). Less time for a tiny tree, much more time
for a big tree.

Get almost any copy of Bonsai Today or International Bonsai and
you will see phased photos of trees as they develop over the
course of several years.

This has been a VERY cursory description, and many people handle
their trees in slightly different ways, but I think everyone will
agree that without a good trunk a bonsai isn't much of a bonsai.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Who has damn
few bonsai with good trunks.

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