Growing Bonsai From Seed

Page 6 of 6

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This excellent guide to growing bonsai from seed is courtesy of Xavier De Lapeyre of Bonsai Mauritius

Growing Bonsai From Seed: Page 6 of 6

Growing Bonsai From Seed
The same tree, seen from another angle. At this stage it is important to not overwork the wiring process.

Stage 3 - Part II : Sacrificial branches
After some time (a few months in the best cases, several months in worst cases) new shoots are going to appear.
Most bonsai books stress a lot about "Remove unwanted growth", but that approach is usually for ESTABLISHED bonsai or near-established bonsai.
In this case, the plant is FAR FAR AWAY from being a bonsai.
It needs to grow, and most of all, it needs to bulk up the trunk, and the best way to do that is to allow it to grow freely for some time, OR make use of sacrificial branches.

The principle of the sacrificial branch is simple :
Allow one or more branches to grow freely to bulk up the trunk or branch with which it is connected.
And once the desired thickness is obtained, cut off the sacrificial branch.

Growing Bonsai From Seed
The same plant, but, as you can see it has grown several new branches.
Growing Bonsai From Seed
Here I'm pointing at one of the sacrificial branches.
Growing Bonsai From Seed
As the sacrificial branch will grow, it will become thicker and thicker,
in return it will also make the area on the trunk below it thicken up.
In other words the lower trunk will become thicker.
Growing Bonsai From Seed
The same thing here : the sacrificial branch that I am holding will be allowed to grow freely.
In return, as the sacrificial branch grows, the lower section will thicken up.
Growing Bonsai From Seed
As the plant bulks up, I will have to check on the wires to make use that the trunk is not growing over them.
The areas most at risk are the places with U-turn curves or S-shape curves like the point that I am pointing at.