Another one trimmed back today was my Hawthorn raft. It had put out quite a few extension shoots that needed curtailed before they thicken. I also had to rub off numerous adventurous buds popping in all the wrong places.
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Bonsai Eejit 
Ohhhhhh my, now thats nice 🙂
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Thank’s Martin. I collected it a few years back along the North Coast of N.Ireland.
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Hi Ian, a couple of questions mate for you to ponder please.
1) Is it possible to go ahead and defoliate some tree material now and then it can be repeated a couple of other times in the year as you were implying? I haven’t repotted a number of young wild cherry trees and was thinking would it be good to start reducing the leaves now or just leave it until it’s more mature?
2) I’ve decided to use my Easter holidays trying to create as many air layers as I can. (Joy of having two weeks off!) Haven’t tried this before and I know the success rate isn’t great but am keen to have a go. Anywhere I’ve read, it’s a method of gaining suitable bonsai material fairly quickly. But I’m guessing it would still take a number of years to grow suitable nebari?
Cheers if you can shed some light mate. Sorry for burdening you – I’m enjoying the blog and especially the photos. I wanted to take that wee maple home the other night. Didn’t think you’d want to swap for the larch tho…ha!
Ben
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Hi Ben,
Defoliation depends on the type of tree and what you are actually trying to do with it. If the cherries are still needing a build up of ramification, you might be better doing a bit of clip and grow this year with heavy feeding. If they are well ramified, then you could defoliate but you need to allow the leaves to harden off first. Wait until the soft growth of the new leaves turns a darker green.
As for air layering, layer away. It’s always worth a shot. Just make sure that the bit you are layering is interesting and not just a straight trunk with no taper.
Looks like I’m off over Easter too 🙂 If you were free a day, you could pop over for some wiring practice 😀
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Oh aye I’d be up for that. I’m away to Dublin next week but week after that I could pop over . Sure if it suits then you could email me or I’ll keep in touch through the blog anyway. I definitely need the practice 🙂 …
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No problem, give me a shout when you’re back.
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