New Bonsai

Acer Palmatum bought from the "Seedling" section at bonsai.co.uk (Greenwood Bonsai Studio). It arrived with buds already on it and has adapted well to its new home on my balcony. Pot size is 9cm and height from soil level is 15cm.

The first step is to aim for a short space between leaf nodes by not feeding and nipping out tips on the vigorous buds with tweezers as soon as the leaf pairs open. That will limit vigorous growth and put energy into the other buds and help towards those short inter-nodes.

Around May I'll start feeding with Omakase solid pellets NPK 4:6:2 (from ebay UK) which will still limit vigorous growth and help towards those short spaces between nodes. In Autumn it's just a matter of pruning back to two node pairs.

And that's about it for this season. Next season I'll think about giving it a blast of nitrogen with Bio Gold solid pellets. Also have a look at the roots to see if repotting and root pruning is needed.

 

Here's the current growth. Not a very good pic which is washed out a bit by the flash. Where I'm going with the design can probably be seen. I was going to wire it to make the bend more pronounced but then decided against it. The effect of nipping out the first leaf stem can be seen at the top where a second stem with shorter leaf node distance and smaller leaves is growing. The little pebbles on the soil are actually the Omakase fertiliser pellets.

 

Looking good Anthorn ,I fill be following as it grows with updated photos.

Thankyou for sharing.