Curly Willow: Quick Trim [Bonsai]

Time to trim my Curly Willow.

Here is the reverse side of the same tree.

It has a lot of dead wood in the center. Tall branches tend to dieback in the winter, because the water from the roots and soil does not reach very far into the tree when it's icy cold out. Even on the deadwood, the cambium outside remains alive and able for form new branches.

This has become a very strong tree. It is able to bring tons of new vigorous growth from the smallest amount of living wood.

By reducing the length of the stems in mid-Summer at the height of the growing season, it can spur new buds to form.

Willow tends to only bud at the end of the stem. Sometimes I get lucky, and pruning the stem also causes buds to open further down on the older wood.

By continuously pinching and pruning off the long stems, I can increase my options by causing more branches to be made.

In Bonsai, the tree is limited by the size of the pot. Eventually the tree will reach capacity and stop growing because the small roots cannot support any more leaves to be made. Too many leaves, and the tree can actually starve itself and run out of water. Even in the height of the growing season, a tree can switch itself into the "off" mode and stop growing because it cannot support any further growth.

By reducing the extra branches and leaves on a tree with limited root space, I can continue to invite the tree to keep growing, possibly all the way until the end of Autumn. Each times a new set of branches form, the leaves will become smaller and smaller. Small leaves on a small tree are very ideal for bonsai.

Thank you for checking out my short article. I wanted to test out making my first post by using palnet, and it seems to be working fine. If you haven't tried signing up for your PAL account using your existing steem account, give it a try. I think people are already starting to appreciate the new tribes and community earnings that co-exist with the steem blockchain. My only gripe is that I prefer writing posts using steempeak, because it saves my snippets and templates, and a host of other wonderful advanced posting options. Perhaps there is a way to integrate the benefits of both together.

As always, let me know your comments, questions, and opinions below.

Photos in this post are all #originalworks by @creativetruth, unless stated otherwise.

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