每日吃瓜

Hi all

I'm a complete beginner and, in fact, an 'accidental' bonsai owner!

My friend gave me an Ash sapling in a regular pot about 2 years ago. I looked online and by chance saw an article on growing saplings as bonsai by sourcing a shallow pot, trimming the taproot, very basic wiring etc.

Other than that I've just left it outside to do it's thing! The trunk has fattened out and it is doing surprisingly well!

My only issue is that this summer the new growth is rapid and is out of proportion with the rest of the tree (see photo).

Any suggestions as to what to do with it? If anything? I'm not looking into getting technical at all really (I've no doubt that it will look like an abomination compared to many of your bonsai trees!) but thought I'd check whether there was some basic pruning I could do to control the shape/make it less leggy? Or maybe just leave to grow naturally?

Thanks very much,

Matt

Ash is not the easiest of species because of the leaf shape. It is not growing out of control it is growing. Spring growth is vigorous and with that plant needs to be. I would plant it in the ground for a few years to get some thickening in the trunk which is quite thin at the moment. Place it in the sun and under no circumstances take it inside

m5eaygeoff wrote: Ash is not the easiest of species because of the leaf shape. It is not growing out of control it is growing. Spring growth is vigorous and with that plant needs to be. I would plant it in the ground for a few years to get some thickening in the trunk which is quite thin at the moment. Place it in the sun and under no circumstances take it inside

Great, thanks for the info! It's all paved unfortunately, so no ground soil. Just lots of pots! Any other suggestions? Or is it just best to leave it to do it's thing? (After weeding!)

Matt

If you have no Open soil. Then get the biggest possible pot to grow it out in.

I completely agree with the above, however, you have a really nice twisted trunk that could make for a beautiful smaller bonsai, so while you should grow it out I wouldn’t put it in anything larger then a 3-5 gallon nursery pot or about a 8-12” pot would then just let it grow crazy with no pruning for about 2-4 years and prune it back hard to a nice curve and develop taper and a new trunk line. I think in about 5-7 years you could have a really nice 6-12” tall bonsai

Thanks! I trimmed the taproot a year or 2 ago, before I put it in the bonsai pot. Will that have an effect?

Any other recommendations, or just get it in some quality compost/soil and let it grow?