Slowbranch Bonsai practice notes, kept one tree at a time
Style form glossary
Technique8 technique papers
Technique papers, grouped by the season in which the work is done. Each paper carries the tool list, the number of steps and a risk level, because the difference between a technique and a mistake is usually the season it was attempted in.
Grafting is how a tree with a gap in its design gets that gap filled, without waiting fifteen years for a bud to appear in the right place. Thread grafting for branches and approach grafting for roots use the same princi…
Grafting knife with a flat blade1.5 to 2 mm grafting pins or a fine stapleGrafting tape or parafilmSecateurs for the donor shoot
Root work is the single highest-leverage operation in bonsai and the one with the least margin for error. Done at bud swell on a healthy tree it produces a season of strong growth; done three weeks later it produces a tr…
Root hook and a wooden chopstickConcave cutters and root shearsSieve with 4 mm and 8 mm meshFresh akadama, pumice and charcoalAluminium or copper tie-down wire
Candle cutting is how a pine stops being a young tree and starts being a refined one. The technique takes ten minutes to learn; the timing and the follow-up take five years to get right, and the most common failure is no…
Thumb and forefinger, or a sharp pair of pine scissorsTweezers for removing budsA note pad for recording the cut date
Air layering is the cheapest way to get a mature-looking trunk, because the layer starts with the age of the parent. On a juniper it is close to foolproof; the failures almost always come from cutting the ring too shallo…
Sharp knifeSphagnum moss, soakedClear plastic film and two cable tiesAluminium foil for shading the bundle
Deadwood work is the most permanent thing you can do to a tree. A wiring mistake grows out in two seasons; a carve that crosses the live vein is visible for the rest of the tree's life, if the tree has one. The whole met…
Hand pull-shave and a rotary tool with 4 to 8 mm burrsWire brush and a stiff nylon brushLime sulphur, diluted to 15 to 20 percentA soft brush for applying lime sulphur
Defoliation is the most misunderstood technique in deciduous bonsai. It is not a way to make a tree look better this month; it is a controlled stress that produces smaller leaves and finer branching next time, and it doe…
Sharp scissors with a fine tipTweezersA shade cloth for the week afterwards
A trunk with real taper is not grown, it is assembled — one segment at a time, each one thinner than the last, with a change of direction at every junction. Trunk chopping is the method, and leader selection is the decis…
Fine-toothed pruning sawConcave cuttersCut pasteA chopstick or small stake for marking the chosen leader
Late winter is the only window when a deciduous tree shows you its whole skeleton and the wood still has enough give to be moved. It is also the window in which most wiring damage happens, because the tree is stiff from …
Anodised aluminium wire, 1.0 to 4.0 mmWire cutters with a flush faceJin pliers or branch bendersRubber or leather padding stripCamera and a plain background cloth