Big Jade Bonsai Pruning and Why Jade Make Great Bonsai

Oh, and welcome to Coffee and Bonsai with Tom. Today, we're going to work on my large jade. This is probably my, certainly my largest trunked chrysula ovata. You can see, I can't even reach around this thing. It's, uh, it's big, you know, uh, it's got a nice thick trunk on it. It's starting to develop some character. Um, you know, I don't have any previous video of this. I don't know if I had a camera malfunction or forgot or what, but, um, yeah, I've had this tree a bit. You can see it's really grown out and I just kind of let it run wild, um, over the winter and, uh, mainly because, you know, I've, I, you'll see as we go forward, but I pruned it with these thick stumps here, um, and look at the bark. It's really starting to get some characters. I'm really excited to see what it does in the next year or so, but you can see I've got these short stumps, which I cut down to one segment and I just allowed it to grow wild because I want to get some, you know, that, uh, bifurcation into two branches and then develop some smoothness in those. So we're really at the point of, um, you know, developing the primary branches on this, on this tree. You can see here, um, you know, where I just cut it and I have two new branches that are thickening up. And, you know, I don't have any previous video of this, but basically I started with something like this and then pruned it back heavily. And now we are at this point. And mostly, you know, when I prune these, um, I just prune them very heavily and I want to do something a little bit different today, um, because I have a lot of branches here and it's very hard to see what's going on and these things back bud from previous leaves and internode so well that I am going to, um, uh, defoliate this, take all the leaves off so that I can see the structure and then, um, you know, get this tree on its journey to becoming a pretty impressive bonsai because I think it's, you know, it's got some good bones with this nice trunk and I think it has some real potential and I don't think I've ever shown this technique yet on the channel, so there's also an educational And along the way, I will of course remove, um, you know, branches that are going the wrong way. Um, I don't see too many on this tree. There's some on the total inside here that I probably would just cut off because like this one, I don't think, um, I don't think I can really use that when it's too, I already have a branch kind of further out and I want the top to kind of come out this way. Um, so I'll remove some of that. Um, and you know, I should also mention this tree. Um, I started, there's another one to the inside there. I started, um, this is the first one I used, um, what's it called? A special soil bonsai jacks, um, caculus and caculus succulent and cactus soil. And, uh, I really like it. It's worked out really well. It's a bit, um, you know, I have a soil video that where I kind of, I think I compare it to some others and I'll put a link to that in the video description, but it's, um, uh, you know, it is a great soil for folks that tend to overwater their succulents because boy, it's dry. Uh, but you know, I haven't found that the tree has really suffered too much from that. I mean, these trees don't mind getting quite thirsty. And so, uh, you know, I definitely have to water it more than some of my other jades and different soil mixes, but it hasn't been to the detriment to the tree at all. And you can see here, we've got some areas where we have three, where it goes one to three, you know, uh, branches and we want to go from one to two. I'll come back and fix that, uh, as we go. I'm really impressed with the bark on this tree. It has, um, I don't know what kind of jade it is, but I've seen this in some other jades where, uh, it's like a whitish bark, you know, so it's very, and a lot of them are kind of this brown or they're very crackly. Um, you'll see more as I, as I cut away the, all these leaves, but, um, yeah, I think the bark is going to be very interesting on this and I also have another tree, you can see, I cut this one back to the first, um, segment. Uh, because I wanted to get a little further out from the trunk, but I have another experiment where I pruned a tree. It's slightly smaller than this, not this big, but I did the opposite, right? I took it right down to trunk only. And, uh, I'm comparing, uh, the reason I did that as it was kind of going the wrong way. I'm comparing, uh, I want to compare, uh, you know, like how does, how does it turn out, you know, cause you can see this and, and, um, where, you know, when it goes from one to two, you know, jades have a way of really filling in that space. And so I think I'll get a nice natural, um, uh, transition from the, from that thick segment to the two new branches that come out. Um, but you know, if, if I had taken this right down to the trunk, you obviously we get a nice delicate kind of, uh, um, branch coming out there and you have a lot more control as to how you work with it. So we'll see. And I will compare the two when we get some results. So I have a lot of leaves to take off here and I'll be spinning this around periodically to just, you know, see things like this that I just want to remove because I can't imagine I need it. And in the meantime, while I'm doing that, I would like to regale you with a little bit of propaganda about why I like, um, jade, uh, as bonsai, both Crassula ovata and various sub varieties of that, and then also Portulacaria afra. Um, cause it's a question I get often. Um, and you know, I used to work with all kinds of other trees and I've talked about why I do that and why I've kind of moved to succulents. It's just better with my current lifestyle and where I'm at right now. Uh, just requires a lot less care and I find it so enjoyable and rewarding. Um, so I kind of want to go through a few reasons, you know, uh, why I think, um, you know, jade make just great bonsai as we kind of, you know, go through this. Um, and you know, one of the, one of the reasons it pops right off my, uh, the top of my head is, um, you know, timing is a lot less important. I kind of grow these year round and I found you can prune them, you know, you can work on them very aggressively, basically anytime of the year, whether you're repotting it or pruning it, or, you know, um, you know, they're just so flexible in that area. And so if you're a person who likes to work on your trees all the time, they're great because they really don't mind that. Whereas, um, you know, many other varieties you overwork them and, you know, they, they lose health and, and before you know it, they die. Um, so that's one of the, one of the main reasons I like the jade as bonsai. Um, and you know, also water, you know, like they use a lot less water. Um, it's not so critical. Um, I think so many of us in the bonsai world have killed so many trees by, you just have a really hot day and you get home late and it gets cooked and that's it, you know, the tree, you know, kind of limps along and then eventually dies and so I've never had that. I even had one fall off the bench last year and it probably went a good month. I mean, it was quite dried out and I watered it and it plumped right back up. And within a week you'd have never known anything had happened. So, and if you don't have time to water or you don't have access to water or you have water shortages, you know, there's a lot of reasons why. Um, you know, not needing a lot of water is, uh, is a benefit. Um, you know, they grow fast, which is always rewarding. Um, I've worked with a lot of species that absolutely loved azalea, for example, but man, they do not grow quickly or thicken up quickly or, uh, recover quickly from a lot of wounds. And, um, you know, these things are just like unstoppable. So they're, uh, it's definitely a Jade superpower, pruning and growth. Um, you know, the leaves reduce readily, you know, I mean, you really have to, um, constrain sort of how much space the roots have, whether that's a really shallow pot or a small pot, but isn't, I mean, that's kind of what we're going for with bonsai anyhow, so it's a nice match. And the watering, you know, um, you know, if you, if, if they never have to get thirsty, then the leaves are going to get bigger. But if you, you know, give them some stress, you can get some nice color on the leaves. And I think the trees are just overall healthy. I'm just looking at this one to three. We're going to come back to that. I'm just going to keep going on the defoliation here. Um, if you like to take a vacation, that's fabulous. Like I've literally gone away. Um, this is a funny story. I had someone set up to water my plants and somehow we had the dates mixed up. And so I went away for a week. They got no water. I think, I think it rained once during the middle of the week and I got back and I'm like, Oh, how often do you water these? And he goes, Oh, I, you know, he thought it was next week. So they basically got no water and I wouldn't have known it, you know? So that, that's kind of a, that's, that's pretty impressive. Um, you know, uh, anyone who's lost a lot of trees, you know, it's really nice to have that huge safety, uh, buffer with respect to water. Although you definitely don't want to overwater and that is their absolute, their Achilles heel. And which is why using a soil like, um, uh, bonsai jacks is, you know, really helps out. What are some other benefits? Okay. So I already mentioned you can grow them year round. Um, I don't believe they require rest. I haven't been giving many of mine rest and they, they're thriving. Um, they flower, you know, which is kind of nice. Um, it's a little challenging to get them to flower. I mean, it's most, well, not challenging. It's just a timing thing. I think most people don't allow them to get cold enough before they bring them in, uh, or the, you know, they kind of get a mini dormant period in late fall. And if you keep them out as long as you can and then bring them in, they tend to flower easily, I found. Um, I think another advantage of the variegated look better than any others. Like I typically, I've never liked, I don't know, variegated maples and, um, what are some other ones, uh, some, a lot of flowering species and they just look, um, weak and unnatural to me. Whereas I found variegated, um, succulents are, are quite attractive and I don't, they don't catch my eye in any sort of bizarre, bizarre way. I think another advantage, they always look pretty good. I mean, you can prune them as often as you like, you know, you can keep them looking perfect and it doesn't, doesn't harm them. Um, and you know, they grow in a wide variety of conditions. And look at this, we're kind of getting down here. You can really see the structure on this. Let's take a look at it from the, what I think is the front. You can see the top is really kind of, uh, thick and you know, this is the kind of thing without defoliating this. It would be very hard to see this cause you, I mean, you literally can't see it. There are too many leaves in the way. Um, so while I clean this off, let's see some disadvantages. You know, you have less varieties, you know, it's not like, uh, the world of deciduous and evergreen trees where you literally have so many, you know, and you know, you can't really wire them. I've found that you can, although they work really well with clip and grow probably better than most other varieties actually, um, so that's both a plus and a minus depending on what you like to do, you can wire them, but I've found it's, I don't know, too much trouble for me to bother with. Um, and they're not as accepted as bonsai, you know, like they're not really trees, but there are many. Species uses bonsai that aren't really trees. I mean, the whole point is to make it look like a tree, right? Uh, so lots of bushes and shrubs and things, um, and root rot, as I mentioned before. And so with that on my, I will end my propaganda, get off my soap box and we'll do some pruning. I'm going to start with just, you know, some of the stuff that's growing to the inside. I don't want, and you can see here, here's a good example. You can really see it now where I got this bifurcation. It's a, it's really beefy on this main branch. Um, and some of these segments are really long, but I'm just going to go with it. I mean, I think this tree eventually, um, I don't know, it'll probably be another 30% taller than this, maybe when it's all done. So I think, um, you know, I'll just work with what I get over time, but I think I can make it look, uh, convincing as a bonsai. This top is really got a lot of problems. It needs to be drastically thinned out. And it is the one area I found with succulents. I mentioned I'm going to work with the thick branches, but on the top, you know, I found you can't do that. Cause it just gets thicker and thicker and thicker. It wants to grow in the tops closest to the sun. So you really want to really, um, you know, hammer that back. And I think I'm just going to take this big chunky piece like right out. Cause it's just too, uh, coarse. I want finer stuff up here. And of course I, I kind of shave it right down, um, to the trunk and smooth it out. I haven't had any problems with that. As long as you don't put it in direct intense sun where it can dry out and cause problems. You know, just let it scab over and then, uh, yeah, the tree's fine. Um, if I take this off, um, I kind of like that, but it is a bit further out. You can see, I really want to encourage the bottom, uh, those bottom branches to grow out and go wild and thicken. And, you know, if I cut it back hard up here, that will redirect the growth, uh, to other areas where I think it's more beneficial. So I'm going to take that off and take it right down. It's kind of another advantage I didn't mention. I'll get back on the propaganda bandwagon here. Jade's are really good at carving. Like I can carve this out. Like even in this, where the, where I have this branching here, I could carve a V in here and you know, if I let it scab over, it'll very easily, um, um, heal and you'd never know. And you see this, I'm just carving this bump out. Um, and you know, I've never seen a tree that heals so quickly and so convincingly where you can't even see it after a short period of time, um, really shorten this top down, um, yeah. So I think we're kind of thinning it out. I've kind of got one, I've got three branches coming out. Well, four, I guess I have this one over here. Shorten up. I still want to do some simplification here on the top. And this area has some problems too, where you can see I've got like one, two, three, four branches, one really thick one coming out here. Um, and I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with that yet. Uh, let's thin this down some more on the top. I think that will take that down to one segment. Um, and this one too. Yeah. So you can see, I've got some stump there and I'll probably get some more branching. This area over here, this is also very thick, but I don't think it's If I cut that big one, I mean, it's got a nice flow out. Um, and the other two are kind of 180 degrees from each other, which, so if I just cut that off, I think it's going to look kind of bizarre, rotate it around and take a look, definitely something needs to be done on that beefy branch though, um, because if I don't do anything, it'll just get thicker and thicker and uglier and uglier. And I'll have even a bigger problem. Um, let's continue on. We'll come back to it and let that kind of let the brain work on what to do there in the background. And, uh, you know, sometimes I find too, if you go on, if you don't know what to do, take the next step with what you do know what to do, and then somehow this is just thick and chunky and straight up and take that out, you know, the, the right option just prevent presents itself. Sometimes it's kind of, it's kind of magical. So just keep going. Uh, shorten that one out. It's kind of straight up. I'm just going to shorten a lot of these back actually there, you know, I want more branching closer in, um, and yeah, that back branch I think will work pretty well. This one's a little thin on this side, but I'm, you know, we'll see what happens. I'll just let it go wild. I don't know if it will ever catch up to the one on the right, but that's fine. You know what I mean? Trees in nature sometimes have smaller branches that form lower, not always, but you know, it's not hard to see that fairly often. And I think it'll contribute to the profile. This is a bit too long. So, um, I think it's just a bit high and you know, it's early on in this tree's life, really just developing, you know, like the initial secondary branches here. So now's the time to cut it back and really get those where you want them. Um, and you can see that it's healed up quite nicely. Here's our problem area. Once again, I kind of like this branch sort of coming out the front that sort of swoops down like that. Um, I'm going to keep that who knows that could become major part of the primary branch. Let me adjust this and we'll come in and get a better look at this. You can really see that nice bark. Now it's getting some crackle on it. Um, I'm just super excited about the trunk on this, uh, on this tree for sure. Um, you know, you can definitely see that there's some big segments on here, but I think it's also an example of, you know, you can work with material like that. This obviously grew very quickly and probably was, came as a large cutting and is developed into something that, you know, I think is going to work out just fine. So I'm thinking if I cut this, like where will it grow out? And you can sort of, you know, these, the branches where they come out, like rotates 180 degrees. So I, if I cut here, I'll get a branch coming straight out. Um, and similarly for here. So you see what I'm saying? You can backtrack the direction of the branches by where the leaves are currently coming out, which is a good trick to know with these. Um, and that's still really thick, but, uh, let me see, I'm going to take it off. I think it's just too chunky and you know, I'll smooth this out. And then the trick that I mentioned before, I can cut this back one and get it, you know, two branches, one coming out to the immediate right, and then one kind of headed to the back. And, you know, I think that'll, let me just see where I want to cut this. I think that will improve the shape of this. I'm still, it's still pretty chunky in this whole area. Um, but you know, maybe I'll develop this front branch and get some of it going backwards and then I can kind of carve, um, this section off, like right here. You know, it's an option and, uh, cause this is just really chunky. Uh, but we'll see, you know, I really, like I said, I really liked this one on the left and maybe we'll get a new sprout kind of coming out somewhere critical there and we can use that. So we'll just let it grow and see what we, what we get. So I think we're getting pretty close. Um, you know, I always like to, you know, just smooth it out here and we'll spin it around and see if there's anything else that, um, grabs the eye, you know, it's sort of like you just move the, remove the most offensive stuff and you keep going. Uh, this is chunky. I'm going to take that off. Yeah, that's much better. And you just, you know, you keep going till you're no longer offended by anything you see. And, uh, or at least you, you're at a point where, you know, you can live with it, um, and then, you know, you're done pruning. So I think we've really kind of, uh, look at this. I mean, it has a nice, it's kind of fanning out. I think it's got some nice bones. I'm really looking forward to, um, to how this tree grows in the future. It's got a nice big beefy trunk. It's growing healthy. I'm super, super excited. Um, and it has, you know, it's, it's, it is fun as you sort of get more and more branches, you know, the whole tree just kind of comes alive and, you know, it's part of my favorite, my favorite part of this whole, uh, amazing hobby. So it's always good to take a small break in the action. Um, so this, I believe is the front, you know, it's got some, some nice taper kind of coming up and I think it has some, some nice branching. Um, I think it's attractive even with some of these chunky leaves. We'll see some stuff growing out here. I may carve this back in the future, this section here. Um, I actually think I've got a segment right there. Yeah, I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to take it right back because I, um, yeah, I think that's much better. It just kind of reduces the thickness. And if I do get a branch out there, I think it'll be something I can actually use. Um, and I think it's looking pretty good. I want to talk a little bit about the thought for the day. And that is, you know, if you want a big thick trunk bonsai, it's best to start with a trunk and then develop the rest of the tree. Um, and you know, as I said before, this is particularly easy for, with jade, you know, cause they grow and thicken so quickly and you get so many options. Um, and they're so predictable and how they grow and where they bud back and all that. Um, and you know, it's generally true for, for bonsai, right? Like if I tried to grow this, I started with this big trunk and, you know, you cut it back and then grow it out and you really get something that is kind of charming and so it's a way to do this pretty quickly if that's what you're. Interested in. And I think we've done a great job on this one. It's just beautiful and I can't wait to let it grow and I will start a playlist for this tree. I can't believe I haven't had it on the channel before, but I'm super excited and enjoy your summer. And with that, thanks for spending time with me and I'll see you all again very soon.