Hi - Do you want an actual bonsai, or just a crooked houseplant? I ask because what you have now is more like a stick in a pot (and not even a bonsai pot), but no ramification (relative bushiness) and only 3 straggly branches from a very skinny trunk. If you want a bonsai or even just a nice, healthy looking plant, you must chop those branches a lot shorter than they are now to encourage lots more 'twiggy' growth, e.g. a lot more little branches off the large ones, each with its own foliage and more twigs that can develop into more branches, and in time, you'll have some options to work with in terms of styling the thing, and it'll look a bit more like a tree because the trunk will have fattened up. Your choice - but wiring at this stage of things is pointless as far as I see it... but if you're determined, you can use tiny weights hung from those sticks to change their direction, or maybe some twist ties will do it.

Whip - as the number of quality bonsai you view increases and the amount of time you have invested in bonsai grows, so will your proficiency and the way you look at trees. For now, and until you grow enough to incorporate the idea that a bonsai should evoke the feeling that you might very well come across the tree you're viewing in a natural setting. You'll want your trees to tell a story when you look at them. That doesn't happen over night, and if people keep disparaging you or your trees simply because you started at the same beginning we all started at, it's discouraging. I'd love to see you stick to it, so you can get to the point where you get more from your relationship with your trees than you ever imagined you might, because bonsai CAN be that rewarding.

The pot your tree is in is fine for now. Small bonsai pots slow growth, which means it takes longer to develop your trees. I'd repot the tree into a very large pot and a soil that doesn't hold perched water. That way, you can't over-pot and your tree will develop much faster. It's hard to tell much in a 2D picture, but I'm thinking that what you're thinking of as the main trunk line, moving right, is actually going to be shortened considerably so it becomes your first branch. Your main trunk line will probably be continued in the second branch from the base. Again, it's hard to tell in a 2D photo.

I wouldn't do ANY trimming now. Winter is coming, and the leaves are the trees food factories. Plants make their own food, and the more leaf surface area there is, the more food it will make. Also, if you prune now, any growth that occurs over winter will be lanky, so get in the habit of pruning all your lanky growth off in Jun, and keeping all the nice growth with short internodes that occurs after that. You'll have a better tree if you learn to work WITH the tree's natural rhythms instead of against them.

If there is any wiring to be done at this stage, I think it would be to correct any sections of straight growth. Your tree tends to shoot out long stretches of straight branches that can detract from a bonsai's appearance, so wire young branches to soften those straight lines.

If you're using aluminum wire, you usually need wire about 1/3 the branch diameter to bend the branch. Sometimes, you can get by with wire about 1/6 the branch diameter if you use a wiring method by which you apply 2 strands of wire to the branch and then use the same wires to wire 2 subordinate branches of the main branch you're wiring, but that's a lesson you can learn by searching wiring techniques online.

There's no doubt your young bonsai has all the potential it needs to one day become an exceptional tree. It's just starting on its journey, so your first job is to learn to keep it healthy enough that it will tolerate the work that needs to be done to bring out its beauty. Once you get to the point you can rely on your trees remaining alive and healthy from year to year to year, your bonsai adventures are well under way and you'll be poised to reap the rewards the art can offer.

I wish you all the best.

Al

Hi, I'm sorry if I sounded a bit impatient, and maybe thought that you were growing the tree indoors, but if you're not, then Al's advice makes more sense... you don't want the tree to start trying to produce more foliage in winter if it's dormant and outside. You do need to look under 'Images' (Google or Bing) for bonsai (of your tree or others) though, I think, to get an idea of what your goals might be vs where you are now.

This post was edited by moochinka on Tue, Sep 2, 14 at 4:36