The trunk is a major focus in bonsai, and thick, gnarly trunks are generally speaking a good thing. The first focus is health, and yours looks great! The next focus is growing the trunk to the thickness you want. That is done by more roots (bigger pot) and more branches/leaves(let it grow freely). When satisfied with the trunk, you can begin growing it 'down'- that is, progressively smaller pots, including root trimming, and selectively removing undesired branches and pruning other branches back.

your tree looks quite happy, so you could continue to treat it as you have been while you study up on the art. A word of caution: this could be a jade, or it could be what they call a mini-jade, not a jade at all but portulacaria afra, which I believe it is. Either way, it's a succulent and prefers to have the soil go quite dry before watering. If it is in a typical potting soil mix containing peat moss, which retains water quite a long time, the first studying you may want to do is how to repot this plant and what soil to use.

Good luck, Evan. ez

Evan is correct, this is Portulacaria afra, aka Elephant Food Bush, aka Spekboom.

Josh

Hey Al, just for clarification, are you saying rub off ONE bud on opposing sides? Such as in a cluster of 4 buds on opposing sides, would you remove a lower left bud, and then move up a pair of buds and remove the right bud? Or is it just a mater of removing a pair of horizontally, parallel buds?

Jades & Portulacaria grow buds in pairs with each consecutive pair at approximately 90* to the last and next pair, so where does the 4-bud cluster come in? I'm probably just not understanding your question. Do you have a pic?

Also, directional pruning is an important tool. One pair of buds will grow one bud up, one bud down. The next set will grow one right, one left. As you're rubbing off buds, THINK ahead to where you want that branch to grow. You have a LOT of control over that by the simple act of bud selection. Usually, you'll want to direct the branch to the nearest open area, and remove buds that you can see will grow into an area already occupied by another branch. Sometimes, you might need to let the branch extend to the next set of buds before you get a bud pointing in the right direction. In that case, you can rub off 1 or both of the buds behind it, depending on whether the pair has produced a branch you want to use in your plant. You can have soo much more fun, get so much more satisfaction, and enjoy a much nicer looking plant if you learn how to take control of its growth habit instead of letting the plant take the lead.

I'd like to see some jades planted at angles, too. Trees that leave the ground at an angle are more interesting than trees that pop straight up out of the ground. It also opens the door to growing in the slant style, which is very interesting. I saw a plant that Grace (Sugi) posted a picture of that would have been perfect for a semi-cascade. That's a plant with a first branch that starts low on the trunk and is positioned lower than the pot's rim but higher than the pot's bottom. I just repotted a Portulacaria that's headed in that direction, so a jade would look good, too. Just some food for thought.

No worries I gave a clumsy example. But your elaboration cleared up my confusion and I managed to learn a good deal more about my tree.

As it so happens I am doing a slanting informal upright style with my Portulacaria. The tree is naturally growing at a 45 degree angle, (resting upon a rock) with the lead branch climbing almost 90 degrees. I am excited to see this little guy develop. In a little over 3 weeks of having my Portulacaria, it has grown quite a bit. I already had to pinch back it's old growth, and it is showing new buds and mini leaves, after no more than 2 weeks.