After talking to Jonas Dupuich from Bonsai Tonight and watching this awesome decandeling video from Eric Schrader I finally had the courage to make the first big cuts on some of my Japanese Black Pines that I’ve been growing from seed. They’re in their 6th year now.
The first one is my main candidate for a contest that’s running on BonsaiNut.
Here’s the last pic of the tree at full height.
Then the first cut came…
4 Years of growth gone in 1 second.
What is left over is what I was aiming at for the last 6 years. I also decandeled the new growth of this year and even a little of last year’s growth.
The second victim of today was my neagari or exposed root project.
And the same treatment for this one, away with the sacrifice branch and candles!
The last one for today was going to be a very tiny one in the end. I already positioned my concave cutter as you can see.
After decandeling not much of the original tree is left.
View from above.
Now it’s waiting for new buds to pop up on the branches that I decandeled.
I still have a few other trees left but I won’t be making big cuts on them this year, they can grow for at least another year. I will be decandeling the lowest branches.
Shumi no Bonsai 