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Hi everyone Nigel Saunders here it is Day two of pruning up my large Forest Last night we got a major snowstorm blew In I'll show you some footage of that Oh So here it is You can see the wind has picked up And It's just horrendous out here Absolutely horrendous Like the snow drifts really deep on the Ground here look at this one So I thought I'd show you the weather What it's like after I finished videoing Part one of pruning up my large Forest Pretty nasty outside That was a look at the big storm that Blew in so it's 10 a.m the next day now And I'm already tired out I'll show you What I did I began the day by shoveling off the Greenhouse getting all the snow off the Roof so it's still holding together Which is nice Next I shoveled all the snow off the Roof of the garage that's over the Porsche And then next I shovel the driveway and The sidewalk You can see the pile of snow I moved up Front here it was really heavy too so Last night the snow turned to freezing Rain
You can see the freezing rain on the Windows of the Matrix so that was my Next job clearing the car of all the ice On the windows And then I did the paper route and Delivering 19 papers around the Neighborhood trudging through the heavy Snow it was a good workout so now I can Relax for the rest of the day and work On my Larch Forest I went inside and released part one of This video then I had lunch so now I'm Back at it this afternoon printing up The large Forest I was working on this tree I pruned up This front branch I pruned up some of the branches at the Back I was working my way around I didn't do Much work on this tree yet So I will do that I've got two I have a Branch from this tree that's growing Across into the tree beside it so I've Got to shorten that So I'll take it right back to Here Keeping you know each tree having its Own space Again so they're not the branches aren't Interacting with each other from tree to Tree So lots of snipping A bit of a cathedral Branch starting Here too it wants to grow upwards
In part one of this video I gave a lot Of opinions You know on clip and grow versus wiring And Whenever I Give opinions like that it's Going to generate a lot of Talk or I I voicing my opinion and there's gonna Be people who just oh that's not right That's not So I expected that kind of talk from you Know whenever you give your opinion on Anything whether you know be Anything any subject matter you're going To get people that agree with you you're Going to get people who disagree with You You're going to get people who disagree With you strongly uh people who are on The don't care either way So I think The important thing is maybe it gets People talking that that's the important Thing I want People to always be thinking about Bonsai And what they're doing and why they do The Hobby and And why they enjoy the hobby maybe too Yeah so I had I answered a lot of Comments and I encourage you to comment Uh I don't always answer the comments
Because I physically can't I get When I'm releasing a video almost every Day I get so many comments I read every Comment so if you put a comment on the Channel I read it and Uh And I wish I could get to everyone I I Just can't it's I tried and you know some days I sit at The computer for hours answering Comments and then I look and I've got Like I've done the comments for two Videos and I'm like behind by six videos And I would spend all my time sitting at A computer and that's Not the goal of the channel is to sit at The computer all day the goal of the Channel was to get out here out in Nature outdoors and enjoy Bullseye I I do enjoy the comments I I wish I could Get to answer everyone because I enjoy Talking to people and the interaction With the comments But I have to be realistic and you know I've said in the past that people have Suggested well why don't you hire Someone And you know run the channel more as a Business and Hire someone who can answer the comments And it's like well It's not a hobby then it's a business
And I don't want my growing Bonsai isn't A business it's a hobby for me Um like yesterday I was getting tired And cold out here pruning the large Forest and I had the option of going Inside and Oh It was nice it was nice to be able to Spread this work out over two days and If you're running don't say as a Business you don't have that luxury You're going to be out here Not Four hours in the afternoon you're going To be out here like 12 hours every day Doing this pruning and yeah it's It's there's it's fun And there's a lot of you know worse Things you could be doing in the world But It's nice to be able to take your time On things I think that's The beauty of a hobby versus a job is That You know you do it when you have time And when you've done enough of it you do Something else I also want to say that you know Yesterday I talked a lot about Strange branches on trees in that and It's not an excuse that you can grow any Branch on your Bonsai that they can look Anyway They want you still have to have you
Know the branches have to look miniature And in scale with the tree and realistic It has to be A branch that you would see in nature And you see a lot of strange things in Nature but It still has to look natural It can't be Um You know like this Branch that's Sticking out the front of the tree well The position of it is strange for a Bonsai planting most people don't have Trees or branches that stick straight Out the front of the tree but in nature You see that all the time it's not It's not a branch that's tied in a knot Or something or it's not uh out of Character with the rest of the trees or The species So I'm not using naturalism as an excuse To not Manipulate the tree Um If that makes sense So yeah if this branch Didn't look natural I would have to Remove it or Yeah Or prune it or something I'd have to Make it look natural and miniature And Yeah you can see you know I've pruned Branches off here because they were too
Thick And Yeah and the positioning of the trees in The forest you know the one It's not in line but it's almost in line With the one in the behind and Probably you know if I do repot this Which I'm hoping to do I could just Rotate the force slightly and the Problem would be solved from the Distance view of the forest So There's Solutions and yeah I just don't want people to get the Impression that anything goes in Bonsai That I mean it does it's an art form but Uh to create a miniature tree There are Rules And that is what you would see in nature Nature Kind of determines the rules If you can find an example in nature Then it's probably a correct thing to do With your your Bolt's eye if there's no Such example in nature then maybe you're Doing something that's A little bit Foreign to what a tree looks like So this pruning I'm doing today What it can do is because I'm printing The tips off the branches that it can Stimulate back budding and you'll see That later on in the season that you Know all the buds I've left will start
To extend the truths start getting Bigger and then you'll start to see some Back buds developing on the branches so It's kind of exciting and the back buds Will Kind of They'll be there for the next time next Winter when I prune it when they're bare And you can utilize those back Buds and Just keep chasing those branches back if Possible I'm going up into the apex of the trees Now I've already done this tree and the One back here And this one But the two trees behind here I haven't touched the Apex on them yet And you can see all the multitude of Branches up here that I've got to Simplify otherwise It gets thick and bulbous in the Apex And starts looking really really ugly You can see this one is actually Thickening up here a bit too much And that's probably probably because I Have a very thick vigorous Branch behind Here So I'm going to start selecting branches In this Apex And again I want them Growing upwards in the Apex So I still have too many branches here Let me show you a close-up of that All right you're seeing a whole bunch of
Apexes here so I was working on this one This Branch here If you can see that so I have too many Growing points in this branch So my goal is to you know shorten it It's getting far away from the trunk you Can see It's getting quite long I don't have any Buds back here which is always a problem So I'm going to prune it off right here Taking the whole end off this this Branch a lot of vigor here I go like That Sort of a big cut there I'll just clean It up a bit Like that and then I'll take off I think this one's vertical I'm going to Take the vertical one off keep my Horizontal Bud there And prove my Center stub out here and Then I've got a butt here so really Simplifying that Branch to two dividing From one to two shortening it as much as I can and simplifying it Here's another one I've got vertical Growth here I can take back Like that What else can I do I have a stub in the center here I can Take out Like That Um another stub here I can reduce this Branch back
I can I could shorten this Branch I have a Branch back here let me show you from The other View Still see that Just flip this around You can barely see that Yeah I have one growing closer to the Trunk so I could take the whole end off That Branch here and I think I will I've Got to you know kind of Chase this Branch back so they're taking that end Off shortening that branch Now you can still see this area is just A cluster of branches so I've got to Simplify that So get rid of my horizontal and downward Facing branches Prune branches back Take branches off This one This one Take my stuff out the center Now I'm going to look at this from the Front because I need to prune it from the front view So I also wanted to reduce this in Height if I can This is going to be the tallest tree in The forest The second toss on the third so I can reduce this in height a bit it Would be good So I'm going to take off this vertical
Chute here Like that I'm going to prune this one back Took my stub out the middle here Now Can I Prune that whole leader back Probably could Right now I have two thick sections I've Got a vertical one here which flows Nicely with the trunk line I've got my thicker Branch over here I could definitely take this vertical Part off here Kind of reducing the Vigor on that Branch I've got a back Branch I can take out Like that And I can probably take this section off And prune this back Step out like that so it's really Reduced that branch This one I can cut back to here I don't think I want to prune this part Off I could grow this as my leader Or this one Maybe I do I have two options there so I Will take this off it'll take some Height off the tree Like that Yeah so now you can see I've got a couple options for a new Apex Well actually there's three options So
Eventually you know this can get pruned Off if this grows really nicely If I get some die back in one of them One of them will live it's It's good to have backups on your Apex So yeah actually Uh I don't have any other branches out this Direction so I think I'd better keep This one otherwise I could get rid of it Or this back one maybe I should get rid Of that back one I think I should I I think it's just developing too much Thickness to this trunk you can see it's Already getting bulbous And I have lots of back branches And I think you know reducing the Apex To two I don't know It's a tough decision on that one it's Kind of ugly right now Yeah it's a tough call because you know If I would take If I would like to take both of these Branches off and just leave this but Then I've got no branching in this whole Area here Which means you know then in the future The only branches I can have are up here So if it grows taller then I can Tough decision Yeah I think I have to do
Something here it's still too bulbous Here and I'm thinking of taking this Side off I think it's the only solution to slim That Apex down so Here I go this is kind of uh Yeah kind of a big cut let me position The camera Well I did the big cut on this branch And I guess I didn't hit the button on The camera to record it properly so Sorry about that However it's done I took that big bulb Off here I pruned this Branch up To a kind of a small branch and I was Saying you know this could possibly Become the apex of the tree someday You know you're always replacing these Thicker Apex with thinner branches if You can The next Apex I'm going to work on is This one and you can see it's looking Pretty good right now it's got good Taper Um But you can see there's a lot of Branches in the Apex here That are going to get very vigorous and Then I'll end up with a big thickening On the top of the tree so I've got to Simplify it I'm going to start taking branches back Reducing the length of them And then
You can see in my Apex here I have a Division two fairly thick branches Forming I only need to keep one of them And I think in this case because I have a Branch on this side I'll take off this Part so here I go Big cut Like that Did that go right here taking that off And then I'll take this back And then I can take my Apex down in Height I can take this part off I can reduce this back to here I've got a branch going up the back here I'll take that off Some stubs I can remove And I think I'll take this one right off So this is my new Apex here there's some Buds around here And then I've got this Branch coming out The back which is quite thick And I don't think I need that [Applause] Let me look from the front I mean I could keep it but I'm just worried it's going to thicken Up Tough call I'll reduce it back I'll take this part Off And I will take Any buds back here I don't know where to shorten this the
Buds are all out here It's kind of long I'm gonna take this stub off here I might be better just taking that whole Branch off I mean there is some buds Some buds at the back yeah I'll take That whole Branch off I'm going to print It back to here Like that There's still some living buds behind Here So now I've got this branch on the right Hand side here which is getting quite Thick You know ideally in your Apex everything Should be thin But this is getting thick so I've got to Reduce all the branching back [Music] Here Comes the Sun Stub up the center here and come out That reduces the branches back but you Can still see it's pretty thick looking So I want to reduce that I think I'll take it down to here and take this Off And take this off Like that and then I have one branch Come out the back I don't want that So that really simplifies that Branch Now So it shouldn't thicken up very much
Hopefully Uh so I'm coming down the Apex now Um Here I think I already kind of pruned it back But I haven't Selected my branches Uh I'm going it's getting kind of long It's getting far away from the trunk so I'm going to come back I've got a Living Branch here I could prune it off here and I think I Should Like that Keeping it short and compact this one Can come off to here Now this one This is all part of the same Branch I Could take the thick part off here And I think should I I don't have anything growing out the Back Whereas I do have a branch out front I think I'll just take this butt off Here See what happens in that area I think I Can grow something out the back here I Think that'll look good So that pretty well Gets my let me just prune that off I Don't want that butt there that gets my Apex pruned up you can see how it's Simplified it's compact I've got a lot Of the thickness pruned away as much as
I can anyway it's it's always a Challenge in large Keep these Apex thin sometimes I feel Like it's a losing battle but You know I keep pruning them and It seems like I'm just barely keeping Them under control I it's it's a Constant battle To keep these branches from thickening Up too much and the Apex from thickening Up too much So I've started kind of keeping these Under control After the first flush of growth comes Out keeping the Vigor out of the apexes And it it seems to be working Fairly well I wouldn't say Again you know someday I might have to Grow a new Branch up to replace cut off The whole Apex or make it dead wood or Something but Yeah I don't know it has a vertical Branch I can cut off I don't know how it's successful I'll be Long long term with this If I can keep It under control Or you know if I have to start doing Drastic measures like Deadwood tops and growing up new Branches for the Apex I guess there's always possibilities Now this Branch at the back here let's Look at this one
This Branch I don't like it it's too fan Shaped You know there's no Branch leader to it And it's kind of getting long it's Fairly far away from the trunk so two Objectives is to simplify it from you Know that fan shape To get a branch leader and to shorten it So It's going to be hard to shorten it uh I can take off this part and shorten it Like that I can I don't like it dividing from one to Three here I'm going to take off the one That goes behind the tree so this one Right here Like that So now it's reduced from Dividing from one to two Which will help with the thickness of This branch And then I'm trying to get them all Compact uh I can prune this bottom part off this Branch That makes it more compact I can Improve this vertical growth off Putting this back So I've got a butt at the back behind Here one on the top So I think I've shortened that and Simplified it as much as I can
The branch to the left is my next Challenge So uh Reducing the branch back if I can Again here I've got The branch kind of dividing from one to Three I better take Some of that back From the front view this branch makes This part of the branch makes it look Longest far away from the trunk so I'm Going to prune that back I'm going to take it right off actually So now I'm dividing from one to two And I don't think I can do much else on That Branch clean up some stubs But that's about it It's as short and as simple as I can get It Yeah that's all I can do I'm going to continue pruning away at The apexes on some of the smaller trees And the branches that surround the Apex To kind of reduce them back and Simplicity and vigor Getting them as compact as I can So I'll just keep working away on the Trees [Music] I've got a branch up near the Apex here That's getting really thick if you look At the front of the tree you can see how Thick this branch is for
It'd be nicer if it was Slimmer but you Can't make a branch Slimmer but I've got To take Vigor out of it and you can see It divides into two here So I think I've got to prune off that Whole Back section of the branch a big cut But I think that's going to Really improve that branch So here I go All right here I go I I'm taking a lot Of vigor out of this Branch by cutting The whole end off here Big big cut coming up Make sure the camera is recording yes Here I go Wow that was a big cut See the branch it just cut off Wow There's my cut Point here let me just Clean that up with the nibblers Yeah there so that The branch doesn't look a whole lot of Different from the front but it's Certainly Got some Vigor taken away from it So now I'll prune it up Taking away my stobs My hanging growth Another big stub here More hanging growth Taking off this vertical growth That's looking better Um
You can see it's looking much much Better I'm going to take this whole scratch out Of the middle here Inside of a curve Gotta take more Vigor out of this I think the rest isn't too bad I mean I've taken a lot of vigor out of That branch I should do that's looking pretty good Kind of This Branch kind of reaches upwards on An angle and The branch leader kind of follows that Curve or that angle So I think it looks okay [Music] This branch is a bit of a strange one I've gotta do something there I'm going To have to prune this back part off Just looking kind of strange looks Better now More in tune with the rest of the Branches On here I think I can reduce All right so that was kind of a dramatic Cut but it certainly simplified the top Of the tree I have finished the pruning of my Larch Forest at least for today there'll Always be some more pruning and touching Up I always seem to miss a branch here and There that starts growing in Spring and
You realize oh I better prune that back So there'll be lots more pruning coming But uh the major pruning to get it ready For spring is completed so let's have a Look at the forest now First I'll show you what I've pruned off So you can see there's a lot of Branch Tips and there's a lot of you know Fairly developed major branches that Have come off and some of them in their Apex and you know there's some for this For us there's some pretty big cuts So let's have a look at what's left Here is a look at the forest from a kind Of a low angle shot Um Things to note that you'll see Everything looks Less branchy I took a lot of ramification off the Branches to get them more compact So it's definitely lost Kind of that congested mature look but That is a look that will come in the Future As all the branches sort of start Maturing at the same rate Uh so I've definitely simplified the Force today because I just have to Especially in the upper part of the Trees if you don't it just becomes thick And bulbous and will look hideous in Years to come so it's kind of It's kind of a step backwards and
Hopefully two steps forwards eventually And that's the way pruning is it's Always Taking away For the promise of better things coming In the future next I'm going to fly into The forest and show you the forest from Different angles and different Perspectives to kind of give you an idea Of what it's all looking like And then after that I'm going to select Some of the branches that I really like Some clip and go branches and kind of Show you How they look up close [Music] Foreign [Music] Thank you [Music] Foreign Foreign [Music] Let's go in now and I'll show you some Of my favorite branches or branches that I'd like that are kind of developing Really nicely I think this lowest branch on this tree Is really really nice it's got nice Divisions it's nice and slim I think it's a good looking branch that One Yeah really really happy with that Branch if I could get every Branch to
Look like that I'd be really happy the One above it is really nice too That one there Some of these are quite nice maybe They're a little flat I could try and get some more up and Down movement to them But they're not bad Some of the ones in the main tree are Looking quite nice too There's a lot of good branches happening Some of the ones out the back are Looking good You can see some of the zigzag branches Down here They're quite you know snake-like Movement to them Here's one here that has A real kind of S-bend to it Yeah there's there's some cool branches On these trees and every branch is Different Um I think that was one of my points Yesterday is that Every branch on this tree is different And that's because it was clip and grown Not wired so every branch has the exact Same Pattern to it the same angle the same Style It's with clip and grow it's kind of you Know you clip it and then it grows and You clip it and it grows and you take
What the tree gives you I mean you can Try and prune it so you predict what's Going to happen but Very often there's surprises in the Forest and the trees that you didn't Expect and you go with it and it creates A really natural looking tree branch Structure and everything and every Branch is different because the tree Gives you Different growth on every branch and it Makes it a very interesting Force to Look at You don't just have to look at one Branch and every other branch is the Same Every branch is different so you can Look at each branch individually and uh It's interesting and new And it's it's nice to see I think ever Since I've started YouTube I've never Dropped my camera and I was always very Proud of that fact that you know I treat It very carefully And today I was working away on my Forest I had my back to the camera Because I wasn't filming I had the Camera way back in the greenhouse And one of the legs in the Tripod I Guess because it warmed up here in the Greenhouse when the sun came out one of The legs I guess was slowly collapsing And the camera was slowly tipping on the Tripod
So I was working away and then there's This big bang and I turned around on the Camera had tipped over and it smashed my Lens hood off the end of the camera I Was very worried I checked the camera Over it was all working fine the Autofocus seemed to be working so so far Everything's working fine on the camera I don't think it was that hard an impact It just Really scared me like both physically And I was scared the camera was broken So All seems to be okay so I'm going to Have to really watch that tripod and Maybe get another that has a better leg On it this one's I've been using this Tripod for I think four maybe five years Now and I think those legs the locks on Them are kind of wearing out a bit so Yeah one of those things that happens So that is it for today I'm uh I've got My large forest all pruned up uh it's Quite a difference to me I noticed quite A difference and Yeah it's It's a balancing act between keeping it Uh pruned back and simplified in the Apexes versus you know you want all that Nice ramification but I just can't have It because otherwise the trees would Grow out of shape so I'm trying to prune It the best I can to kind of keep that Tight conical shape the size so they
Don't get bigger and yeah I think it's Working I think the trees are looking Good they're getting older all the time They're getting that crack bark on them Now the branches are starting to get Aged to them so I think that force is Definitely improving and I hope I can Keep improving it into the far future So that's all for today I'm Nigel Saunders thanks for joining me in the Bonsai Zone foreign [Music]
