Goat Willow Progression (2017 – Now)

This is my Goat Willow tree that I started from seed. I am trying to grow as bonsai and I will be going through its progression below.

It is still has a lot of development, but I still think it’s coming along nicely.

If you want to watch it in video format, you can watch the YouTube playlist below. The videos show the progression every month throughout the year, sort of like a time lapse.

Just be aware some of my earlier videos are not the best quality, but just like my trees, the quality slowly improves over time, so stick with them and they both get a little better towards the end.

Goat Willow is a small deciduous tree that grows very easily across Europe. It is also known as Salix Caprea or Pussy Willow and is a pioneer species.

You can read more about their suitability in Is Goat Willow A Good Tree For Bonsai?

2017

In 2017 I had an empty pot in my garden. It had been an apple tree, but it had been stolen by a squirrel.

I just left the pot where it was and of course it grew with weeds. There was one large weed in the middle and I just ignore it all. I left it, assuming it would die over winter and I would ruse the pot next spring.

2018

Annoyingly I have no footage from this year.

In early spring 2018 I went to get the pot to reuse it and realised the weed was actually kind of woody and it was budding out. It wasn’t a weed. It was actually a tree, when it leafed out I realised it was a goat willow. I guess the squirrel was just doing a tree exchange with me.

I’m not fully sure what I did with it. I think I just left it all year and I don’t think I repotted it or messed with it any way.

2019

At the start of 2019 I pruned the tree back. I am not sure about a repot in the spring. I have a feeling I didn’t.

It grew out strong in the spring so it was pruned back again in late spring.

It was then left to grow out for the rest of the year.

2020

In 2020 I started the year with a hard prune at the end of the winter.

When the tree started to bud out in spring I repotted it. The roots where a mess, there was still a tap root, s I had not repotted it before. I took them back hard to try and get them into some sort of order.

The tree was then allowed to grow out and recover. By summer it was very overgrown so I pruned it back again.

After this it was allowed to grow out again for rest of the year.

2021

2021 started in a similar way, with a prune at the end of winter.

I did not repot the tree and I just left to grow until late spring, where I pruned it again as it had been growing very strongly.

I then left to grow out for the rest of the year.

2022

In 2022 I pruned it back in late winter, apart from a low branch on the base of trunk. I want to keep that. It will be allowed to grow and hopefully help thicken the trunk (it’s a sacrifice branch)

The tree was then repotted in spring when the buds started to swell and it was then allowed to grow out for the rest of the year untouched.

2023

Although the tree was left alone during 2022, it did not really grow to much, which meant I did not need to prune it back before spring. Everything looked alright.

I also did not repot it this year. The slow growth of last year makes me think the pot is probably not full of roots

The tree grew well over spring, so I decided to prune it back in the summer. However, I only pruned the top of the tree and left the sacrifice branch alone.

This kind of backfired on me as all the energy then just went to the sacrifice branch, rather than across the tree equally. Although this does mean the trunk probably got a nice boost of thickness, but I did not get any more branch development on the rest of the tree.

I was trying to greedy and get both, but it seems it didn’t want to do that.

2024

and that is where we are with this tree.

The plan going forward is pretty much more of the same. I will just keep doing what I’ve been doing and see where we end up.

If you also have a goat willow and are wondering how I look after it, you can read my Goat Willow Bonsai Care Guide.