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So today we're back with my sycamore
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Just to clarify, there's a British sycamore, which is known as a sycamore maple in North America
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And its proper name is Acer pseudo-plotanus. So this is not the American sycamore
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Plotanus oxydentalus. But anyway, as you can see it was growing strong and because of that I defoliated it
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The leaves are large and the growth was generally thick and coarse. And this is why it's not favourites bonsai
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Especially when you compare it to other acer relatives. The Japanese have spent hundreds of years testing and trying which acers are best suited for bonsai
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and well. There's a reason why this variation hasn't made it. But I don't really care
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I will still try and make something of it. And if I have to put a bit more work in, like doing constant t and defoliation to
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get the leaf size down, that's fine with me. So here's the cut I made when this tree was dug up and it was like 8 feet tall
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As you can see, the internodes are far apart, which isn't ideal
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and here there's pretty much four shoots coming from the same spot
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which needs to be reduced down to two. It already thick enough about adding inverse taper into the mix
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By mid-summer it actually looks okay. Sort of one-sided but I think I can actually end up with something okay in a few years time
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I've wired down this branch
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Well, more made of makeshift gai wire. It looks kind of weird but this branch will be cut back and it should look okay
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Basically a sort of first branch. In autumn a turn colour. I like the colour. It's kind of patchy and sort of camo-like
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Nothing like some of the acers which again is probably why it's not a favour for bonsai
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but I still like it. Before the leaves you can see what I've done to the first branch
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It looks like it bends far too down But just look at the first few inches coming out of the trunk
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That's the important part. In time it will look right. By February the buds start to swell
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And again you can see there horrible thick growth. So many buds in such a small area
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This whole section really needs to go. I trimmed the whole tree back. Some areas seem more drastic than others
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I used to have this in quite a large pot when I was in London
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This time last year I pulled it out and cut it back and forced it into this little pot
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There's the only way I could keep it, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to ship it over. My plan for this year was to put it back into the biggest pot I could find, but I don't think I can afford the space
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So I've got this training pot and I'm going to use it that should be large enough
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You can see it's slightly bigger, mainly the same depth, just wider
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Not what I planned, but it should do. It came out easily. I already knew the roots were not great but so far they seem quite fine
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and not too root bound The mesh at the bottom was easily removed It wasn all matted like some other trees So I got to raking
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And then as I wanted to see what was actually going on, I needed to wash the roots
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So quite a mess, but not as thick and out of control as it could have been
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So the new pot is ready, I was able to reuse the drainage screen from the old pot
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And here's the roots now. Pretty drastic t. You can see here, three or four inches, where the roots are coming out
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It's not one root plain. The main roots seem to be at the top and bottom
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I pretty much want to try and get the upper roots to be the main plane. But I didn't quite want to cut off the whole three or four inches there at the bottom just yet
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So we'll see what happens. But we'll have to slowly remove parts of this over the next few years
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Here it is repotted. I'd say this pot is probably the perfect size actually
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There's plenty of room for roots. and I'll be doing this again next year anyway
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so for now it'll be trailer as the same as last year I'll add to grow strong and healthy
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and kept in check every now and again thanks for watching, see you next time
