Sycamore Bonsai Progression (2017 – Now)

I dug up a young sycamore tree from my overgrown communal garden in 2017. I have been developing it ever since and this is what we will be going through below.

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.

To be clear, I own the European Sycamore. (Acer pseudoplatanus). This tree is now native to the UK after being brought here by the Romans and pretty much grows everywhere in Europe and is almost like a weed. It’s very vigorous and easy to care for. You can read more about growing them in my Sycamore Bonsai Care Guide.

2016

In 2016 I found the tree growing in the garden, it was about 8ft tall and I couldn’t do anything with it until the following spring, so I just had to wait.

2017

In late winter I chopped it down in height, it was probably about 2 foot tall and basically a straight trunk, but it had some okay thickness. Well, certainly compared to all the other sticks a pot I had.

In early spring I dug it up and put it into a big flower pot with good soil. As you can see there is a huge tap root, which I cut a lot of that back.

It was then left to recover and get strong for the rest of the year.

2018

I have no footage or pictures from 2018.

However, there was a branch growing about half way up the trunk and nothing else above it. I decided to cut the trunk down in size so that this branch was now the leader. This made the trunk about 1ft tall.

I don’t think I did anything else to the tree during this year. It was mostly just left alone to grow and get strong.

2019

In 2019 had to move house and in order to bring the tree with me I had to repot into a much smaller pot.

I managed to get everything into a small pot and I can’t remember exactly, but I’m sure I would have had to remove some roots.  

It was growing very well so in early summer I defoliated it and removed some of the overcrowding. There were a number of branches growing in one place, which is not what you want, especially in a tree like this, where the growth is already thick and coarse.

I also wired a branch down to make it the first branch. It had been growing upright and was very strong. Bending it should give the tree a better shape and was the start of trying to build some structure.

2020

2020 started with a hard prune in late winter. basically shortening everything or removing unwanted branches and buds.

I then repotted the tree again, but this time into a bigger training pot. The pot I had put in the previous year was far too small but it was necessary for the move.  

10 days after the repot the leaves had already came out and in an attempt to control the vigour I pinched the new buds. This is a technique used on Japanese maple when you are trying to build ramification. Japanese maples and sycamores are both Acers, so the technique should work on both, and it did.

It’s pretty extreme, but sycamore can handle it. It’s a very aggressive grower and I want to knock some energy out it, and try to prevent such thick coarse growth and this technique seemed to help. It will have weakened the tree a lot, but It still managed to remain healthy.  

In the summer I lightly pruned it back

I then just left alone for the rest of the year. This was a lot of work in a year but the tree is healthy and the leave size got a lot smaller.

I would normally be trying to grow a tree out at this stage, but sycamore is so aggressive I’m basically jumping straight to ramification to try and reduce the chance of thick, coarse growth. I think that this is going to be the only way to keep this tree small over the long run.

2021

In later winter I pruned the tree back, just shortening everything and removing any growth that was unwanted.

Once spring started and the buds started to swell, I repotted it. The roots where doing well. They were starting to become finer and the pot actually wasn’t fully root bound. All my pruning last year seemed to slow down the vigour.

I actually removed a lot of roots, which meant there was now only 1 root plane, basically meaning the roots where not pretty flat and where only going to get better with time.

A few weeks and later I did the bud pinching technique again as it seemed to work quite well the previous year.

I then left it alone for the rest of the season.

2022

I didn’t do any pruning late winter. Everything seems to be in control. No multiple buds in one area or really long growth that needed trimmed back. It seems like all my work is paying off, but I need to be careful to not let the tree get too weak.

In spring I repotted the tree again. The roots had grown well, but they were not out of control and they had not filled the pot, which is another sign that I have managed to reduce the vigour.

I trimmed the roots back and will now leave the tree for 2 years until I do another repot.

There was not a lot of growth in 2022. Every tree I owned didn’t really grow, it was a pretty poor season, but the tree remained healthy so that is all that matters.

2023

After a poor year of grow in 2022 there was not much work done in 2023. I did not repot the tree and the only work I did was pinching the buds in early spring. I didn’t prune it after this. It was just left all season and you will see it didn’t do much.

The leaves did seem to get some sort of mould/mildew in late summer, as well as get eaten by a caterpillar, this is annoying, but isn’t anything to really worry about.

2024

My plan for 2024 is going to be more of the same. Maybe a repot. Hopefully some more bud pinching and I think some light pruning will probably happen throughout the season.

As you can see sycamore is challenging tree to use as bonsai as it is just too strong, but I think I can end up with something interesting. If you want to read more about its suitability you can read –  Is Sycamore A Good Tree For Bonsai?