Join Lloyd, Bonsai master from Bonsai Direct, who has nearly 40 years of expertise in growing and styling bonsai trees. Lloyd was asked how to improve the taper of the trunk of a Fukien Tea Bonsai. This is an indoor species of miniature tree with very pretty white star shaped flowers and evergreen emerald glossy leaves. It is a slow growing species which originates from a shrub with chunky growth. It grows slightly top heavy with the dominant, heavier branches towards the apex of the trunk. This makes achieving a nice taper to the trunk more difficult than with other varieties. We hope you enjoy this video which demonstrates how to improve and develop the taper of a bonsai. You can apply this process to other species to bonsai too.
Understanding Bonsai Trunk Taper: Key to a Natural and Balanced Look
In the art of bonsai, a good trunk taper refers to the gradual narrowing of the bonsai’s trunk from its base to the top. This tapering effect gives the tree a natural, mature appearance, making it look like a full-sized tree in miniature form. The base of the trunk is usually thicker and sturdier, while the upper sections gradually become thinner. A well-developed trunk taper creates a sense of balance and stability, enhancing the overall aesthetic of the bonsai and contributing to its realistic, scaled-down look. It’s a key factor in creating an elegant and visually appealing bonsai design.
Transcription of the video in which Lloyd demonstrates how to improve the trunk taper of this pretty bonsai tree
Introduction
Hello everyone. I had a comment left on one of my videos in my YouTube clips and it was about the Fukien tea tree. And the question was how do I improve the taper of my tea tree? It was a great question, so I thought I’d do a little video clip. All right. I did reply in the comment, but you can’t beat actually seeing it being done, and I thought it would help a lot of other people as well. The tea tree grows very top heavy. It produces quite thick, chunky branches. It is actually a shrub, grows to about four meters tall in the wild or natural habitat. So it tends to grow sort of like this big bushy thing like this. As a bonsai it’s not ideal in the fact that the branches (I can show you here) get quite chunky. They’re not small and twiggy like the Chinese Elm. So, it can get very top heavy very quickly. So here’s what we need to do.
Explaining about top heavy branches and the bonsai losing lower branches
We need to slow the growth down at the top and let it grow more at the bottom. It has already lost a couple of branches lower down. And the reason for that is that it just puts all its leaves up here. And if we, the growers, don’t sort of slow that down, then the bottom branches will die off or grow up here and basically think, I don’t need those leaves, I don’t need those branches down there. So the bonsai will shed them. I think probably most trees in the wild do that.
The aim for the tree is to get their leaves out into the sunlight, and if they’re starting to get a bit shady and they’re not not performing very well, then the tree just, well, lets them go. So how do we make the trunk thicker? How do we sort of slow this down? Basically it’s just by pruning. And what I’m going to do is thin out the top here a little bit. I’m going to just prune it back a little bit harder than I would lower down. The tree is all nice and green and it’s all fairly healthy. So it all looks good. I’m not too worried about that.
So have a look around. We’ve got quite a nice little shape; a nice little twist to this. But, as you can see the taper is not brilliant. It hasn’t got any lower branches. It’s already lost those, as I explained. So going around, so up here, if I move that closer you can see. Some thick, chunky branches towards the top of the bonsai. So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to do a little prune to start with. I shall just turn this round so you can see what I’m doing. I’m going to prune the obvious ones first.
You need to Prune Harder at the Top of the Bonsai to Improve Bonsai Trunk Taper
The branches towards the top of the bonsai are quite big. It’s sort of growing out. So I’m just going to prune it back a little bit and then we’ll see where we are. As you can see it’s quite chunky toward the top. So, I’m not pruning too accurate at this stage, because I can go back in and clean up any lumps, bumps and stumps in a minute. So all we’re going to do is to reduce some of the heavier growth, and then we can see a little bit more about what is actually going on. I am not worrying about the shape, because the shape will regrow.
I am warning you that, at this stage while you’re doing this, your tree will look a little bit thin on the top. But don’t worry about that because it will bud back and depending on the growing season, this take a different amount of time. It will bud back more quickly in spring and summer, than it would in autumn or winter months. It doesn’t matter too much when we do this, but it will regrow slower in the winter time.
What is Back-Budding on a Bonsai Tree?
Back-budding in bonsai refers to the process where new buds emerge along older branches or the trunk of the tree, rather than just at the tips of the branches. This is an important characteristic for bonsai trees because it allows the grower to encourage new growth closer to the tree’s trunk, improving branch structure, overall shape, and fullness.
Back-budding is particularly helpful for trees that may have become sparse or leggy over time. It also allows for better control when styling and shaping the bonsai, as it provides opportunities for pruning and creating a more compact, refined design. Techniques such as pruning, pinching, and proper fertilisation can encourage back-budding, making it easier to maintain the tree’s aesthetic balance
The transcription continues…..
I’m quite happy with the shape of the trunk. It would have been nice to have this lower branch back, but what I’m hoping now by doing this, it will force new leaves by back budding. We should get some new shoots coming back through here, so I can regrow that branch. Now, how’s the taper going? So. Starting to look smaller at the top, but it’s not there yet, so I’m going to have to be a little bit more drastic! I’m just going to follow the trunk line coming up there. And I like the way it comes up this way. You can see this branch comes out here. That branch goes there. So, I want to continue the trunk up that way because it is aesthetically more pleasing.
Use Side Branch Cutters on Thicker Branches
I don’t need this big heavy branch here. It’s probably time for some branch cutters. Okay, so I’ve got some small side branch cutters here. Bonsai pruning scissors might have done it. The wood on this tree is not that hard. But the branch cutters will make a much better job than the pruning scissors, because the branch is a little thicker than the other pruning that I have just done. I am going to remove that branch with the side branch cutters.
We’re doing several things here in one go. We are improving the taper because we’re slowing the growth down here, getting the growth back down to the bottom of the bonsai. If we can get the bonsai growing lower down, that will actually widen out the trunk as well improving the taper. We’re also going to improve the branch structure down below.
A Quick Summary
In summary, we are encouraging the base of the trunk of thicken, by reducing the growth at the top of the tree. This in turn, will improve the trunk taper. We are also trying to encourage new buds to re-grow the missing lower branch through the process of ‘back-budding’. Additionally, we hope to add to the shape of the trunk line coming up. Having removed some of the heavier top branches, instead of having 2 or 3 big heavy branches at the top, we have now only got one. Basically, we’re simplifying the design.
Now, I’m going to take this one off here. This will bring me back to bit of an apex at the crown of the canopy. I am aiming for a triangular shape. If we follow the trunk line now and sort of do the zigzag and we end up here. So that means it’s a simplified design. And then what it does is highlights other areas of the tree that we can also do a little bit of thinning out and a bit of changing. So here we’ve got a branch that’s just growing up. But really I’d like him to be out a bit more like a sort of a pad. So we’ll take that one off too. In here, I’ve got the main branch here but this little one has decided to shoot out in the corner. That’s a bit of clutter so I shall remove that small bud.
Take your time; enjoy the pruning process.
A little bud here that will wake up in a minute, but he’s on the underside of the branch, so I’m going to take that one out. What else have we got going on? Now this is quite drastic. So what I suggest is that if you’re working on your tree at home, do a little bit at a time, unless you’re really certain and you know what you’re doing. Take it slowly. It really doesn’t matter. Trim off the top bit. Leave it. See what happens. Okay. Let it regrow. It’s okay for me. I’ve done thousands of these, so it’s really not a problem. But, take it slowly. There’s no rush.
I am having a look around now at what I have already done. In one way, it’s lost all its leaves towards the top where I have pruned quite heavily. So, it doesn’t look quite as nice. But when we come around here you can now you see that triangle? So I shall use this pruned off branch and I can pretend that that was the growth on the tree, to help you visualise what it what it will look like when the new leaves grow back. Let me see if there are any other branches that just need a little bit of a trim or tidying up.
You can add taper to the branches too, using pruning techniques.
I also like to try and increase and improve the taper on the branches as well. Because they are chunky, they don’t just seem to gradually taper down. They tend to be quite sort of big, like a finger. These branches are also a bit chunky. So I’m going to do a little bit of pruning on some of these branches too. AnThe result of pruning these branches is – it’ll send out anew shoot. That new shoot will be smaller than the one that’s currently growing from the branch. Now, I’m looking for anything which is not going to add to the overall shape and will helped by a bit of back budding.
There’s a also a few old stumps here and there, where it’s been pruned over the years. So we just go in and prune those back. It is October here in the UK. I should expect it would probably be 2 or 3 months before we start to see any serious growth on here. New buds will come through and we’ll just water him and feed him as we usually do. Please water regularly and feed once a week. Just a little bit. Keep him topped up.
So, yes, I think probably a few weeks we’ll start to get some growth coming back, but I won’t let it grow too heavy at the top here. So I’ll let a new shoot come throughout the top and a new one here and let it do its thing. I’ll prune it down a little bit, but I will let it grow again. However, down here I will let the new shoots grow out a little bit. Now, it will take at least one, two, or three years before this actually starts to really come out.
Potting your bonsai into a larger pot will speed up the process of improving the Bonsai Trunk Taper
To help speed up the process, you could actually take it out of the smaller pot and put it into a bigger pot. And that’s called growing them on. So quite often what we do is we take smaller ones, we pot them on. This allows the roots really spread out, let the roots run a little bit. And that will stretch out if you like and help thicken up the trunk. So it depends what stage you’re at and how much work you actually want to do with your bonsai. But the pruning I have shown you will help. This will start to give you some shape and a little bit of taper back without doing anything too drastic.
So I hope this video helps you to understand how to just keep the tree under control a little bit, how to add to the taper, how to stop losing lower branches. It’s a fantastic little tree. A really pretty tree makes a great bonsai. So just keep an eye on those big heavy branches on there. I hope this helps. And if it does, brilliant.
Below are some examples of Beautiful Fukien Tea Flowering Bonsai Tree for Sale
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