I wired this little crab in April as the new growth was emerging. It’s branches thicken up pretty quickly, and become stubborn, so wiring green shoots is the best way to ensure some movement. April 9:
Just under 7 weeks later, the wire was just starting to cut in:
Wires removed:
The tree has 4 apples growing this year, the first time fruit has set since I bought it back in 2016 or ‘17.
I also pruned it back to a nicer shape, but didn’t want to go hard enough on it that the fruits may fail…we shall see if I accomplished that objective.
If the tree continues to grow, it will be cut back to 1-2 nodes throughout the rest of the growing season. The result should be primary branches with 2-3 bifurcations, each with their own tertiary branches. and with the present height at 7 1/4” tall, I still have a little room for growth to keep it within the 8” height guideline for shohin bonsai
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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Nebari Bonsai 
Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.