Wow, that's huge. You put back in the same pot? Good job! What a nice plant, I mean tree! Are you going to keep the "limbs" trimmed to balance it so it continues with that look?

I actually put it in a slightly wider pot than it was in because I wanted to increase it's root flare by pushing the radial roots up. I'm going to be wiring it up later to start forming the 'pads'.

Nil

That is quite a tree! Only in CA (NOT Canada haha...).

How many years does it take to get that size PA in CA? Definitely want to see it wired...

WOW! Agree with Rina, not in MI, either. TFS, Nil.

It doesn't take long when you cheat. We have huge P. afra plants that are about 10' tall on the property line that need occasional pruning. Once the plant is that big, it can grow pretty quickly. Also, sticking plants in the ground for a few years can produce some pretty impressive growth. They push out some huge roots as you can see and once those are in the ground they take off. What's interesting is that small cuttings can still be kept really tiny for a long time with pruning. It really depends on how big the cutting is to begin with.

Nil, you have to admit location is sometimes everything. LOL. Then again, I'm certain your green thumb has some impact

Most people treat these like every other succulent and keep the fertilizer on the light side if at all. That's a mistake if you want good growth. The late Jim Smith was a master with bonsai P. afra. The story I have heard is that he would use a CRF or SRF during active growth and he would topdress it so heavily that it covered the surface of the pot completely. So I use CRF pretty prodigiously.

Nil, please excuse my brain dead knowledge. CRF, SRF???? Thanks. ?? SRF. Sustained Release. CRF. Continuous Release

I think controlled release? Resin granules?

Rina has it. Controlled release versus slow release. We tend to use CRFs these days but back in the 80s he was probably using SRFs.

Here it is all wired up.

Nil

That was fast! So is it going to be eventually potted into shallow pot (when you get roots as you want)? How tall is it now? My wild guess: 36-48"?

It will most likely be in a shallow pot once it's finished being trained. It has a lot of growing to do before that however.

From the top of the soil to the top of the plant is around 30". It's about 48" across right now though.

Very impressive!

Thanks for the note about fertilzer. I don’t use much but I’ll use more on mine and see if it helps.

So I caught a glimpse from above and had to fiddle with it some more to get a better angle on one of the upper branches. So I put in a spline to act as a lever. Much better but it will probably need cranked over a little more next year.

Here's the 'famous' image of Jim Smith with an impressive P. afra bonsai. So as you can see, I have my work cut out for me. Lol

Ok Howard, I'll grant you that latitude might play a role. He was in Florida. Haha

Man, to have a succulent project like that up here in zone 8.

Where does one learn to wire these types of plants? I have a jade that I'm trying to manipulate. What kind of wire do you use and where can you buy it? Is there a cheaper alternative?

The wiring is pretty much the same as regular bonsai wiring except the branches are much more flexible. So if you took a local class on bonsai or got a book on bonsai, the techniques would be applicable. Experience is the best teacher however.

The wire used is bonsai wire which is brown anodized aluminum wire. It comes in different thicknesses. Bigger branches need thicker wire. I get mine off Amazon these days which is a lot cheaper than back in the days when you had to track down a Japanese owned nursery. You can also find it on eBay.

Normal jades (C. ovata) don't bonsai up as well as P. afra. The leaves don't shrink as well and the don't branch as well. That said, you can still prune and wire a nice open branched structure on a C. ovata. And don't worry about leaving wire marks. They grow out a lot faster on jades than on normal woody perennial bonsai.

Here is the C. ovata that I posted on another thread.