How To Create a Super-mini Bonsai with a Twisted Trunk

How To Create a  Mini Bonsai with a Twisted Trunk

 

Twisted super-mini bonsai” are bonsai whose trunks have been wound around a bamboo skewer to give them a twisted look. Authentic bonsai are kept in place with wire and take years to achieve this kind of form, but super-mini bonsai allow this charming shape to be completed in a short time.


 You will need

 • Seedling or cutting
 • Pot
 • Soil
 • Sphagnum moss 
• Moss 

Tools

 • Tweezers 
• Bamboo skewer
 • Wire (aluminum wire 0.8mm thick)
 • Wire cutting pliers 
• Small spoon (to fill pot with soil)
 • Bucket (large enough to hold plenty of water)



 Trees suitable for “twisted super-mini bonsai” The shape of twisted super-mini bonsai is created by winding their trunks around bamboo skewers. Select trees that are still young and have long, thin trunks. Here, I’ve used a two year-old Chinese fringe tree. You can also use Japanese maples, Japanese black pines and so on. choose ine, pliable wire When making super-mini bonsai, use fine, pliable wire that won’t damage the thin trunk of the tree, such as 0.8mm aluminum wire. It’s not expensive, but few places stock it in the small quantities used for bonsai making, so it may be difficult to find. Try looking at gardening stores that stock super-mini bonsai.





 1. Line up the trunk of the plant against the skewer and consider the desired result

 2. Strip the dead or extraneous leaves from the plant to neaten its appearance.

 3. Attach the tip of the skewer just below the area to be wound 

4. Wind wire around the trunk and skewer about three times to secure 

5. The wire wound around to secure the trunk to the skewer. Cut off excess wire with pliers.

 6. Starting from the section secured with wire and working up, wind the trunk around the skewer.

 7. Wind carefully to prevent snapping or damaging the trunk 

8. Picture the end result as you keep winding.

 










9. The trunk wound three times around the skewer. In this example, this concludes the winding

 10. Wind wire around the end of the winding about three times to secure the trunk to the skewer

 11. Cut off excess with pliers. 

12. The finished result with the trunk wound around the skewer. The tree will be planted as it is 



13. Match the plant and the pot for balance and decide where the front of the bonsai will be.



 14. Add soil to pot and plant tree

 15. Add soil until the plant is stable and secure.

 16. Shred a small amount of sphagnum moss and soak it in water before laying it on top of the soil. 

17. Use tweezers to plant moss in three places in the sphagnum moss

 18. After soaking the entire pot in a bucket of water, allow the plant and soil to stabilize for a week to 10 days in a semi-shaded spot, monitoring the condition