Hi everyone, this is my first post, and I'm just getting into bonsai, very excited to see where this goes. I just bought a little aspen, and it got me thinking it'd be fun to try to get a full forest growing eventually out of the one tree. Obviously, it's not going to happen overnight, but what I envision is having a single, forest size pot that I'll plant my one guy in, and let the roots go crazy in there. I'm thinking leaving some of the bigger roots rather than pruning them and seeing if they'll sprout on their own, or maybe wiring some roots up intentionally in an effort to get them to sprout that way. Does this sound like it's feasible, or is it a cool idea that won't work? Just want to get this going in the right direction now rather than having issues down the road. Thanks in advance.
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Edited: Apr 05, 2021
Wanting to make an aspen forest from a main tree
Wanting to make an aspen forest from a main tree
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Congrats on getting into bonsai!
Aspen reproduce by sucker, so I think the longer you have an aspen...the more likely it is you'll have suckers coming up for additional trees. I've turned elm roots into trunks, but I don't know if aspen can easily do that...or not?
I would say that most people who are composing a forest do so with multiple trees that they might have developed/grown out/purchased separately, because growing from seed or sucker is going to take a long long time. Of course this choice is yours to make.
There may be some special nuances with aspen, but perhaps a few more folks will chime in with some input on that.
Keep in mind that if you have a tree potted and pruned, it's not likely to put on much girth and you're deciding to keep it about the same size. So it should be mostly where you want it to be, size wise.