Making a bonsai from a jade plant

This video shows he take a very large Crassula species (jade tree) and turn it into a bonsai.

That is how we take a very a large multi trunk jade tree. Cut it down to a single trunk. Taper that trunk and form it into the beginnings of a bonsai.

We than proceed to graft branches to the trunk. This is needed to compensate for the trunk taper and positioning. Since we are making some drastic changes this is not going to be any more of a strain than what was already happening.

The process is not novel. It applies to any large tree that you are trying to turn into a bonsai. The same big changes are needed.

That is:

Trunk selection in the case of a multi trunk specimen.

Trunk taper but we will need to keep working on this.

Development of branches so they scale appropriately to locations.

Pruning branches for size, position and ramification.

If you collect a yamadori tree the same things would be needed. Even if you grow a bonsai in the soil for trunk girth and nebari this would need to be done. That is how you get the shape required to give illusion of age and grandeur.

Going forwards we will need to prune to reduce foliage size. We will also need to encourage ramification.