Bonsai Trunk Taper

If you look at trees in a park or in the landscape the trunks are very homogenous only slowly tapering away into a densely branched canopy.
Bonsai trunk taper. Formal upright bonsai have a straight trunk with lower branches that extend farther out from the trunk than the higher branches. Taper in trees outside people just starting off with bonsai often overlook a few simple things when thinking about bonsai. The nebari tapering thickness and overall shape of the trunk. Bonsai trunk influencing the shape tapering and thickness the trunk of a bonsai deserves specific attention as it is one of the most eye catching features of a tree.
They lack taper from where the branches grow from the trunk to their tips and also there is little taper from the trunk to the branches and relatively little difference in size and there taper and scale between the trunkbase the thickest part of the tree and the very tips of the branches the thinnest parts of the tree. The quicker growing trees trident maples get dug and pruned every winter and the roots cut short. This video is a continuation of a video i made entitled how to appreciate bonsai where i discussed that one feature for a beautiful bonsai is trunk taper. Spreading the growth actually adds taper to the trunk because lower areas thicken even more than the top.
This clip i show how to attain trunk taper. The branches grow all around the trunk in this style and they must.