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bend me twist me
Join Date: Jul-2006
Location: melbourne
Country: australia
Posts: 2,086
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200 desert ash
BEND ME TWIST ME
THE JOURNEY OF 200 DESERT ASH
02/07/07
December 05, I pulled out approx. 200 desert ash seedlings from my father’s backyard that is totally cultivated for fresh produce of all kinds. ( hated it as a kid love it all now, funny that ) Various seeds blow in and propagate, lucky me. At the time I planted them out into large shallow drip trays in groups of 50. Watered and fed them for the next seven months, this time last year. Because of the method of planting the growth was not prolific, but yet these young seedlings were showing vigour and interesting basal flare and movement. Being winter I then commenced to plant them out in various manners, again watering and feeding them for the next 12 months, which has brought me to now. It is winter 07 they have just lost their foliage and I have commenced the winter work of trunk chopping, selecting new leaders and sacrifice branches and sometimes number 1 branches. As well I am wiring, twisting and bending these trees. The last activity in this process is to work on the roots, being selective and brutal in order to produce outstanding nebari’s in the very near future. Finished with a re pot. Through this process a few things have occurred to me. 1) Similar but more basic methods were used last winter and the trees have rewarded me this year with great design elements and structure. Basic yet none the less great. 2) If I carefully document this time it would be a great idea to share this with you all.
I am passionate about sharing this mostly with you beginners but also with anyone of you who care. MY WAY IS NOT THE ONLY WAY. Good now we have got that out the way I can continue. I have believed and today more than before that my process is a sound, systematic and step by step way of 1) giving birth to great bonsai material and 2) be able to understand and analyse what is happening to your tree and therefore learn from this application to make you a better bonsaist in the future.
Step by step, detailed and in depth I would like to take you on these journeys with me and the different scenario’s of these trees. I will also introduce some other species I have used these methods on. Keep in mind all trees are different and these methods need to be varied from slight to great at times. Another important factor is that these trees I am discussing are very young, so there for age has a large bearing on method.
I intend this thread to hopefully be of some educational value for beginners like myself and others alike. I welcome construvtive debate for us to learn from. Feel free to show us your way.
The first of this series of posts will be on a desert ash I call 3 in 1. yes 3 trees into 1. Nothing new, no big deal just 3 young trees wired together to make one trunk. They were originally strapped and tied together with raffia, then wired as one trunk and made a circular bend. A couple of pics here for you and i will add updates as i find the time.
Thanks to all who checked out this post and stay tuned for the next episode of
BEND ME TWIST ME
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Antonio . . .
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