Alternate Wound Seal Treatments

frzz56

- are there any acceptable alternatives to commercial Japanese wound treatment?
- does anyone have or know of any homemade recipes?

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TUNA

I'm not entirely sure what your asking, but I've heard elmers glue, and Doh(like PlayDoh) are some alternatives. Elmers seems like it would work fine.

Will_Heath

I have been using the grey clay like material for my major scars, however, there is a lot of thought lately that treating a wound is an unnecessary process and helps little except for cosmetic appearances.

The traditional Japanese sealant that I use goes a long ways and I use it because I am not fully convinced of the train of thought that I mentioned above. Which has led me to experiment....

I have selected a couple trees for a comparison where I just use a little Chinese ink mixed with water and applied with a brush for cosmetic reasons only. So far on this side by side comparison I can discern no difference in recovery, healing, or growth between the two. (Sealed vs. unsealed)

Please take this with a grain of salt as I am only using two trees of the same species and I am lacking a control tree where I use nothing. I also have limited experience with bonsai.

washout03

personally i wouldn't use elmer's glue. it seems too much like the greenish goo sold for grafting. It tends to gum up in the wound and is impossible to get off. I have used thick mud, and it works as long as it doesnt dry out. I have read on here somewhere, maybe it was Ron Martin that said it, but if you knead vegitable oil into modeling clay its an effective sealant.
Hope i helped
Tom

TreeBay

> have selected a couple trees for a comparison where I just use
> a little Chinese ink mixed with water and applied with a brush
>for cosmetic reasons only. So far on this side by side comparison
> I can discern no difference in recovery, healing, or growth
> between the two. (Sealed vs. unsealed)

Badbyte,

I am always interested in experiments. Can you tell us what species of plant(s) you are using and what, specifically, the experiment is designed to demonstrate?

It appears that you are comparing something (conventionally sealed or unsealed?) with this Chinese ink. I don't know if I am familiar with Chinese ink. Is it like a Sumi ink or India ink?

How long have the wounds been in place? Do you have any photos of the treatments? How many wounds are there? Are they on the same tree and are they at alternate sides or one on top of the other?

Regards,

Matt

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Will_Heath

Matt, I took two collected eastern hemlocks TSUGA CANADENSIS that were in need of height reduction and performed trunk chops 14" above the soil line on each tree.

Both trees were collected in the spring of 2003 and planted into a pond plant container (these are plastic square pots that have many screen holes on all sides and bottom, I find that they allow for superior drainage and root development) with slight root reduction. Both trees are in a mix of turface/sand/firbark/peat.

This spring I performed the root chops without any other purning, shaping, or wiring. While I was pressing the gray clqy into the wound on the first tree my thoughts ran to articals I have read stating that wound treatment is not needed, after all trees have survived without wound treatments for about 200,000 years.

The second tree I simply took a stick of chinese ink (find this at art supply stores in a stick form) put a couple drops of water on a paper plate and rubbed the stick into it. I brushed the ink on with a small paint brush.

My experiment has flaws as I stated, first hemlocks are very slow growers, second, I should have a control tree with nothing at all on the wounds and third I took no before pics as the experiment was just to satisfy my curiousity.

To answer your questions:

I am trying to show to myself that either treating wounds is a waste of time and resourses or that it is indeed needed. I have always treated wounds bigger than a pencil eraser and will continue to do so until I can be sure otherwise.

As I said in my previous post, so far there is no noticible difference between these two trees to date, it may in fact be years with this species before I'll have a solid answer.

TreeBay

Thanks for the details, BadByte. It's true that many arborists do not apply wound treatments, but they are also very careful not to cut the branch collar off, which is something we almost always do when pruning bonsai, and have special tools to do so.

The arborist's concern is rarely based so heavily on aesthetics. What we as bonsai-ists do creates a weaker wound that's slower to heal than one that leaves the collar, but it's necessary for our purposes.

I think your approach of experimenting, but being cautious is a good one. Now I am not speaking of you, but of a general trend I have witnessed:

I am always amazed by the huge effort that some people will put into justifying laziness.

Regards,

Matt

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kvnharv29

Take regular clay and melt it down and add olive oil to get a better consistency, like peanut butter. This is what i have but I never use wound sealant! Apparently this is futile, because you can get the good, real sealant from treebay.com for cheap and it does last awhile.

-Kevin

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Will_Heath

Well-spoken Treebay.

I agree that being lazy with bonsai is a quick path to defeat. As I have mentioned, I have always used the gray clay like cut paste on anything bigger than a pencil eraser. I am always quick to test out things that I read or advice that I get and make my own judgments. Well, most things anyhow...I actually had someone on a forum tell me once that spraying 10W40 motor oil over the surface of your soil will increase the surface tension of water and allow your tree to use it better...needless to say, that is one theory I never tested.

I'll let you know the results in time, for now both hemlocks are healthy and have growth. The chops are healing and there is some back budding on both trees.

I also am anxious to test out a theory on trunk chopping without trunk curvature...but that's another thread.