Branch Bending: A method that worked.

Victrinia_Ensor

My Friends,

To those of you who have done this a million times... Nothing I present will be news. But to those of us still burgeoning at the seams with trying to coax a tree into the form you see in your mind.... this may be a help.

I have a large pine project I have been working on... Well large for me anyway. It's about 30 inches tall, with a 3 inch trunk that flares to about 6 inchs with the nebari... Just moving the pot to where I can work on it is a chore and a half. When I purchased it at a local nursery for 40 dollars it was a burlap wrapped mud ball.


It came to be called the Loch Ness Pine. Mostly because I have been talking it over with freinds for some time, and had not provided pics of any variety as it was looking fairly rediculous to my mind. So a joke was cracked that this pine was like the Loch Ness monster... heard of, but had never been seen.

So Nessie is a white pine of some non-descript variety... All the tag said was "pinus on standard", but it is a 5 needle pine. If anyone can define what that means, I would appreciate it actually.

But what I had was a pine with a good deal of branch stucture and a nice amount of taper to be found in a fairly immediate space. Plus it has this pleasing kind of lean going on... but honestly it looked like a lil mushroom cap on a stick. All the growth is on the ends, it's interior is bare. I'm hoping I can get it to back bud. On a rear branch it already has a new bud that grew this year on old wood, so I am encouraged that I will be successful over time. I don't mind taking that time in the least. But for the moment, it was mostly about the idea of making decisions about a direction for the tree...

It was potted this last spring in a run of the mill oval that is 24 inches wide. It blasted most of the needles on the front of the tree afterwards. Which happened to be the side where half of the mudball had been removed for potting. But it budded vigorously and had a REALLY good summer of growth. This tree has been nothing but healthy since that one blast of needles.

Now as most of you know... I am working on bonsai and learning all at the same time. I have been advised that should NOT have done as much work as I have at this time of year. But that being said, I also spent an afternoon with Dan working on a really big JBP the very next weekend... and when I asked him about mine he commented that our winter was far enough away that any cracks in the bark should be fine long before freezing sets in. But I like to ride on the side of caution in such things, I would have probably waited had I known.

So I styled it, after making some decisions by moonlight (thats a whole different story ). At long last showed it to some friends. By and large the response was that it was a very good start. Rob (aka October) saw it though, and felt it needed some direction changes in the branches. He did a virtual of the tree and illustrated the traditional swooping branches we all love to see on a tree... I pondered it a bit and played with the tree and told him the primary left branch didn't want to move. We kicked around the idea of notching it... an idea neither of us were very fond of. But the branch on the left is almost an inch thick at the trunk and even with double wrapping with 4.5 mm wire it wasn't going to swoop anywhere from the trunk... it just wouldn't. And I knew if I could not move the lower branches, there was no way I could move the upper ones and make it look reasonable. So Rob talked to his teachers... John Romano from New England Bonsai Gardens, and Suthin Sukosolvisit from Royal Bonsai Gardens to get their thoughts on how we might move this. They suggested wrapping the tree, using stabalizing bars, wrapping the bars, and heavy gauge wire.

Rob took it a step further and recommended a method he had watched from another master, Hiromi Tsukada, who came to NEBG for a demonstration. This master teaches close coil wiring to create subtle movement... ( http://www.nebonsai.com/Tsukada.html ) His method is to close coil wire for the whole length of the branch. I devitated from the thought by not going all the way down the branch with close coils, but where I needed it, I did.

Though I know many people use raffia... but I wanted to try vet wrap. I have heard of it being used for this purpose before. And I have used it in the past on animals so I know how good it is.

So with all this information in mind... I thought I would give it a shot. It seemed I had nothing to lose but a little extra effort at unwiring some work I had already done, and a lot to gain.

I removed all the heavy wire off the two lower branches. I cut a length of vet wrap in half to reduce it's width to 2 inches, so as to make it more managable. I put a layer of the wrap from the trunk down the length of both branches, working one side at a time. I took 3mm wire and formed it along the contours of the branch, two wires per branch with it starting on the trunk, and going along the length of my branch. On the right side I held it in place with a lil bit of wrap, and then wrapped the bars against the trunk and branches. I then used 2 lengths of 4.5 mm wire (applied seperately of course) tight coiled on the branches, going one wrap around the trunk to the other branch so that they anchor each other. All this prep took about an hour. And then it was time to play.

I have to admit... I was a bit scared as I was moving it. Breaking the branch was a serious concern... it REALLY didn't want to move before. It was actually very tough to move, I had to use all the strength in my hands plus a lil body weight to move the branches... especially with the shorter branch on the right. I was mumbling in my head... these things are going to rip off any moment now. But I have to say... the results speak for themselves. All the contributed ideas played a part in the success of the movement of those branches. And I'll have to say... there was not so much as a crack to be heard.

I hope this was helpful to someone who has heard of such methods but has yet to try it. I am glad I did... and once I get a chance to finish the rest of the branch arrangment using the same concepts to lesser degrees... I'll be sure to share the overall image. Just remember I am still learning. I'm VERY aware of the flaws of the tree... I think I'll be able to deal with them in time. Mostly the point of this is to show what can be done to move a big branch.

The order of pics in this post should be... (but I can't get it to load up right... grrrrr...)

Pinusonstandard
Pinusonstandardstyled
branchbend
branchbend2
branchbend4
branchbend5


Kindest Regards,

Victrinia

Attached Images

	pinusonstandard.jpg (56.9 KB, 125 views)
	pinusonstandardstyled.jpg (67.2 KB, 149 views)
	branchbend4.jpg (63.6 KB, 176 views)
	branchbend2.jpg (72.8 KB, 102 views)
	branchbend.jpg (64.1 KB, 100 views)
	branchbend5.jpg (70.7 KB, 133 views)

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Victrinia_Ensor

And the last two pics...

Attached Images

	branchbend6.jpg (65.9 KB, 88 views)
	branchbend7.jpg (67.7 KB, 120 views)

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legatoistheman

Vic, im no expert on this, but i remember that in PA the only five needle pine we have is pinus strobus( i think thats the name for it) or white pine. I know your neck of the woods is vastly different though.

I know this probably doesnt help much, and im probably wrong, but i thought i would give it a shot

Sincerely,
Fred

BONSAI_OUTLAW

Sweet thread Victrinia...Thank you for sharing some pics of "nessie" and how you managed to bend those branches...

Victrinia_Ensor

Fred... I'll have to see if I can find a pic of that species... see if it is the same. Thank you for the lead...


And thank you Jase for the kind comment. I appreciate that.


Yours as ever,

Victrinia

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waltr

Very nice Vic,
Thanks for show the procedure. Fred is correct on the name of the Eastern White Pine. Normally they have 4-6 inch needles and internodes of 6-15 inches. For this reason they are considered unsuitable for bonsai. However, Chase Rosade had (sold it last year) an Eastern White Pine that had been in a bonsai pot for at least 50 years (repotted occasionally of course). I didn't recognize the species due to the 1 1/4 inch needles, so it will reduce in bonsai culture. Keep up the good work and please show us Nessie from time to time.
walt

Bonsai Barry

Thanks for the detailed post. You're correct, the taper is outstanding.

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RedPine

I have seen this done before to, and it really works. Way to go Vic! Grampz has a some large collected boxwood he has been teaching us with for a couple of years now using this same technique in conjuction with others. Fun stuff!!

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zube

Ms. Vic, I don't know what pine you have, but I think 'pinus on standard' would mean that it's grafted onto different rootstock (the 'standard'). Weeping Japanese maples are commonly described as 'grafted on a high standard', i.e. the rootstock is tall (high) to allow it to weep. In your second picture, it looks like the graft union is halfway between the roots and the first branch. (Or I could be mistaken.)
zube

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