Trunk Chop Thoughts

Will_Heath

After reading a few threads here about creating a trunk chop that would result in a perfect transistion between the trunk and the new leader without the usual extreme curve I did some thinking.

I believe I came up with a mix of techniques that would solve this problem. I post it here only to get experianced thoughts on it before I attempted it on a tree.

I have read before where if you have a branch that is to massive to bend that you could take a angled slice out of the bottom and move the branch down to fill the removed area.

Is it possible to perform a trunk chop as usual, with a angled cut and then remove an angled piece from the trunk on the chopped area? Wedging a cut where the bark is already been removed, allowing you to bend the trunk back to fill the void and thus effectively bring the new leader in direct line with the trunk?

I believe that this will create a smooth transistion between trunk and new leader with minimum scarring.

Please let me know if you think this is a workable idea as I have a tamarack that was chopped this spring and I believe this would be the perfect subject for an experiment

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Attila

It sounds very smart and I am sure that in many cases it will work. Especially with trunks that are flexible and not too thick.

The risk is that since the bending has to happen over a very short area (the height of the wedge), it may snap and break. Without advance warning (when you bend over a longer surface, you may sense some tiny cracking before the branch actually breaks).

The gread advantage is that it reduces the scarring surface. I think it's worth experimenting with it and it may turn out to be a great technique.

Thank you for the innovative idea, and best regards,

Attila

Ian_Homer

Great Idea. I have not seen that one in any book !!

I agree it will very much depend on the tree and the exact nature of the trunk.

I enclose a simple sketch of what I think you are proposing.

Certainly got me searching through my "yamadori" for potential candidates for experiment next year !!!

Regards,

Attached Images

tree chop.jpg (32.4 KB, 470 views)

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Will_Heath

Ian Homer,

perfect drawing, you have a knack for visualizing the written word, this is exactly what I was proposing.

Attila,

thank you, as soon as the weather permits, I will try this, I just wanted to hear from experianced people like yourself to see if I had something here.

Jerry Meislik

Its a good technique but its not new.
Check my site to see a similar process.
at
http://www.bonsaihunk.8m.com/HeavyBranches.html
This is not an original idea of mine either.
Larch should be a good one to try this with.
Good luck and post pictures when you are done.
Jerry

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Will_Heath

Jerry,

As I stated in my first post, this technique has been used to lower branches that are too thick to bend, but I have never seen this in regards to a trunk chop.

I read the artical on branch lowering you mentioned long ago and I have used this technique on my own trees with great success, thanks Jerry. BTW I finally have a ficus that is worth taking pictures of, I can't wait to get your thoughts, I'll will post it sometime this week.

Even if my thoughts here applying this technique to trunk chops is not original, I think it solves the problem of how to get a staight trunk without tell-tale bends when trunk chopping. (as dicussed in other threads here)

jeremy_norbury

Interesting topic.

I wonder if it will be possible to get the cut on the branch to somehow graft onto the back of the trunk when it is vertical...

I'm guessing that wrapping the area would help the graft/healing. Any thoughts on this?

Jerry
Amsterdam

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Jerry Meislik

Sounds reasonable. Give it a try and post pictures so we can see how it goes.
Jerry

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kvnharv29

Jerry, do you mean with something like raffia?

Very cool technique, like to see some pics of it when you guys try it.

-Kevin

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