Drill A Hole In A Tile Technique

DavidN

At last night's club meeting our President brought in a Japanese maple seedling that he'd grown through a hole in a ceramic tile. This is an old technique for creating the much desired nebari we all seek in bonsai.

The technique is quite simple in that a hole (1 inch thick or so) is drilled through the middle of a ceramic tile. The seedling is then pushed through the hole until its roots are at one end and the trunk is as the other end. Then plant this in the ground for a year and feed well. The seedling basically air layers itself as it thickens and fills the hole in the tile. Then you remove and cut the tap root off.

I guess the following photos from last night will explain things a lot better.

The first pic you can see the tile and the seedlings roots.

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DavidN

then remove the tap root which you can clearly see underneath the tile.

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DavidN

Remove the seedling and you can see the radial spread of roots from the trunk. This is a great idea for anyone growing seedlings to achieve great nebari early on. This seedling will now be put back in the ground to fatten up.

Its going to be great seeing how this develops in the coming years.

For more photos from the night go to:

http://www.bonsainorthwest.com.au/a.../august2004.htm

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ChrisM

i had read about this technique before, but never seen any pictures, looks like it works great. how early on would one start this process? i have some jap. blk. pines, about 9, that have come up this year. anyway, looking forward to any answers. thanks for sharing david.

chris

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DavidN

Chris
I have only seen this done of decidious trees. I'd assumming it would work with conifers too but I have not seen it first hand. These were started with 1 year old seedlings I believe. This would be their second year of growth.

I will be attempting something similar but with a variation. Instead of using tiles and drilling holes I have thought of something else to use. I work in IT and have access a lot of defunct/not working CDs. My intention is to thread the seedling through the hole in the CD and plant it in open ground. I would probably leave it for 2 years as then I'd be sure that the trunk would of thickened enough to air layer itself. Anyone know if CD are ok to be planted into the ground? Not sure how this will turn out or if the CD won't crack under the pressure of the growing trunk.

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Revant01

The CD idea is a good one. I was going to try the tile approach with some seedlings this year, but CD's sound an easier option to drilling tiles.

TreeBay

There was a writeup on this awhile back on Bonsai Today. If I get a chance I'll see if I can find the issue number. You can drill more than one hole and have several seedlings planted to accelerate the process.

It is actually very easy to drill holes in tile with a masonry bit and a drill press. A little water on the surface of the tile to cool the bit helps. The bit will punch right through with very little effort. Cheap wall tile works best; anything in the scrap bin at Color Tile, for example.

If you use a standard bit, or don't have a press, it's very hard.

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DavidN

Matt
The multiple holes in a tile is also being experimented with however they have left it in the ground for a bit long. That is going to look even better.

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TreeBay

Here's a somewhat related experiment in growing a tree on a tile. A two-year old maple seedling was tied to the top of the tile using green plastic gardener's tape.

This is how it looked after about two and a half years, growing in the ground.

So, David I would say leave it on the tile a couple years longer, if you can.

Regards,

Matt

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