Elandan Gardens Project: Lodge Pole Pine Defoliation

Victrinia_Ensor

My friends...

This was actually my very first project in the garden. And in hind sight I should have posted it sooner in case anyone would want to try it. But better late than never....

This was an 11 hour project. For a few different reasons. The largest of which was the fact that I had to unwire the beast. And while it may well look large in the photo, it's larger than this photo shows. This tree was covered in wire on just about every inch... with multiple sizes. When Dan asked me to unwire it as well as doing the defoliation, I was terribly intimidated. Because the first thing he informed me of was the fact that I was not allowed to cut off the wire. I was to unwind it all.

There's a lot of fragile deadwood elements on this tree... some of them are so fine it's hard to work around them without putting anything at risk. As it stood it took pliers to get the largest wire undone. It is all aluminum, which helped (can't unwind copper ), but being the first project... it was a little overwhelming to unwind, trace, and work around about 6 different sizes of wire. I have to admit... I learned more about good wiring by unwinding it, than I can possibly express. It was a very good experience! (unnerving... but good. lol)


So... the point of even messing with this tree, was to defoliate it in a manner which Dan was told would cause it to back bud. I believe he said the name of the gentleman who told him about the process is David Roe... I'll have to double check. In any case... this individual has a good deal of experience with Lodge Pole Pine apparently.

As it was explained to Dan.... If all the two year old needles are removed, then all the previous year's needles are cut in half, that will cause the tree to create a lot of buds further back in the branch. It is apparently triggered by the stress the tree will experience with all needles being removed or reduced. The stress being the sudden reduction of food production due to the missing and reduced needles.

There are a few caveats to this.... This is apparently only for Lodge Pole Pines... the procedure should be done before the buds have extended very much... and only be done on trees which had a very vigorous previous year. In fact, on this pine, the previous year's growth was a good deal longer than the two year old growth. (Sorry didn't think to take a photo when I started, was too busy biting my nails. )

The method that I used, since the last years growth was longer, was to gather all those needles with one hand... this made all the smaller needles (two year old growth) stand out, I plucked them all by hand, and then used my shears to cut the needles in my hand in half. Once I got sections unwired, and got a rhythm, this went along at a good pace. But it still took a lot of time due to the shear size of the tree.

The tree is about 150 yo. It's a beautiful example of the undulating motion Dan puts into his trees.

Here are a couple photos of the tree... and a shot of some finished bundles are included.

Kind regards,

Victrinia

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Ms. Vic

Le belle cose prendono tempo...

www.elandangardens.com

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SiNguyen

Mrs. Vic, that's a beautiful tree! You must have put in a full day's work on it. I really like the wild and free style of this tree. The close up picture of the needles is really good photography too.
Have a nice weekend!
Si
PS. how did you get your pictures to post so large on here?

Graydon

Ok - I have to ask. Why unwind the wire and not cut it off? I know there's a good reason. Secondly why aluminum wire and not copper?

Great tree. The president of our bonsai club was up there last year and took a photo of each tree. When he returned he made a copy of the set for me so I could look at them without having to ask to see his set. Quite a few monsters in the collection. I remember this one in particular. He didn't take any notes so he was unable to give me species info on the ones where you couldn't read the sign. Thanks for clearing the species up for me on this one.

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Victrinia_Ensor

It did indeed take a bit of time, it took 11 hours over two days to complete it. Having touched every single inch of this tree, I can say that there is indeed a wild and free spirit in it. It's magical. I am glad it was the first tree I ever worked on in the garden.

I am able to insert larger photos (which I think is important in sharing things of this quality) by uploading them into photobucket. And then I insert the IMG code for each photo where I want them in the post. It can make it a little challenging for someone who has a really slow connection. BUT since I know it is not physically possible to have a slower connection than mine... I figure they can tough it out with me...lol

Kind regards,

Victrinia

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Ms. Vic

Le belle cose prendono tempo...

www.elandangardens.com

JGamby713

Good job Ms. Vic!!! You are very lucky to be doing what you are for Dan. I am doing the same here in Oregon for a younger version of Dan. We have the ability to work on material that 99% of the people in American bonsai don't get a chance to work on. Soon you will take for granted the quality of material that you are playing with, it will happen!

Lodgepole is a very flexable pine and one can use aluminum wire with no problems. Ofcourse when you get into large thick branches you need guy wires like you would with copper... Lodgepole is a great species to work with, I collected a few beautys last year.... great trees for bonsai.

Keep up the good work Ms Vic, and hopefully we can meet in late June.

Jason

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Jason's Bonsai Fun!
www.oregonbonsai.com
USDA Zone 8, NW Oregon
1.20.09 Texas gets the villiage Idiot back!!!!

Victrinia_Ensor

Why unwind? Because Dan commits the desecration of reusing wire. And believe me, he isn't lacking for funds....lol He has just always had the habit.

Why Aluminum? He would say.... Why not?

He thinks there is way too much focus on the idea of only using copper. He'll tell you that while you may have to apply a bit more wire, you will be able to get it on easier with aluminum. He tells me about the days when it first came out, that everyone jumped for joy practically at having it.

Dan doesn't stress the tools or the methods... he stresses results. He believes with great conviction that there isn't any significant benefit to be had with using copper. And believe me, he used copper for enough years to have a reasonable basis for forming that opinion.

He is actually completely perplexed by the rejection of aluminum wire by traditionalists, and especially in regards to showing. But that's a whole different conversation. Can you tell he covered this at length? (laugh)

Hope that answers your questions.

Kind regards,

Victrinia

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Ms. Vic

Le belle cose prendono tempo...

www.elandangardens.com

rockm

"Dan doesn't stress the tools or the methods... he stresses results"

HA. BLASPHEMY

"He believes with great conviction that there isn't any significant benefit to be had with using copper. "

Expect villagers with pitchforks and torches now that you're said this in public

You know you're probably going to look back at this experience in a decade or so as you're working on your own collection of huge trees (working with big trees is habit forming. You might find you are unable to work on anything smaller than two feet after you're done) with marvel. You're extremely privleged to have tapped a rich well of experience.

P.S.--I'd say the exercise in unwinding the wire might be similar to the "wax on, wax off" shtick in Karate Kid Unwinding it unveils how it was done and shows you how to do it--all while doing a REALLY tedious, time consuming, task for Dan.

Graydon

Thanks for the answers on the wire. It was just to satisfy my curiosity, I was by no means suggesting anything else. Reusing aluminum wire is fine, in fact it's the ultimate act of recycling.

I don't use that much aluminum except for drain hole mesh securing and tying trees in to pots. The sun down here can bleach the coating off in one season and the bright aluminum looks bad to me, although I may be the only person that ever sees it on my trees. I like the patina on the copper wire but I know that's not a good reason to use copper wire.

Thanks again for all of the info and the photos of these special trees.

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Vonsgardens

Aluminum wire is great- if you buy good wire. The korean wire is just too soft to hold anything with resistance. The japanese and some of the chinese wire is quite good. Why do I use copper?- because I prefer to (this should in no way be construed as a value statement). John

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"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon