Larch - new styling idea

wabashene

Hi Wessel,

These trees are not as easy as people seem to think as I have stated above.

The line of the trunk would cause me a little concern as you have a shallow "C" curve and a major branch coming off the inside of the curve. In many circles these are considered "No Nos".

Is it possible to bend the trunk the other way so the first main branch is on the outside? ( see virt) This gives it much improved movement.

You may ( I say may) even be able to deliberately damage the trunk to make the bend if necessary by cutting a notch if it won't wire.

Rgds

TimR

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wessel larch.jpg (64.1 KB, 96 views)

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weeijk

Hi TimR

Took some time, but did manage to twist the trunk a little, this is how it looks now. Hope this'll be better.

Wessel

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larix decidua207 20-3-2007.JPG (68.1 KB, 93 views)

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Mcspeed

I like that better! You may want to consider taking off the bulk of that first branch, back to the first small branch, then grow that out as your first.I think your first right hand branch is a bit too low for a smaller higher branch, it wouldn't have sagged as much as a heavier lower branch. It will add to the look of the internode as well, that one down to the next is just a little less than optimal, but positioning should help that.

wabashene

Hi Wessel.

As we say in England that is starting to look the business or the gnats nadgers imo.

I had a similar arrangement of guy wires ropes and pulleys on one of mine but it worked. :-)

Like McSpeed says a bit of branch cut back and re-growing will be needed to keep everything in proportion- i.e. bigger at the bottom than the top

(see the diagram of my method which will probably take more than 4 years but you get the idea I hope)

I like that hanging branch top right.

You need to work some movement to get them hanging and like bent arms with fingers splayed out.

Take a look at some of Karl Thier and Wolfgang's larches here and on IBC for inspiration. Nick Lenz USA also has good ones as does Walter Pall of course.

Excellent piece of work.

Rgds

TimR

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larch branch dev.jpg (25.6 KB, 43 views)

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jeremy_norbury

Tim

Great. Your last post is just what I needed. I was lost for a bit of direction and now it's clear. Thank you.

I'm talking about the larch below that I collected from the wild with Wessel last year. It's about 60cm tall - that's a 40cm training pot it's in. It has some thick branches which are way too thick - but have buds very close to the trunk. So I can directly try the technique you describe.

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jeremy_norbury

Here's the detail. Note that the wiring has merely been added to get the branches bending in the right direction - this is not "finished" wiring. It's obvious from the detail where the buds are which can be grown according to Tim's diagram.

Jerry

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wabashene

Hello Jerry,

I think your larch also shows good potential.

Feel that it needs a chop below the triple apex and a new apex branch wiring up.

The 2 big stubs can come off as there are branches there to replace them.

I've ticked branches that can stay imo and it looks like there's shoots close to the trunk at the beginning of that long branch wired down across the front down to the left.( most of which I've eliminated in the virt). Leave these to develop. Shown by the bright green dot in the virt.

You can cut back to the first set of buds. However, I usually do this just as the buds start to swell and colour up in early spring and am not sure how it would react now.

It might be better to wait until it is growing strongly in mid summer to do any major pruning now but someone may have better advice.

I use Vaseline to seal larch cuts.

Am also attaching a sequence of my larch that has been in development for just over 2 years. This was field grown for bonsai at a nursery in Dorset and chopped 3 times before I aquired it. I chopped it again to try and start developing a powerful shohin tree. Its about 25cm tall atm from about 40cm.

I have used the branch cutback technique on this extensively as the pictures show.

Hope this helps.

Rgds

TimR

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	jer nor larch.jpg (36.4 KB, 19 views)
	larch seq.jpg (53.7 KB, 23 views)

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jeremy_norbury

Tim

That apex has 2 natural jins and no leader.

Here's the tree last September.

You can see how close the growth is to the trunk and the jins. I quite like the idea of the jinned apex. What do you think?

This photo was actually taken yesterday, so there's not THAT much growth yet that I could try something a bit wild. Larch are super hardy. I've had few problems with wiring, potting and even collecting whenever and wherever.
:

I'll have a look at the branches you marked and see what's possible there. This tree is very "upright" so taking a leader from a side branch is always going to be a tricky one task - like taking a branch facing exactly forward so as to hide the bump. If it had a little more movement or even a lean, the side branch leader is far easier to achieve.

Jerry

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weeijk

Hi Tim and others,


Tim, I took the courage to follow your advice of juli 2006 and I'm going to rebuild the tree from its first branch. Its total height is now 22 cm with a trunkbase of 2,5 cm. Offcourse the jin has to be refined and probably will end up in a shari somewhere down the line, but thats work for spring 2008. It will be in this pondbasket for at least another year.

Hope I did the right thing and that the tree rewards me for it.

Wessel

Attached Images

larix decidua208 23-11-2007.JPG (63.6 KB, 44 views)

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