shohin maple

ripsgreentree

Today was a fun day. In the spring of 2000 I was working with Maple seedlings. These trees were in liners and about the thickness of a fat piece of wheat straw. Shohin trees are among my favorites, but I have found that it takes the same number of years to get the taper in a five inch tree as it does in a fifteen inch tree. In fact it is easier in a fifteen inch tree because larger chops will heal faster than in a five inch tree. Well here is what I did, I started bundling these maples into bundles of three to five trees. I used the 1/4 inch green plastic gardeners tape and wrapped the bundles low and as close to the roots as I could get. The wraps were so low that when I potted these bundles into one gallon pots the green tape was covered with bonsai soil. Feed and water for one and onehalf years, and today I took my first look. What fun, I had to work carefully to cut the tape and unwrap it but when I did all of the trunks had inarched together just above the roots. Now the average tree has a taper of one and onequarter inches to just over onequarter inch in less than two inches of height. This means that I will be able to create a tree with one to three trunks that will have a two inch nebari and be less than six inches tall. It will be next spring before I select the trunks that I will want to keep and repot into a two gallon squat pots. At this time I will be able to cut trunks and seal them and also select roots that I will keep. Here is what I feel are the important points. First, Maple liners are easy to grow. The inarched tree that you get in 1and 1/2 years would take at least five years to grow as a single tree. The taper that you get in the inarched tree is more dramatic than in a tree grown from a single trunk. As you remove trunks, the chops are much smaller and will heal faster than chops in a single trunk tree. Your root mass is multiplied by the number of trees in the bundle and develops much faster than in a single trunk tree. The drawback is that the inarch lines will take several years to disappear, a small price to pay for a good shohin maple. I have a digital camera so I will try to post a couple of pictures but so far I have not been satisfied with the pictures that I have taken.

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ripsgreentree

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TreeBay

It sounds like you are on your way to making some class A bonsai, Rips,

One of our Midori Bonsai Club Members Doug Philips is doing some similar work with larger trees. 100-200 seedlings are wrapped around a core of redwood, cypress or juniper and stapled in place. This first picture is from February 2000. This is only 3-4 year old tree, if you can believe it!



the same tree a bit later with the tree relocated to the ground. BTW this is Kathy, my wife (Kathy is on the right)


Regards,

Matt

pix courtesy (c)TreeBay.com 2000

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ripsgreentree

This material appears to be trident maple, am I correct. If it is it would be interesting as trident in our central california field will grow from a pencil seedling to two and onehalf inches in two years. My thought is to use a very hard wood like manzinita roots. This would give you an inner core that is very hard and rot resestant, also some fantastic shapes. You have piqued my interest I will see what I can do with this Idea.

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ripsgreentree

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TreeBay

Yes, they are trident seedlings. Doug wraps the trunk with a slight swirl and staples the trunks down, then they begin to grow together. The free ends at the top are allowed to grow on freely as much as they will to accelerate the bonding.

Manzanita would make a very interesting substrate. We get a lot of interesting driftwood on the beaches here, but it would probably not hold up long as it is really soft.

This would be a great way to regenerate a favored tree that has passed on!

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ripsgreentree

This material appears to be trident maple, am I correct. If it is it would be interesting as trident in our central california field will grow from a pencil seedling to two and onehalf inches in two years. My thought is to use a very hard wood like manzinita roots. This would give you an inner core that is very hard and rot resestant, also some fantastic shapes. You have piqued my interest I will see what I can do with this Idea.
sorry for the double post

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ripsgreentree

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Joao_Felipe

Hi, I'm new here and I just finished reading this posts here. Anyway, I have a doubt: Is the core of the redwood or the juniper conical, I mean in the shape of the tappering trunk? Is it a straight piece of wood? I'm very curious to know this.

TreeBay

Hi Joao,

The core is tapered, almost exactly as you see here. I believe it was taken from a dead bald cypress, but any durable wood could be used.

The seedlings are stapled right to the trunk and allowed to grow as much as they will. It takes a large number 150 or so to create a tree of this size, but the trunk can be done quite quickly, in a matter of years as opposed to decades.

The wood can be worked to enhance the taper, or you could use a carved piece of lumber. The seedlings could be applied in a straight line, or whorled up the trunk like a barber pole for a different effect.

Regards,

Matt

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Bonsainut

Wow,
YOU REALLY CAN LEARN SOMETHING EVERY DAY!!!! I'm gonna try this. Thanks guys!

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