Blue Atlas Cedar rehab - Inherited tree

[Deleted member 47471]

It depends on the style of pad formation. As long as the light and air can circulate freely the long term health and appearance of the pad will stand up. It will make a difference if the foliage is shaded. Density from the side profile is most important in either the layered pad or platform pad. Note how it is very important for light and air to maintain the health and longevity of the design. Be careful to avoid congestion and too much density, the result of this will be continual internal dieback and the need to grow out and cutback way too often. Better to lean toward a lighter composition with openness from below and above. Also sufficient distance between branches to avoid too much shading of lower pads. A good design is one that promotes healthy foliage.
Just a few comments to clarify. The diagrams clearly depict the openness one should strive for.

That makes perfect sense, I see

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

The BAC you mentioned has since changed quite a bit by the hands of Ryan.

Almost didn’t recognize that image! This tree has grown a lot and is much more filled in. The restyling was quite a few years ago. Looked this after being repotted last year.



Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Deleted member 47471]

Almost didn’t recognize that image! This tree has grown a lot and is much more filled in. The restyling was quite a few years ago. Looked this after being repotted last year.

View attachment 555563

Cheers
DSD sends

What a beast and a beauty

 

[RODERLO]

Almost didn’t recognize that image! This tree has grown a lot and is much more filled in. The restyling was quite a few years ago. Looked this after being repotted last year.

View attachment 555563

Cheers
DSD sends

That is absolutely fantastic the way it has matured from that drastic styling a few years ago.

It’s a testament to the sustainability of the way it was initially styled.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

The buds have greened up on the Blue Atlas Cedar and it’s time for a repot.

Moss revival and loosening the tree in the pot. Only took a bit of persuading. Five years ago it to two people and 2.5 hours to get this tree out of the pot. It hadn’t been repotted for over ten years.



Root ball is out and getting a light trim

Tree is back in the pot. In this case we did a prelim tightening of the hold down wires, added and settled media in waves.

As the media pushed the tree up to the position desired, final tightening was done.



Thorough rinse



Adding Yamagoke mountain moss and slow release fertilizer.



All done! Position isn’t perfect, it’s over more and the trunk is angled up a tad, but we liked it.



Next job remove some wire, trim and wire the top large branches to space out the foliage so each branchlet gets good exposure to the sun.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[River's Edge]

The buds have greened up on the Blue Atlas Cedar and it’s time for a repot.

Moss revival and loosening the tree in the pot. Only took a bit of persuading. Five years ago it to two people and 2.5 hours to get this tree out of the pot. It hadn’t been repotted for over ten years.

View attachment 591508

Root ball is out and getting a light trim View attachment 591509View attachment 591510View attachment 591511

Tree is back in the pot. In this case we did a prelim tightening of the hold down wires, added and settled media in waves.

As the media pushed the tree up to the position desired, final tightening was done.

View attachment 591512

Thorough rinse

View attachment 591513

Adding Yamagoke mountain moss and slow release fertilizer.

View attachment 591514

All done! Position isn’t perfect, it’s over more and the trunk is angled up a tad, but we liked it.

View attachment 591515

Next job remove some wire, trim and wire the top large branches to space out the foliage so each branchlet gets good exposure to the sun.

Cheers
DSD sends

Progressing very nicely. Love this species when developed into full cascades. Always makes me think back to some incredible examples developed and shown by Jim Gremel.

 

[queenofsheba52]

Oh man! you have done such a great job on this heritage tree, @Deep Sea Diver !
It makes my heart happy to see the progress and the care you are lavishing on this tree.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Glad to see it survived the operation so well and is pushing a bunch of buds. Mine has done the same and looks about a week or two ahead since it has been in the greenhouse all winter.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

It is about time to begin shaping this tree more. Below is an image from earlier in the month.

The tree has accumulated foliage and is robust and healthy, recovered totally from the repot.



The main trunk has a healing crack that needs reinforcement to keep from opening up. To protect this area, we are installing three 12 gauge copper wires lengthwise from the nebari to the largest branch below the crack. These are fixed in place with masking tape.



Raffia was wrapped around the major branches.




Next step Wiring

Will needed to triple wire the biggest sections to protect from cracking when bending and provide more strength so bends are held in place. … Last time double wires didn’t do the job.., the trunk is bigger now.

Laying the #6 wire on the tree didn’t go entirely smoothly. Two wires had to be reinstalled to get better coverage.

Image below was taken after the upper branch and main trunk were bent down to fill the space below the arch of the main trunk.

Looks pretty shaggy! This ought to be be sorted in the next round.

.

There is a good chunk of work still to accomplish. It’s getting dark . Will finish up early next week.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[pandacular]

Really starting to shape up! Atlas cedar is such a nice species for bonsai.

 

[M Good]

What purpose does the medium gauge longitudinal wire taped to the trunk serve?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Good question!

The wires spread out the pressure so it’s not focused on the area of concern during bending.

….makes the area less flexible.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[WNC Bonsai]

It really has made some nice progress in the last year. I was making some more bends on mine yesterday until I heard a loud “pop” and stopped immediately. I had assumed all the wire wraps would protect it but maybe I need to remove the old wire and rafia from last year and replace it with longitudinal wires. Plus I ‘d be able to see what happened with the pop.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Ah, that lovely popping sound! That's about what I heard when this tree split.

Hopefully your BAC was just giving off stray sounds! anyways the longitudinal wires do work well, but are a panacea. Progressive bending works well on many conifers in our collection. but not BAC , at least so far.

Best,
DSD sends

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Ah, that lovely popping sound! That's about what I heard when this tree split.

Hopefully your BAC was just giving off stray sounds! anyways the longitudinal wires do work well, but are a panacea. Progressive bending works well on many conifers in our collection. but not BAC , at least so far.

Best,
DSD sends

I got out today and pulled off all the wire and raffia then looked the trunk over and couldn’t find any ruptures so I guess it was either an internal stress relief crack or maybe the wires just caught on one another and made the popped when some tension released. Anyway, after removing the wires the trunk rebounded a bit so I’ll have to do another torture session. I think this time I will saw a series of horizontal cuts into the trunk at the point where I want the big bend and then crank it down. Essentially what you did with your Mas Imazumi method but on the bottom side instead of the top. That should allow a more radical bend and be safer than your approach. I still have enough copper wire left over for rewiring and guy wires.