"Aging" a trunk with an Xacto knife?

[daniel]

I've seen this done on a shohin maple, but I'm curious to see if anyone has a tutorial write up on this technique? Basically, it's making horizontal slashes (not too deep, I guess) on the bark so that it ages the bark quickly versus the "normal" way. Thoughts? Anyone know which species this works for? Any species to definitely not try this on?

Thanks as always!

Daniel

 

[discusmike]

Never seen that Dan,ive seen vertical slashes to thicken a trunk,depending on the species,i would think horizontal cuts would leave scars that would not blend in,especially with a smooth bark.People might do that,i would never.

 

[TheSteve]

It's best used on pines, hemlocks and such with rough bark. I wouldn't use it on a maple. And it is for thickening the trunk.

 

[JasonG]

I would never even think of doing something like this, never. Another lame one I would never think about doing is hitting the trunk with a hammer. Neither one is going to gain you in significant size and will only show man made damage that will be ugly.

Sorry, but putting it in a grow box, the ground, feeding like crazy, lots of water and full sun, are the only safe ways to grow.

Jason

 

[R_F]

There was some one at a Bonsai Club I visited that was trying to sell his trees. He scored the bark like you mentioned above. It was grotesque and unnecessary. The wounds were not healing to form a nice bark texture either.

...no one bought his trees

 

[daniel]

Fair enough. The one I saw did it on a shohin and it worked for that application. I wasn't going to try it on mine, I was simply curious.

Yep, I've got my food, grow boxes going, full sun and bunches of trees growing like crazy! =)

Daniel