Cleaning up a little literati

theta

Mame
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Got this little thing awhile back at an old nursery and have just been letting it gain back some health.

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Starting to clean up the trunkline and live vein. When you guys clean bark off old dead wood, is there a better way to get it cleaned off than what I'm doing? I'm just scraping it off with a dull blade and using a wire brush. It's just taking forever. Wondering what the pros do...


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Best thing about this tree is this single thin live vein running all the way up the trunk. Just gotta figure out how to clean it up.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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I am far from a pro, but I prefer a sharp scalpel and tweezers. Pick the flakes loose with the scalpel, then rip them off with the tweezers.
Wounds made with sharp tools heal cleaner and faster than wounds made with blunt tools.
 

theta

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Trying to keep this thread updated.


This was from this spring, before repot.
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Repotted a couple weeks ago, cleaned up the vein a bit too. Need to whiten and preserve the dead wood, and still need to style it.

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Had a bit of wire biting in for some initial movement, but need to really get in there an style it.
 

leatherback

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I like wire brushes. But also.. Peel as far as you can, the leave to weather for a few months and the last bits will come off with a nylong brush.
I know. Lazy.
 

theta

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I'll have to give the wire brush a try. I was peeling off parts of the live vein, but some parts were really stuck on there and I couldn't get down to the red. But then other parts were so thin, I went through the red and nicked the white part underneath.

It just seems really hard to get the whole thing a consistent red color. I'll try to maybe get a couple of close up shots to illustrate
 

leatherback

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Why do you want to go to the red?
I feel it is asking a lot of the tree to remove all protection.

I have found that adding a bit of (e.g. wallnut) oil to the bark brings out the color too.
 

Sekibonsai

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I pick the larger flakes with a scalpel... then I use a brass brush and water. Gentle until you get the technique. If you rub through slightly no big deal. It may take a few times to get it a consistent color. Make sure that isn't wobbling in the pot!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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I like where you are going, but stop. You just repotted this tree. You significantly changed the planting depth. This tree needs time to recover. I'm north of Chicago, here junipers are not quite as vigorous as they are in Georgia. Here I would do no pruning and nothing that would "wiggle" or "jostle" the trunk. Any trunk movement runs the risk of breaking brand new root tips which you need. Leave the tree alone for at least the bulk of the growing season. No pruning, no wiring, nothing until after the heat of summer has broken. You can probably wire in autumn. Next year worry about cleaning up the live vein.

Junipers in general dislike repotting. Older trees should not be repotted too often, once every 5 years is fine. I have a shimpaku that is on year 11 without being repotted. As long as the media drains freely there is no "requirement" to repot. Young trees you can repot about every 2 or 3 years. I would consider your tree as being past the young tree phase. Give it to at least the end of this year's growing season before doing anything that might vibrate, wiggle, or jostle the trunk. You do not want to be breaking new root tips. Give the tree time to recover.

Junipers are vigorous, there is no need to invoke the adage "only one insult per year", but repotting is the single most traumatic thing we do to our trees, you should give your tree time to recover from repotting. It would not hurt to leave it alone for the rest of this growing season.

Definitely do no pruning right now, as the hormones in the growing tips are needed to stimulate new root tips. You can resume pruning in autumn, or wait until next year.

Wiring is the least traumatic activity we do, you can probably wire this tree sometime after the weather cools in late summer.

You can treat the deadwood with lime-sulfur. I would go ahead and do that. BUT DO NOT peel more bark off your live veins. That can jostle the tree.

It takes a few years, not an afternoon one Saturday to define the live vein and get it so you can just peel the old bark off. This tree is very slender for the peeled bark treatment. Let it grow a year or two. Let the old bark get thick enough to be flakey. THEN you can peel cleanly. At this point, other than painting some lime sulfur on your dead wood, don't do anything to the live vein, leave that for next year or even years down the road. This tree is too young to do the work you want to do.

Just my opinion, I'm not a juniper expert, but I have killed a few, and have 6 in my collection. I have one that has been in my care over 10 years, so I do know a little about them. So give your tree time to recover. Don't race towards the "perfect red trunk". I think in late summer it would be safe to wire.

Oh the tip about a little oil to make the red "pop" is good advice. Camellia oil is easily available in Japan, that is what is used there. Any natural oil would work. The lighter the better. The linseed oil used by painters, is derived from flax seed and is pretty cheap. (linen comes from flax, hence the name linseed oil). It won't harm your cambium.

The bark is definitely easier to strip if you let it get thick first. The standard practice I believe is to only strip off the flakey bark once every 3 years or so. Yes, it is done prior to a show, but if you try to strip it every year, the bark will be thin, and thin bark adheres tightly to the cambium. It will be hard to get off without damaging the cambium. Stripping once every 3 years or so, means the will be enough thickness the bark will lift more easily off the cambium.

ITs a nice tree. I'm just offering my thoughts to what I would do if it were my tree, hope they help.
 
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