Crazy bonsai experiments.

Ironbeaver

Chumono
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Okay, here's an odd thought:
Any way to create burls or the appearance of burls on a trunk (for old oak style trees)? Maybe cut the bark and implant a small pellet of something, then seal it back up?
 

barrosinc

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Okay, here's an odd thought:
Any way to create burls or the appearance of burls on a trunk (for old oak style trees)? Maybe cut the bark and implant a small pellet of something, then seal it back up?
What do you mean by appearance of burls?
 

Ironbeaver

Chumono
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Something that looks like a burl, that is in scale with the tree without actually being something potentially harmful to the tree's health.
 

Victorim

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""Burls on a tree trunk in Norfolk County, England
A burl (American English) or bur or burr (UK English) is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds.""

Like this?
 

GGB

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New experiment, not worthy of a thread but I'll drop it off here.
Today I will be dusting my growing beds with creatine monohydrate. Creatine and creatinine are supposed to be very helpful for some plants. We'll see if anything note worthy happens
 

RKatzin

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Ground layer the whole tree. I've done this twice with great results. Once with a Green Mound Juniper, sorry no pics of the process on that. It had no distinct trunk, but a nice base and a bunch of gangly limbs. I buried the whole in a large tub leaving just a few sprigs sticking out of the soil. These grew into individual trees and after about five years I separated them into separate pots. I had seven nice trees out of the experiment, the two biggest were stolen so I now have five to put together as a Juniper forest.
The other experiment is still in the process. It's a Thread leaf Weeping Thuja that had a whole side cleaned off by a falling walnut branch. I didn't know what to do with it so I decided to lay the tree down. I buried two thirds of the main trunk and left all the side branches sticking out of the ground. Kind of like a tree knocked over and half buried in a flood. That was about five years ago and I can now see roots forming around the base of each tree and actually coming out of the sides of the old trunk. It's made a nice grove of weeping trees.IMG_20170702_151722434.jpg
 

drew33998

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New experiment, not worthy of a thread but I'll drop it off here.
Today I will be dusting my growing beds with creatine monohydrate. Creatine and creatinine are supposed to be very helpful for some plants. We'll see if anything note worthy happens
Just pee on them then since you have it in your urine.
 
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drew33998

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Dropped a heavy ass rock on a 3 year cutting juniper to try to give it a some random twists and trunk features. Turns out the rock has to stay on for more than a growing season or probably 10 to make a difference. Take it off after a year and it just grows back straight. Young junipers are alot more elastic than you think. I am thinking however that could be a way to let nature randomly shape your trunk and would work for the 5-10 year olds. Since for me at least it seems that most trees end up taking close to the same shape when i wire. Even when im thinking im going to really screw this one up to make it look tortured. I stand back and im like damn it! S shaped again! How? Haha
 

choppychoppy

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Chainsawed the center out of a BC and twisted the thin sides like mad. Grew very well.

20170716_151846.jpg 20170716_151828.jpg 20170716_151853.jpg 20170716_151836.jpg
 

GGB

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@drew33998 Actually I do pee on my trees. Keeps the critters away, rather I pee around them.
 

hemi71cuda

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A good size piece of bark “exfoliated off” right at the base of a collected spruce I bought this year. Was thinking of using wood glue to reattach it?? Or use a pin nail instead? Worried the nail might shatter it into smaller pieces..
 

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Minnesota Madman

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I got an idea in my head, and now I can't get rid of the idea. I bought a tree (my profile tree) and it has a nice deadwood feature. BUT, at the base it is quite rotted. Where it should be flaring out, it's all scooped in and mushy. My crazy idea is to torch the deadwood to create a more life-like lightning strike/burn/char feature.

What's stopping me is: 1) nobody else is doing it so it may be frowned upon in the bonsai community, 2) I don't know if the tree's cambium layer can handle the internal heat created from the procedure, and 3) I paid $200 for this tree and it's the 2nd most expensive piece of material I have.

Any thoughts would be quite welcome.
 

sorce

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I got an idea in my head, and now I can't get rid of the idea. I bought a tree (my profile tree) and it has a nice deadwood feature. BUT, at the base it is quite rotted. Where it should be flaring out, it's all scooped in and mushy. My crazy idea is to torch the deadwood to create a more life-like lightning strike/burn/char feature.

What's stopping me is: 1) nobody else is doing it so it may be frowned upon in the bonsai community, 2) I don't know if the tree's cambium layer can handle the internal heat created from the procedure, and 3) I paid $200 for this tree and it's the 2nd most expensive piece of material I have.

Any thoughts would be quite welcome.

Looks quite thin, in regards to your general torch end, not bonsai trees.
Maybe too thin to torch much, especially at the life giving base.

I always wanted to put actual voltage thru a tree.

Sorce
 
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