Dumb rookie mistake

Benny w

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I've had this juniper ( sabina) that I bought at home depot about 4 years ago and I've used it as a practice tree for approach grafting as at first I couldn't see the tree within the tree. At first I thought a good informal upright could be made and so I approach grafted a new apex but after a while I couldn't take it anymore as obviously a cascade would be the best for this material. I repotted the tree last year and just a few days ago I could finally bend the trunk down by making a major cut on the main trunk but like an idiot I took it off the top and not the bottom. I don't know what I was thinking. After I took a nice wedge almost down to half the thickness i started to bend it to test if it was ready to be prepped and wired it hit me that I f'ed up. My question is could If I wanted to cut under or near the cut I took off the top could I graft a branch just to fill it in? So live tissue goes to this area and in a few years maybe I could try doing this again from the bottom or am I screwed and I need to make a cut as far away from the area as possible?
Thanks
 

Benny w

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Here are some pics.
 

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SouthernMaple

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Here are some pics.
you did say it is essentially your practice tree, so screw up on it and make mistakes you can learn from, learn from your mistakes so when you get a better tree you will know what not to do
 

Gabler

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Looks like you're going back to your initial plan for an informal upright, though maybe you'll think of another style altogether.
 

Benny w

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I want to still make a major bend and bring down the main branch to make a cascade out of it. If anyone has any advice for this specific scenario: which is when done properly I should have taken a wedge out of the bottom when lowering the branch because then as your bending the branch down the wedge will close up thus making it easier for the cambiums to join where as my dumb ass took the wedge from the top so when I bend the branch down the wedge gets bigger and wider. This mistake really messed up my plan and I was thinking if I wanted to cut it from the bottom again I could do what I did in the pictures and fill the wedge with a branch and treat it like an approach graft but I'm not trying to have a new branch there I'm trying to just fill in the wedge and make the live tissue not have to reroute below the cut. It's hard to explain and I will post a pic of the wedge I took out and another pic of how I'm trying to fix my mistake.
 

Benny w

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I have a branch basically plugging the wedge I took out of the top because if I can I would like to make the wedge where I should have which is on the bottom ....someday if possible I do not know which is my question.
 

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SouthernMaple

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I have a branch basically plugging the wedge I took out of the top because if I can I would like to make the wedge where I should have which is on the bottom ....someday if possible I do not know which is my question.
cascades aren't easy, thats why when someone pulls it off it looks great. I am working on 2 cascades right now one maple one pine, the maple I snapped the trunk when bending it further then I should have bent it. While the original design is screwed, some wise dude on here told me that it might be for the best because I started growing a new leader this year and i threw the end piece into some sand and pine bark and its going strong. I would look into getting some larger guage wire and maybe some raffia so you can ensure you get the bend you want, thats what I am going to do this year. Does anyone know if raffia works on maples?
DSC_0684.JPGSMR_1695.JPGSMR_2133.JPG
As master yoda said failure is the greatest teacher or something like that
 

Benny w

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cascades aren't easy, thats why when someone pulls it off it looks great. I am working on 2 cascades right now one maple one pine, the maple I snapped the trunk when bending it further then I should have bent it. While the original design is screwed, some wise dude on here told me that it might be for the best because I started growing a new leader this year and i threw the end piece into some sand and pine bark and its going strong. I would look into getting some larger guage wire and maybe some raffia so you can ensure you get the bend you want, thats what I am going to do this year. Does anyone know if raffia works on maples?
View attachment 353404View attachment 353405View attachment 353406
As master yoda said failure is the greatest teacher or something like that
I know that raffia works great on maples especially because maples are more prone to wire Bite scars due to their thin skin.
I had made the wedge cut for the major bend and then raffia, then the thickest wire I had ( first time I really needed copper). But I had 5 or 6 mm aluminum which was doing the trick until it hit me that I had made a huge mistake. By taking a wedge off the top and bending the trunk down I make the wedge spread further. If I would have taken the wedge out of the bottom the gap from the wedge would close up from bending the trunk down which is one of a few obvious benefits from this most obvious way to do it God I can't believe I made this mistake. won't ever do it again tho but this put the cascade plan back a few years. Unfortunately i think the best use for tbe material is a cascade. An informal upright I hesitate because of the variety and correct me if I'm wrong but Juniper sabina doesn't have the most compact foliage and usually look better when the specimen has a larger trunk. Maybe should graft and change variety over to shimpaku..
 
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