Never done it like that- making it exit under the tree... is that so there is no scar visible?
Have you ever considered doing video tutorials? Like a YouTube series? I think that a ton of people, myself included, would benefit from it if you did...
...That's quite a nice trunk!!
You're right, it's not a difficult procedure at all to create a good trunk. But the big factor there is time- a trunk can only be made over time. And I get a little impatient sometimes lol but I'm getting thereAnd Joe - this trunk is easily had by anyone. I purchased this as a nursery tree at one of those 80% off sales when the nursery was clearing inventory for Christmas trees. I brought it home, chopped it down to 8" (I wish I would have chopped lower now), bare rooted it, removed the tap root and did some preliminary root work. Then I planted it in the ground. The rest was a successive series of trunk chops trying to follow Brian Van Fleet's and Smoke's instruction on their blogs over about a three year period. Then it's as you see. Total cost for the tree was probably about $40.
Cool, I'm 99% sure the nebari will be significantly improved by grafts... and all the seedlings used will be saved with their own roots on next repotting.That's exactly right. This way there's no scarring associated with the graft. Everything is happening below the soil level.
So you have two holes to run the seedling thru? Or is the only hole the attachment point to the seedling on the opposite side of where you placed the roots? I'm just wondering, as then your roots are not actually attached to the side of the tree that they will appear to emanate from. What happens then when you go to repot? How will they continue to stay on that chosen side? I also have not seen it done this way, but it is interesting. Thanks!
So you have two holes to run the seedling thru? Or is the only hole the attachment point to the seedling on the opposite side of where you placed the roots? I'm just wondering, as then your roots are not actually attached to the side of the tree that they will appear to emanate from. What happens then when you go to repot? How will they continue to stay on that chosen side? I also have not seen it done this way, but it is interesting. Thanks!
Judy - here's a sketch of how it works.
View attachment 130517
When the seedling roots (black) fuse the stem of the seedling (green) will be cut off - everything below the drilled hole (blue) will be gone leaving the grafted seedling roots on the left side of the trunk. I've had very high success rate on this type of graft. However, this is a bit different to how I've done it before. In the past, I've drilled straight through the trunk so that the seedling emerged from the trunk above soil levelon the opposite side of the tree to the roots. Although the fusion happened, this also left an ugly scar on the trunk above the soil. This is way better, in my opinion, because there is no wound above soil level that could be seen later.
Anyway - I hope that helps.
Any special treatment of the portion of the seedling threaded through the existing trunk?.
Any special treatment of the portion of the seedling threaded through the existing trunk?.
Do you remove all side branches other then the leader when buildng the trunk?
Great tree. I got myself three tridents to play with as well although mine will have to grow in a pot.
So here goes nothing.
View attachment 100060
I like the new line. As we discussed before, when you cut, try not to go over a 45 degree angle - the size of the cut will grow, causing it to take longer to heal. And you'll end up with a flat spot on the trunk that will look unnatural. Also, be generous with the cut - you don't want to remove too much with the saw. Once it's gone, you're done, but if you leave a bit too much you can work it down with the knob cutter. We're going to do that anyway.
After you've made your cut with the saw, you'll want to work it down with a good quality pair of knob cutters.
View attachment 100066
I rough it in by removing the excess wood left over from the saw cut. Then work the center, making it slightly concave. And then go carefully around the edge and cut across the edge of the cambium like in the picture above. You want a nice clean cut with a sharp exposure of the cambium.
Then cover it with cut paste - I use top jin, but whatever is your favorite.
View attachment 100067
Wired out and cut back, but leave all of the growth on the new apex. We'll want to let that grow strongly for the next year to establish the new trunk line.