Fused maple

[treekutter]

We started our Bonsai basics class of 2012 this past Saturday. The first project is a fused Japanese maples. a plastic disk is used drilled and seedlings pushed through the holes. We also dug some we did last year. We took off the disk and replanted in the field.

 

[raydomz]

Excellent Steve, can't wait to get mine!

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Any more detailed pictures?

Looks like awesome progress. Having not seen what stock you originally started with, it seems like everything's fused together nicely. Do you know what cultivar it is?

 

[Ang3lfir3]

mumble mumble mumble californians mumble mumble

looks promising.....

 

[treekutter]

It is regular Japanese maple- Acer palmatum. The one in the picture is Two years in a pot from a seedlings then one year in the ground with the plastic disk. It is a fun project. I will take pictures when I dig some of the others.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

It really does sound like a fun project. That makes me want to get some seedlings this spring and try my hand at it.

 

[kmdesigns]

Who is that handsome bald gentleman I see in those pictures? Haha. Had a blast out at your place Steve.

You guys really need to see this Steve's growing fields and the great things he's got planted out there.

 

[Attila Soos]

mumble mumble mumble californians mumble mumble

Just for your information, my chinese elms started to push out their first flush of tiny leaflets this past weekend.
Which means: Spring has just arrived in Southern California!!!
Isn't that great? (oh, wait.. where did you say you're from?)

 

[Bill S]

Massachusetts -mumble mumble mumble californians mumble mumble

Pauline Muth does this by wrapping with floral tape then wire the whole trunk, rather than holes thu a whatever, seems to work well.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Our club had a demonstration with Pauline last year, fusing the trunks of some Amur maples and quinces. She uses floral tape and wraps the entire trunk in wire. It was a pretty fun demo, but sadly we couldn't work with any Japanese maples. Ah well, there's always this year.

 

[raydomz]

Our club had a demonstration with Pauline last year, fusing the trunks of some Amur maples and quinces. She uses floral tape and wraps the entire trunk in wire. It was a pretty fun demo, but sadly we couldn't work with any Japanese maples. Ah well, there's always this year.

Pictures of this? Sounds interesting..

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Sorry, no pictures. I didn't think to bring a camera. We were working with very small seedlings anyhow, so it'll take a while for them to look like something.

 

[raydomz]

I was just confused as to what the end result(right after putting the tape and wire on) would look like. I can see the seddlings wrapped and wired up the trunk but can not imagine how that would help fuse them. Is it that the all the bases are wrapped up together?

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Yep, precisely. Everything's wrapped up, side by side. Kind of like a strand of rope. The florist tape is wrapped around all the seedlings and some of the seedlings are bent off to form the first couple branches, and wire is wrapped around every section of the trunk.

 

[raydomz]

Ah haaa.
This is what I was picturing, thank you for clarifying. I have a few zelkova seedlings that I'd like to try this with. Were the maples a couple of years old or just small seedlings?

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

They were just small seedlings -- I'd imagine maybe 2-3 years old at most. The intention of the demo was to make mame trees, and I think most of us were able to achieve an interesting trunk shape at the very least. I'm excited to see what mine will turn into in a decade (if I decide to keep it, that is).

 

[treekutter]

Our intent is to have fused trunk with 3-5 trees.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Treekutter, I'm sorry for kind of hijacking your thread there! I can't wait to get some stock for this season and try this myself. What do you use to tie the trees together? How young are the trees you used? Also, what size tree do you plan on ending with?

 

[Smoke]

Nice thread Steve. I wish I could have been there but my wife and I were still pretty weak from being sick. Just started feeling decent like on Tuesday. I think I am almost human again. Looks like a good turnout. I hope you worked on my fat short trident in the ground that you think is yours....

 

[treekutter]

We used a plastic disk with holes drilled in it. You put the one -two year old seedlings through the hole. you do not have to tie anything. When the seedling grows it swells and the roots grow over the disk. When the tree trunks fuse you take off the disk and cut the bottom roots off One -two years in the ground. Al it was too wet to work in the field. This weekend?