Has anyone ever attempted "daisugi" bonsai or niwaki?

[Bonsai Noodles]

I've recently gotten into a rabbit hole of rare techniques for bonsai and niwaki. One thing I came across is "daisugi" (see image/link).

Has anyone ever attempted such techniques? What species/cultivars do you think could possibly work for daisugi? Perhaps the Hinoki Cypress, but for (maybe selfish) reasons, are there any other species whose form would lend to this style?

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zouen-komori.jp

Daisugi: The Japanese Forestry Technique of Creating a Tree Platform for Other Trees

photograph courtesy Yusuke Narita Sometime in 15th century Japan, a horticulture technique called daisugi was developed in Kyoto. Written as 台杉 and literally meaning platform cedar, the technique resulted in a tree that resembled an open palm with multiple trees growing out if it, perfectly verti

www.spoon-tamago.com

 

[Harewood Hobbyist]

I am about to try it with a dwarf columnar Thuja pliccata with a nice trunk I got for cheap. I've got some plans to test out something closer to real daisugi with trees in the ground (including Cryptomeria) over the next couple years. I think that a lot of trees would be diasugi-able. You'll probably get the results faster with columnar species where you make the dai with some hard bends and then strip the new leaders that emerge of everything except the growing tip.

But actually no, I have not attempted daisugi.

 

[Bonsai Noodles]

I am about to try it with a dwarf columnar Thuja pliccata with a nice trunk I got for cheap. I've got some plans to test out something closer to real daisugi with trees in the ground (including Cryptomeria) over the next couple years. I think that a lot of trees would be diasugi-able. You'll probably get the results faster with columnar species where you make the dai with some hard bends and then strip the new leaders that emerge of everything except the growing tip.

But actually no, I have not attempted daisugi.

Good luck!

 

[Lutonian]

Why are you trying daisugi are you looking to produce lumber or poles? Daisugi is similar to how some Christmas trees are grown chop to a low branch and regrow.

 

[just.wing.it]

Those sacrifice branches are getting outta hand.

 

[Harewood Hobbyist]

Why are you trying daisugi are you looking to produce lumber or poles? Daisugi is similar to how some Christmas trees are grown chop to a low branch and regrow.

IDK about Bonsai Noodles but, I am interested in producing poles and, more importantly, it looks cool.

 

[Forsoothe!]

We call them water spouts here, and tree trimmers who are responsible for them get their knuckles rapped.

 

[Grovic]

Why are you trying daisugi are you looking to produce lumber or poles? Daisugi is similar to how some Christmas trees are grown chop to a low branch and regrow.

Do you think "the most famous example in all of Japan" or the one shown in a garden are being grown so they can harvest lumber poles?

 

[JeffS73]

I first saw these in Jake Hobsons great book, 'Niwaki'.




So yes, its a thing in Japan. Sugi is the common name for Cryptomeria. Cryptomeria back bud well, I think the technique is to trunk chop, then train sprouts out sideways, these then sprout vertically. More details and pictures in the book

I've got a sugi in a pot, but it's only an inch thick at the moment. Daisugi contest anyone?

 

[Lutonian]

Do you think "the most famous example in all of Japan" or the one shown in a garden are being grown so they can harvest lumber poles?

yes if you don't harvest it becomes a tree, they may just be keeping it alive for its beauty and not using the poles they harvest. But this was not started as a kind of topiary it is a type of coppicing.

 

[Grovic]

this was not started as a kind of topiary

Exactly, most of the things we do started as something else and were later adopted because of their aesthetic/historic/sentimental/InsertYourReasonHere value, that's why we have farm themed restaurants, even though the owners or the customers are not farmers.

 

[ShadyStump]

I have this issue of wondering what I could possibly do with the wood I cut off my trees, whether in the ground or in pots. Some of them are species know for good lumber, or extremely dense wood, and it always feels like a waste to just get rid of it.

I had never thought of daisugi style before now, though before we moved last summer there was a sumac we just couldn't kill for the life of us, so we just started pollarding it and using the poles to repair the garden fence. It was starting to look like a decent wicker fence by the time we left it. I can see it having both aesthetic and practical potential. You'd only ever get poles a foot or two long, but I can find uses for a couple feet of doweling here and there.

Maybe start a couple cedars, and make wicker baskets for pots?

 

[Lutonian]

Exactly, most of the things we do started as something else and were later adopted because of their aesthetic/historic/sentimental/InsertYourReasonHere value, that's why we have farm themed restaurants, even though the owners or the customers are not farmers.

Yes that why I asked the op the reason why? If they like the look of them that is still a valid answer or they might want to grow poles either way it a process that you will end up harvesting poles. If you don't want big poles to sell/use or get rid of a hedge or niwaki might be a better option. I have Woods near me that are coppiced for no other reason than biodiversity and the poles are stacked in the wood and left to rot or woodchipped and used as path materials. If I use a hub cap as a sledge is it no longer a hub cap?

 

[Bonsai Noodles]

Yes that why I asked the op the reason why? If they like the look of them that is still a valid answer or they might want to grow poles either way it a process that you will end up harvesting poles. If you don't want big poles to sell/use or get rid of a hedge or niwaki might be a better option. I have Woods near me that are coppiced for no other reason than biodiversity and the poles are stacked in the wood and left to rot or woodchipped and used as path materials. If I use a hub cap as a sledge is it no longer a hub cap?

Just interested in the technique for aesthetic purposes!

 

[Lutonian]

Just interested in the technique for aesthetic purposes!

It makes interesting looking plants, lots of the really old interesting ancient trees in the UK are ex coppices.

 

[Beanwagon]

I havent tried yet. When i can finally buy a house i really want to have some niwaki black pines in the garden.