Japanese White Pine gets the bends

Paradox

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This is a JWP that a friend of mine picked up at a local nursery. He asked me to help him with the design for it.
He thought it might make a nice cascade and I agreed so we decided to put a bend in it last month.
So we applied a couple of backbone wires, wrapped with raffia then wired the branch. We wrapped that in medical wrap (figured we would try it and see how well it held up as a wrap) then secured that in spots with electrical tape. We wanted to try the medical wrap because it breathes and would allow the raffia to dry and not keep the bark wet.

The tree before the bend
20211019_191558.jpg

Tree after the bend
20211019_202013.jpg

It just needs some wiring of the branches which we didnt get to and allowed to grow and fill out some.
Should make a nice tree IMO.
 

Tieball

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An excellent improvement. Mighty fine!
 

Paradox

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Forgot to mention that we had done some minor trimming on it in August to get rid of some unwanted branches in prep for wiring it last month.
I dont have any pictures of it from before we did that trimming but it did have a bit more foliage.
There is more to remove but we didnt want to trim too much of course.

We have a club meeting tonight, think he is going to bring it to wire.
I told him when he repots it he should tilt it a bit more to the left and toward the front.
I think that will help a lot too.
 

Colorado

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I don’t understand the purpose of the medical wrap and electrical tape. If the raffia is applied correctly, shouldn’t it be sufficient? Hard to see the tree when my eyes are being blinded by the bright yellow tape! (Just giving you a hard time 😜 )
 

Paradox

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I don’t understand the purpose of the medical wrap and electrical tape. If the raffia is applied correctly, shouldn’t it be sufficient? Hard to see the tree when my eyes are being blinded by the bright yellow tape! (Just giving you a hard time 😜 )

Yea the yellow tape is an eyesore but it was what I had. The medical wrap and tape help keep the raffia in place and protects the branch. I think the raffia is covered as a precaution against break down since it is a natural product. I have a feeling the medical tape will break down in the sun. I have seen some people use cloth strips or even just wrap the whole thing in electrical tape which I didn't want to do for the reason I mentioned.
 

Shibui

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Pines generally bend quite well without all that wrapping. It may be good for piece of mind and for practice for the real thing but I only wrap trunks when I need to make extreme bends.

The extra layers will make it difficult to monitor trunk growth so it will be harder to decide if the raffia is digging in as the tree grows.
Raffia seems to last a year or more on a tree but it does not matter if the wraps decay. Wrap is only there to hold the trunk while you do the bending. After that it serves no useful purpose unless you have cracked the trunk.

I do like the rebar anchor for the guy wire. I may use that idea.
 
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