Lorax7 JWP #3 progression

[Lorax7]

Picked up another Japanese white pine today. Who lets me go shopping at the local nursery? I always seem to come home with another tree. Anywho, this one is a ‘Glauca Brevifoil’ cultivar. Picked it because I think the nebari already has a pretty good start and I’m a sucker for JWPs. Going to have to do something to fix the aesthetics of that graft union, though. Not sure what the rootstock is on it; it’s an Iseli Nursery tree, so whatever rootstock they typically use. I haven’t done anything to it yet. I’m thinking I’ll remove the one branch that’s coming from the rootstock, unless someone convinces me of a reason to keep it. Will probably go through and do some branch selection as well to avoid leaving whorls on the tree that could create inverse taper.

 

[mwar15]

Not a bad graft, cut that small branch growing out of the rootstock

 

[discusmike]

I’ve seen much worse!

 

[AlainK]

Still a long way to go...

 

[Lorax7]

Still a long way to go...

For sure. Long way to go, but for plain old ordinary landscape nursery stock it shows better than average promise, I think. Any thoughts on what you would do with it?

I know that I don’t want to make a cascade or semi-cascade with it because I already have another JWP that is headed in that direction. So, for the sake of variety, I want to do something else with it. Beyond that, I have no plans at this point other than to do basic branch selection to avoid developing inverse taper.

 

[Lorax7]

After some branch selection, wiring, and bending:

 

[AlainK]

A long way to go but you seem to have taken an interesting shortcut. I wonder if I wouldn't cut it even shorter, at the branches under the tag and use one of the branches as a new leader. I think it would look more compact, more balanced.
But that's your tree...

 

[mwar15]

Why all the pulleys?? Double up the copper and have it snug against the trunk, you have gaps, it’s not being used to it’s full potential.

 

[Lorax7]

Why all the pulleys?? Double up the copper and have it snug against the trunk, you have gaps, it’s not being used to it’s full potential.

The gaps are there because I was planning from the beginning to use turnbuckles. Needed some gaps to thread the guy wires through. The wire is there more as a scaffold to attach to and to evenly distribute the force and less as a means of holding the branch.

Why do I use turnbuckles? Maybe I’ve watched too many Graham Potter videos on YouTube. It might also be that it’s easier to remove guy wires than to cut off 4- or 6-gauge copper after it’s work-hardened. Also, my thick gauge copper wire is annealed, but it’s a DIY annealing job done in my propane grill. It’s not bad, but it might not be quite as perfectly annealed as it would be if I bought the good stuff imported from Japan. I find putting thick copper wire on a tree to be a little challenging.

The extra wires attaching the rebar to the pot were not something I planned on initially, but were added because the rebar didn’t want to stay put as it was. In another year or so, the roots will be pot-bound enough that I’ll be able to remove them and the rebar will stay put.

Sure, I could’ve doubled up on the copper and wrangled it with my hands. I just find that guy wires and turnbuckles give me a lot of control to incrementally work up to the amount of bending that I want with less risk of snapping a branch than when I bend with my hands. Obviously, you don’t want a bunch of guy wires and rebar attached to a tree in a bonsai pot that you’re going to exhibit in a year or two, but this tree has several years to go before it’s going into a proper bonsai pot. So, who cares if it’s got some rebar with it in the nursery can?

 

[Lorax7]

A long way to go but you seem to have taken an interesting shortcut. I wonder if I wouldn't cut it even shorter, at the branches under the tag and use one of the branches as a new leader. I think it would look more compact, more balanced.
But that's your tree...

View attachment 446128

That’s definitely a possibility I will ponder. I left the top on for now with the idea that it’s probably a sacrifice branch, but I hadn’t thought through exactly where I’d make the cut.

For now, my plan is to let it grow a while to set the bend and thicken up the trunk. I took quite a lot of foliage off, so I’m reluctant to do more until the tree has had a chance to recover fully. I may chop the top next summer or fall if I get good growth in the spring.

 

[AlainK]

Obviously, you don’t want

For me it's not about the guy wires, etc. or anything : useless discussion.

As I said before : prune it lower. My 2 € cents...

 

[Japonicus]

let it grow a while to set the bend and thicken up the trunk

What I circled in red here was doing that, thickening up the trunk - (for a few more years...)
Also a good driving force to assist recovery going into training pot and bonsai soil next Spring.
That gone and wired up, I would not attempt root work next Spring since the vegetative
season is over now.

 

[Lorax7]

View attachment 446210
What I circled in red here was doing that, thickening up the trunk - (for a few more years...)
Also a good driving force to assist recovery going into training pot and bonsai soil next Spring.
That gone and wired up, I would not attempt root work next Spring since the vegetative
season is over now.

Oh, I’m not planning on repotting it in the spring. Maybe what I wrote earlier was ambiguous. What I meant is that next year it’ll be sufficiently root-bound to remove the extra guy wires that are holding the rebar down to the nursery can. I intend to leave it in the nursery can. I just meant that the rebar should be stabilized next year so that the extra guy wires will become unnecessary.

 

[Japonicus]

Maybe what I wrote earlier was ambiguous

If you're talking about repotting, no not at all.
I didn't pay attention to your plans on potting it up
rather I was stating a set back in moving forwards.
The sacrificial foliage it had to speed recovery and thicken trunk
has mostly been sacrificed so trunk will slow, and needs time to build foliage
and strengthen prior to moving into bonsai soil.

The work done in this thread is generally reserved for Autumn.
I can understand wiring the sacrificial leader in Autumn, if it were shading the lower portion
but it really didn't need any wire as it stands. I hope the branches pull through as it is very easy
to separate the cambium now.

Love the graft work. In 10 yrs, or when both bark up, you shouldn't be able to see it at all. Excellent job.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I agree with @AlainK but would cut back one branch further and turn up to new leader. I would turn this branch up now and leave the sacrifice for growth and setting purposes.

 

[Potawatomi13]

"Any thoughts on what you would do with it?"
Set it free and let grow 20 years!

Whoever grafted wisely used White Pine understock so bark should match later on. Removing most foliage/pruning as Literati largely prevents near future trunk enlargement or bark maturing.

 

[Lorax7]

I was stating a set back in moving forwards.
The sacrificial foliage it had to speed recovery and thicken trunk
has mostly been sacrificed so trunk will slow, and needs time to build foliage
and strengthen prior to moving into bonsai soil.

I hadn’t decided to remove that part as sacrificial when I removed those branches. I know the very tip is sacrificial, but I thought there was some possibility I might keep the parts where the whorls were. Since I thought there was some possibility I might use them, I did branch selection there to avoid creating inverse taper that would make it unusable. Basically, I made the trade off of accepting slowed development for preserving the option to use those sections in the design if I choose. I still haven’t made a final decision on how tall the tree will ultimately be.

 

[Lorax7]

Took the wire coil off it, replacing with guy wires to keep key points in place. Put it in the ground on top of a tile to grow for a while, thicken the trunk and finish setting those bends.