Messaging branches

[Joe Dupre']

I don't know if I've ever read this anywhere, but I've been using this technique for years. I collect a lot of wild material and start with little more than a stump with maybe two or three branches. When most deciduous trees send out sprouts, they normally go almost straight up. What I do, after they have a few inches of growth , is to GENTLY massage them into a more horizontal position. It's basically the same motion as bending a wired branch, but I just bend it down in very small increments by moving an 1/8" down the branch at a time. Now, you really can't put much of a sideways bend in the branches, but I can normally get them to lay down from almost straight up to at or below the horizontal. Spoiler alert! You WILL break a few branches at first, but you'll soon learn how the individual trees react to the procedure.

This procedure saves trying to put a severe bend in a bigger branch later on. Once a branch is near horizontal, clip and grow usually kicks in and I don't need nearly as much wiring to get the design I want.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Heres a pic of a mulberry I've done the procedure on. It's one year from collection and what you see is this year's growth. It will probably take two or three sessions to get the branches to stay. No before pics, but ALL the branches were sticking straight up just like the apex.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The good ol' squeeze and fold.
It works on some softer plants. But I rarely practice it because I'm getting better with wire.
I think @bonhe has a thread about it somewhere.

 

[Joe Dupre']

"squeeze and fold"........please expain. Doesn't quite sound like what I do.

 

[Sekibonsai]

Yes, Gary Marchal taught me to do this on bald cypress branches years ago and I use the technique on various species now.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I found a mention of the technique in a search of the forum. Basically, squeeze the branch flat and fold. That's not at all what I do. I start about an inch from the trunk and bend the succulent shoot over my thumb maybe 15 degrees, slide down an 1/8" and do it again......and again until I get the branch close to horizontal. Each bend is only just a few degrees......times 20 or so and that gets you to near horizontal. The branch does spring back some and it needs to be done 2-4 more times in the next few days. It doesn't really disturb the outer surface of the branch or cause any noticeable decrease in vigor.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I guess I don't understand the technique. Why is it preferred over wire? I think of the movement and control of movement we get when we wire. I guess...I like the control I get with wiring.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I use it to get young, sky-reaching branches down and headed in the right direction early on. Once more horizontal, a lengthening branch can be cut at a secondary branch and is well on it's way to ramification in the first growing season. The surface of the new, soft bark is not broken.............at least not on purpose. LOL! I'll use some wire, but this method greatly reduces the need.

This is 11 months of growth on a camphor tree stump using this technique......no wire. Every branch started out just a few degrees off of vertical.

 

[Sekibonsai]

I guess I don't understand the technique. Why is it preferred over wire? I think of the movement and control of movement we get when we wire. I guess...I like the control I get with wiring.

It's not "preferred". No one made it an absolute. It provides a method to begin altering branch bases at an earlier stage than when one can wire.

 

[Forsoothe!]

It works with the green new growth of Dawn Redwood, too. They are very soft and pliable and often point straight up. You can squeeze them at the base between thumb and forefinger and make them more horizontal. Doing it a couple or three times or days works well, or hanging a weight like a ring of wire just heavy enough to keep them horizontal for a day or two works, too, after squeezing them flat. Trying to wire a stem like that is a waste of time because I kill every it time, and they have lots of stems like that.

 

[Adair M]

Young shoots that have not yet lignified can be moved easily. Wiring with aluminum is easy to do, with care, the shoots will lignify in a couple of weeks. You can put nice nice curves easily.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Personally never sent message to tree. Just speak to same directly. Massaging only damages bark texture and dirties fingers.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

"squeeze and fold"........please expain. Doesn't quite sound like what I do.

If you squeeze a soft branch, you break the longtitudal fibers a little. This makes branches pretty pliable. If you don't damage them too much, you can fold them over a 100°.
Massaging is the same principle, it leaves less damage but also less severe bends.
I use the squeeze and fold on tomatoes and other *ahum* "crops" to create an even canopy. In some circles it's called supercropping.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Well, squeezing a branch flat might be one way of doing it, but it's not what I do. I gently bend it over my thumb so as NOT to deform the surface of the branch in any way. The method has worked for every tree I've grown in six years of bonsai..........somewhere over 100 trees.

Noticed the misspelling, but the edit feature timed out on me. I did spell it right in the original post though.

 

[penumbra]

Noticed the misspelling, but the edit feature timed out on me. I did spell it right in the original post though.

So the massage is or is not the message?

 

[Joe Dupre']

The massage IS the message. Or........I could just be misteakan.

 

[penumbra]

misteakan

 

[Shibui]

I have found a related technique for trident maples. Tips of soft new shoots are bent down and under the pot to hold them in place. Pull them tight enough to make the start of the shoot close to the trunk close to horizontal or as required for the future design.
After just a couple of days the base of the shoot will be set in position.
This is only to set initial angle at the base. Wiring and/or pruning will give shape to the branch as it starts to lignify. Some further change to initial angle can still be made with wire if required up to a year or 2 later but bending down will give a better angle while the new branch is still really flexible.

Why not wire? Not enough time to wire hundreds of new shoots or to decide which to keep and which to remove in the first few months of spring. This is a quick and dirty way to change exit angles of many new shoots really quickly.

Use whatever techniques give the results you want.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I have found a related technique for trident maples. Tips of soft new shoots are bent down and under the pot to hold them in place. Pull them tight enough to make the start of the shoot close to the trunk close to horizontal or as required for the future design.
After just a couple of days the base of the shoot will be set in position.
This is only to set initial angle at the base. Wiring and/or pruning will give shape to the branch as it starts to lignify. Some further change to initial angle can still be made with wire if required up to a year or 2 later but bending down will give a better angle while the new branch is still really flexible.

Why not wire? Not enough time to wire hundreds of new shoots or to decide which to keep and which to remove in the first few months of spring. This is a quick and dirty way to change exit angles of many new shoots really quickly.

Use whatever techniques give the results you want.

I think there is the answer. *Techniques that give one the results they want. I just don't grasp this step. But that's on me.

 

[hinmo24t]

hope you at least buy it flowers first