One way to create nebari

[Adair M]

Here is a zelkova I bought last year. I thought it had potential as a shohin. Got it home, found that the top was cute, but the roots were awful. Two layers of roots, no structure.

So, I cut off the bottom, heavier layer, leaving only a few fine hair roots. I screwed the bottom of the trunk onto a piece of plywood, spread the roots out, stuffed some sphagnum moss under the trunk, backfilled with Boon Mix.

Here's the before pic:

 

[Adair M]

A year passes. Yesterday, I gave a workshop on zelkova, and I knew the students would be nervous about root work, so I brought my little tree. It had grown a zillion roots, and we went ahead and repotted it into a ridicously small pot, just because I could!

 

[sikadelic]

I get the screw underneath the plywood to anchor your tree, but what are the other two screws on each side for?

 

[Adair M]

To hold the plywood to the pot! I ran wire under the pot, up thru the drainholes as usual, then wrapped the wire around the screws to anchor the plywood to the pot.

 

[jkd2572]

Thanks. I have a big air layer I'm going to remove in September. I was trying to think of an idea of how to secure it without having to plant it into something very deep. This will work. Thanks again. It's a no brainier I had not thought of....

 

[Gaitano]

How much girth did the trunk put on? It looks like quite a bit of growth for a year. Very nice! I have several Zelkovas that I'm growing out right now, so I always like to see these.

 

[coh]

I've planted trees on top of tiles and plywood in the ground, and have attached the roots using wire...but haven't tried this approach (screwing the tree to the board) yet. Also haven't tried it in a pot, though it's something I'm planning to do. Thanks for the pics showing how well it worked for you.

 

[Adair M]

Maybe 1/2 inch?

When I first tried inserting the screw, it was splitting the trunk a little. So, I drilled a pilot hole, which made screwing it to the board easier. I used a sheet rock screw.

Yes, the whole process definitely created some girth right there at the soil line, which is exactly what I wanted!

Last year, I let the new twigs extend to about 6 to 8 inches, then cut back to two true leaves. Then did it again, twice more.

 

[Adair M]

For anyone interested, last years soil was Boon mix.

This year it's 1 part pumice (Dry Stall), 2 parts small akadama.

I will cover the soil surface with some sphagnum moss to keep heavy rains from disturbing the soil surface.

 

[Smoke]

Hi Adair, I did a trident like this last year. I used a round top 9/16 staple like they use for stapling coax around the eaves of your house when you get cable. It worked pretty good also.

I grew this tree in orchid bark and humic acid. This is the bark I showed that had all the roots growing in the bark. Shoehorning them into a small pot is always a nice sense of acomplishment. I need some zelcova's to grow out.

 

[JudyB]

For anyone interested, last years soil was Boon mix.

This year it's 1 part pumice (Dry Stall), 2 parts small akadama.

I will cover the soil surface with some sphagnum moss to keep heavy rains from disturbing the soil surface.

Just curious why the change this year? That's a lot of great growing for one year!

 

[Adair M]

Judy, I potted this at Plant City Bonsai, and they didn't have any tiny lava rock.

It's in a ridiculously thin pot. At most, it's 1/2 inch, so the soil had to be small. The Dry Stall pumice is small, and they sifted some akadama to match. Since it's so small, it's going to require a lot of attention to watering, and akadama holds more water than lava (which they didn't have anyway) and pumice. I thought about going straight akadama. That would work as well.

The Atlanta Bonsai show is in the middle of May this year. So, I'll have this in a shohin display. The tree is really not up to what I would consider my standard, but the flatness of the roots work well for this little pot, so I thought it would be a fun item to display. The show is at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, so we get visitors passing thru who are there to visit the gardens and have never seen a bonsai before. Having something with a pot that thin will drop some jaws!

After the show, I'll up pot it to probably the same pot I had it in, and let it grow to develop trunk, ramification, nebari. It only has to be in that pot for about 6 to 7 weeks. When I up pot, I'll put it in my deciduous Boon Mix.

An aside about Public Shows: You never know what will happen when the great unwashed see bonsai for the first time. I've had people accuse me of gluing on artificial flower blooms on a Satsuki azalea because "everyone knows" the azaleas bloomed several months before. I've seen some try to reach across the barrier to pick up trees, and even try to pull them out of pots because they didn't believe they were real. Unbelievable.

 

[iant]

I have to say that personally I'm now avoiding this technique. I've done it a few times and maybe it's the way I water or the size pot I put it in but I find that the roots that spread out over the board don't ramify much until they get past the board and then from there they start to ramify more. So I have well ramified roots that doing the ramification more away from the trunk. I think it's probably because there's a little too much moisture right overlying the board and it's a better drained situation out at the periphery. I use a well drained mix of perlite, lava, and pumice by the way that's sifted at 3/16 (in case any of you soil nuts are wondering.)
For the future I'm just going to skip the board part but take off the downward central roots and plant them in shallow wide pots. I think it works better for me.
Ian

 

[Jester217300]

What if you made the board exactly as small as the desired nebari??

 

[Adair M]

Iant,

After the first year, did you go back and root prune?

The way to increase ramification is to cut back.

I don't have a picture of the entire unprimed root mass, unfortunately. They were easily 12 inches long, maybe 18 inches! I cut them back to about an inch and a half to 2 inches.

I expect even more roots to ramify this year. And, my ultimate goal is to develop a plate style nebari as they thicken.

If you are not getting ramification, it's because you are not cutting back enough.

 

[iant]

Adair,
I meant only in the 1st year (before I would have cut back.) So after 1 year I had roots that went radially out from the center but started to ramify more right at the edge of the board. I'm not talking about cut back ramification but rather natural ramification. I think if I don't have the board maybe they'll split more as they're going along naturally. Perhaps I was expecting too much.
I don't have a photo of the after with the board but I do have one that's similar that was fixed to a tile.
Ian

 

[iant]

But Adair your point is well taken that cutting back is an essential part of the process.
Ian

 

[Adair M]

I think you're expecting too much.

Developing killer nebari is a marathon.

I also had the board buried under an inch or 1.5 inches of soil.

I got great ramification in one year.

It's also possible you started with too long roots to begin with. I did the first time I did this on another tree. I showed pictures of what I had done to Boon, and he told me I should have shortened the root mass to start.

 

[Adair M]

Iant,

Looking at your photo, you need to cut back the heavy roots WAY back. To the first or second side root.

At this point, you may need to open "windows" on the trunk to encourage new roots to start there. Bury it deeper when you repot it. Shallow surface roots won't ramify. Cover the soil surface with a layer of sphagnum. Use a small grained soil mix.

I can't tell if you did any of those things, but those are the keys to success with this technique.

Good luck!

 

[Adair M]

Also, some varieties just naturally make better nebari, faster. Zelkova is known for good nebari. I think your picture is of a plumb? It may just be harder to get good nebari on a plumb than a zelkova.