Putting "Movement" into seedlings and cuttings

Ironbeaver

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All (most) sources say to wore movement into young trees while the trunk(stem) is still thin and flexible. Does anyone have any advice or links to pages or articles on various types of bends and maybe what they look like years later? I have one old issue of Bonsai Today (not sure which number - I'll update when I get home) that shows adding a corkscrew twist to Japanese Maples, brooms for Zelkova but not much else.

I've got some Bougainvillea cuttings that have started rooting and I don't want anymore dead straight trunks like the parent plant. Also, some of my cork bark elm seeds have started germinating.
 

armetisius

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There comes the rub.
Starting at this level of development you can plan, and grow, into your plant
anything you should desire to create. The downside? Like yourself [it seems;
apologies if I am incorrect] people (in general} are terror stricken with a
"fully blank canvas" where EVERYTHING that will occur is on you to
decide and do to achieve the hoped for tree.
sorry. . . (not really)
There is no recipe book for a Rembrandt or paint by number for a GREAT bonsai.
From cuttings, or seedlings, is where you have to bring it or stay home 'cause you
have nobody else to blame if its lame.
 

jquast

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Jim Gremel was a guest speaker at a club meeting a few years back and shared one of the techniques that he uses. He had a long piece of aluminum wire attached to a small block of wood and would contort the wire into a design that he liked. He would then try to match that design in the rooted cutting that he was to develop into a twisty juniper.
 
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Ironbeaver

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So, I found this info :
http://bonsaitonight.com/2014/03/21/creating-the-trunk-charting-future-growth/

I think if using the wire in a block of wood technique combined with this method (maybe use clay/Plasticine?) would be fun to play around with. There's definitely an artistry involved, I guess studying lots of Bonsai and trees in nature is part of the process too.
 

Bunjeh

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I just look google "bonsai images" and try to find a shape that inspires me. Then I shamelessly try to copy.
 

leatherback

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Hm.. I used to just wire them up and put a few crazy bends in there. HOwever, this year I have started with a thick, straight wire. Then wiring the sapling to it with the finest of wires that will hold it. Bend the lot. I think that gives a bit better control. Key is to make the bends extreme. As the plant grows, the bends with smooth out a bit. A few years ago I wrote this: http://www.growingbonsai.net/baby-bending/

(The website is a place where I try to keep an overview of information I come across and find usefull.. Once I have rebuild the website navigation, I will probably put a newer article online using the thick wire bending, and perhaps finally I will start working on my trees section.. )
 

JoeR

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What I have been doing is taking cuttings from trees and wiring those.

If you are looking to out bends in one of your pines, take a pine cutting. If youre looking to put bends in a deciduous, take a deciduous cutting.

Im looking at putting bends in pines, so I took a cuttings from virginia pine. Heres an example of one I played around with today that is elegantly displayed on a cup:
 

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GrimLore

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Lot of good points and pointers here. I only have a few seedlings and saplings this year but they do require some thought on where I want them to be in a few years. Also you must consider if they will make it at all. I lost all of my small deciduous this past Spring and most were where I "thought" they would be in training pots - nature can be dreadful but oh well. I also find it interesting with some species like Eastern Red Cedar that unless you get them to the shape you want for a planting they will forever be showing juvenile foliage so to me it is a "must" for my plans. Al uses that screen method and honest for what he wants as an end result it is neat and perfect. In my mind something like Trident Maples and his method you could have a darn nice small tree with nice movement in a few years - as he says "they grow so fast you can hear them growing". I have a small boxwood that has about 25 lengths of Raffia bending branches downward that I hope will lignify in my lifetime - another learning experience :p My advice is to plan ahead, plant more then you plan to need, and use any method you find practical - even fishing weights!

Grimmy
 

leatherback

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use any method you find practical
Yes. true. I have been baby bending also for branches I might layer in the future, such as this maple which had some heat damage this summer and stopped extending, creating nice near internodes

babybending-1.jpg

For longer projects I attach them to a thicker wire:
babybending-2.jpg
 

M. Frary

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Stomp on them. Throw snow at them. Stuff like that to replace the hardships of nature.
 
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