approach to building a clump from seedlings

[pandacular]

I have a number of Styrax japonicus seedlings that I plan to form a clump from. One of these I have had for a year now, and it has been wired out and has a few established branches; the others are essentially just long shoots, some with multiple trunks (I picked several with multiple low trunks, as I think it will add some variety to where the trunks exit the clump). I have watched several videos on clump creation, and will likely be following Bjorn's process.

My question is primarily how should I approach the primary styling of this clump? Should I wire up the new ones to give them some movement in their current pots? Or should I hold off until after they are established in the clump somewhat?

I see tradeoffs to either approach. Benefits of wiring now are that I can get some motion now, which would be substantially easier than in the spring, and earlier than the fall. It could also help guide my process while building the clump. Downsides are that it may prevent me from getting the trunks really close together, and I may not really know what I want to place the trunks while wiring them. Additionally, if they're wired, I don't think I could get a washer around all of them, if I choose to go with that approach in order to ground layer them.

 

[Paradox]

 

[pandacular]

I think the key difference between my tree and the one Bjorn makes in this video is that his are younger and thinner. at least with the primary trunk of mine, if it is unwired for the year, it may be quite hard to wire them out in the future.

 

[Kievnstavick]

Another approach that you can do is replicate how cmeg1 produced his elm clumps.

He basically just grew seedlings and used a foliar feed to promote lots of budding. Once he was satisfied with a division point, he loosely wrapped the branches in wired to make them grow more vertically and closer together. Once the were set, he air-layered the seedlings to be clumps or broom style trees.

 

[Kievnstavick]

A quick overview of his process is in Cmeg1's thread. A great read if you are interested at all in growing from seeds.

 

[pandacular]

this is really awesome, I appreciate you sharing this. thats a great technique and I will save it for another piece of material. I have an interest in mame, and this looks perfect for that. Curtis is really doing great work creating material, and sharing so much as he does!

in this case, I think I’ll go a different route with them, and likely aim for something in the range of 10”-16”. Maybe i’ll get the chance to spend some tomorrow with the trees and come back with pictures, though i’m catching a flight tomorrow evening, so I’ll have time to think on my plan more in the coming days.

 

[Shibui]

Sounds like your trees already have way too many branches to thread through a washer or holes in a metal sheet.
There's 2 possibilities I can think of that may help.
1. Approach graft the trunks together. Scrape off some bark where you want the smaller trunks to go, scrape a matching area off the small trunks and bind it all together with grafting tape. Not sure how many smaller trunks you want to include. If there's a lot it may pay to graft a few at a time to make sure you don't completely ring bark the main trunk. This method won't give new roots for nebari so you may need to ground layer after the trunks are well grafted.

2. Arrange all the seedlings together as you want them and tie tightly with wire then plant the whole thing deep enough to cover the wire. This essentially does what a washer does - holds the trunks together as they grow in the hope they can self graft. As the trunks thicken the wire will also cut off circulation. Provided the area bis inder soil level and has good conditions new roots will form above the wire tie so you should get a new lateral nebari as well.