Dawn Redwood chop?

[Robert E Holt]

I was looking around at a local nursery this weekend and came across a number of Dawn Redwoods. Some were single trunk but others were twin or even triple trunk (maybe even multiple trees grown together). All were 5 or six feet tall. I had in mind to use one of the triple trunk trees as the centerpeice of a Dawn Redwood Forest planting. I have a couple smaller trees that I have acquired.

Most of the Dawn Redwood Bonsai I have seen are formal upright and display little taper. I was wondering if Dawn Redwood will respond well to trunk chopping? The tree I was most interested in has a trunk base of around 2". If I chopped the trunk at around 4" - 5" will I be able to get it to backbud and form new branches? I would need to chop the other trunk somewhat below 4". Does this sound like it will work or should I just cop it at around 12" and devolved the apex and branching from there without worrying about trunk taper so much? Ultimately the plan would be to allow the trunk to extend above the canopy and create jin.

Anybody have any experience or insight?

 

[sorce]

The 3 trunk centerpiece sounds nice.

You don't need too much taper for a convincing forest.

Probly could chop it, but it would take a long time.

If carve for speed and interest.

Pics!

Sorce

 

[Robert E Holt]

Thanks, that's what I was hoping. I will return to the nursery and get one of the trees. They had a three trunk that looked pretty healthy. I'll post some pictures once I bring it home. It'll still be early next year before I can re-pot, but maybe I can do some of the branch work and jin. The next big step will be to find a suitable pot for the arrangement.

 

[Dav4]

Dawn redwood will back bud nicely if healthy.

 

[ColinFraser]

I chopped a dawn redwood this year and it backbudded like crazy; posted it here too.

You might want to leave a little extra when you do the initial chop though, and then carve it back further after you get growth where you want it. Like the bald cypress guys - they seem to do a flat cut first, and then later carve an angled cut between 2 buds at different heights to add taper and speed healing.

 

[Robert E Holt]

What about for creating jin? Would I need to cut it straight first and then carve the jin? Or would I make a ragged break?

 

[ColinFraser]

Hmmm, well, when you mentioned chopping at 4" high, I wasn't envisioning any left for jin . . .

Are you going for a lightning strike look? That might be neat on just the tallest tree of a forest planting - tells a story.

If you wanted to keep wood for possible jinning later, but still get the effect of a chop at 4", you could probably just strip off all of the bark above where you would have chopped it. That will prevent the tree from "wasting" energy on buds where you don't want them while leaving all of your carving options open for later . . .

 

[Robert E Holt]

Yea, the 4" thing was the first option. Based on the response from Sorce, the thought was I didn't need much taper, so I went back to my original concept. I was thinking to chop at about 14 inches for a canopy of about 12" on the tallest. The lightening or storm damage concept is about what I wanted.

 

[ColinFraser]

I would look at bald cypress forest images for a while and decide what you do and don't like about what you see. Start here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q="forest+planting"+"bald+cypress"

 

[Robert E Holt]

I would look at bald cypress forest images for a while and decide what you do and don't like about what you see. Start here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q="forest+planting"+"bald+cypress"

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't really thought about the similarities between BC and DR. I had Google's Dawn Redwood but had trouble finding a good resource. Following your search link, I actually found link to a blog that talked about DR and creating a Forrest planting.

 

[Robert E Holt]

I stopped on the way home today and bought one of the Dawn Redwoods at the local nursery. This was the healthiest one they had. This one actually had a fourth one in the container, off to the side. Not sure if it is a low branch that they buried or what. I may try poking around in there tomorrow just to see what i really have. I'm afraid the pictures aren't great, I was in a hurry and used my phone to take them. I'll try to get some new ones tomorrow with a better background.