A Twin Trunk Sierra Juniper

[Tieball]

One of my difficulties.....finding real veins of sap flow. I try the tracing back from branches with some success...I think. I'm not sure though. But tell me if this is a clue: I find small sticky sap dots along the trunk. Usually at what was once probable a bud (but no longer a bud). Would those be a live sap path to use? Or just something to follow? The sap dots are right about where I would. Plan to graft.

 

[markyscott]

One of my difficulties.....finding real veins of sap flow. I try the tracing back from branches with some success...I think. I'm not sure though. But tell me if this is a clue: I find small sticky sap dots along the trunk. Usually at what was once probable a bud (but no longer a bud). Would those be a live sap path to use? Or just something to follow? The sap dots are right about where I would. Plan to graft.

Hi Tieball. It can be tricky. What I do is use a sharp hand tool and begin in a place I know is dead. I scrape away the bark and slowly extend the area across the grain until I hit the edge of live wood. It can be white or pink in color. But in my experience there is usually a color change. It can be subtle. Then move a couple of inches up the trunk and repeat until you've defined the edge of the live vein. Mark it with chalk and you can start defining the edge of the vein. I'm not sure I would trust sap dots alone and I would definitely not trust swelling.

 

[markyscott]

Well - kind of a bummer, but this graft:



Didn’t take.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Kind of a bummer. But if at first you don’t succeed, try again:

This time I put one on each side of the second trunk:



Scott

 

[markyscott]

Hopefully one or both of these will take:



Back on the bench for another year or two.

S

 

[Adair M]

Hopefully one or both of these will take:

View attachment 167692 View attachment 167693

Back on the bench for another year or two.

S

Ready for another Ume graft! Even though my last Ume graft didn’t take, it DID bloom!

On second thought, maybe the graft should be chojubai next time... Ume is SO 2016!

 

[Paulpash]

Vance, that picture is all native Sierra Juniper foliage, except for the Ume twig grafted on. No Shimpaku in the picture.

Can we pinch Ume, @Adair M or is it forbidden?

 

[Adair M]

Can we pinch Ume, @Adair M or is it forbidden?

If you pinch Ume, it won’t bloom.

 

[markyscott]

Sierra before work. Of the two fronts, A and B, I think I prefer A.



Most of the grafts have taken, but an important back branch for the B front didn’t make it.

S

 

[markyscott]

I wired the new shoots and thinned the top growth significantly. Here’s front A and B - or what would have been B had it not been photobombed by @Adair M (or is it Pinus Envy now?).

 

[markyscott]

Then I placed several grafts in the back to replace the one that failed and cleaned up the top soil. All done for now.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Chonky!

 

[markyscott]

Checked Adair’s ume graft. I’m crushed - despite @Adair M ’s insistence that his grafting skills were up to the task, I don’t think it’s going to take.

 

[markyscott]

Time to clean the foliage and continue to ween the tree off it’s native foliage and the kishu whips off their roots.



S

 

[markyscott]

In the summer, junipers drop their old needles. First step in cleaning is to pull off all the old yellowing needles. Yellowing needles will not magically turn green - go ahead and pull them off.

 

[markyscott]

Here’s a branch.

 

[markyscott]

Pull all the old, yellowing needles.


S

 

[markyscott]

Here’s what your left with.



Next , pull all the growth from the bottom of the branch. You’ll be left with something like this.



Finally, thin what’s left if it’s still too dense. Remove needles at the base of the shoots, leave alternating needles. And for every couple of pairs of alternating shoots, leave a a shoot on top.

S

 

[markyscott]

Thinner now.

 

[Adair M]

It looks like you pinched the Ume! How do you expect it to bloom if you keep pinching it?