Acacia Karoo - Sweet Thorn Literati Style

[Dorian Fourie]

Hey all

I received this Acacia Karoo from my mate who was moving to Australia. The tree belonged to his father in law and had great sentimental value to them as a family. They did not want to just leave the tree behind so they asked me if I could do something with it for them.

When he dropped it off at me I looked at it and decided to do a literati with it. The tree was very long and I did not want to cut back on the trunk. I definitely thought at the time that it is an adventurous route to go. He brought it to me in a plastic bag so I immediately planted it out into a larger pot.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

After creating some "Jins" with some of the dead branches I had to decided how to proceed with bending it and wiring it. My initial wiring was very poor and very haphazard.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

I decided to do some more intense wiring and try out a method that I had read about online by using electrical tape instead of raffia.

So after using loads of tape and wire and really putting some serious bending onto the tree, I left it to recover.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

The recovery period wasn't very long as I still wasn't happy. So I put the hurt on some more -

 

[Dorian Fourie]

So from the end of Feb I left it to recover to end August before I started to remove the wiring, branch benders and tape.

Much to my horror, I realised that the electrical tape was not the way to go. The Acacia gives off a very dark sap and it actually stained the branch brown.

I also noticed that with my intense wiring, I actually had broken the branch.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

So over the last 2 months the growth has been fantastic and the plant is very healthy. I have done loads of trimming on the new growth and even wired started to separate the 2 canopies from each other.

The part of the branch that had broken has totally healed and the stained bark is starting to flake and fall off.

I believe that in the future I might have something different to show off. It may never be a world class tree but I like what I have done.

Any thoughts

 

[sorce]

So over the last 2 months the growth has been fantastic and the plant is very healthy. I have done loads of trimming on the new growth and even wired started to separate the 2 canopies from each other.

The part of the branch that had broken has totally healed and the stained bark is starting to flake and fall off.

I believe that in the future I might have something different to show off. It may never be a world class tree but I like what I have done.

Any thoughts View attachment 85506
View attachment 85507 View attachment 85508

I think I remember the beginning.

Turned out well.

2-3 days ago, I wired a ficus like that, broke a branch too. It is ok so far.

That thing was budding in the tape?
I try to fold the tape over on itself so it doesn't stick, and leave a lip of sticky at the end.

I put a tough guy bandaid over the break, paste, and tape!

Sorce

 

[Dorian Fourie]

I think I remember the beginning.

Turned out well.

2-3 days ago, I wired a ficus like that, broke a branch too. It is ok so far.

That thing was budding in the tape?
I try to fold the tape over on itself so it doesn't stick, and leave a lip of sticky at the end.

I put a tough guy bandaid over the break, paste, and tape!

Sorce

Thanks Sorce

I wrapped the tape firstly with the tape side up, all the way up the trunk and then wrapped it again with the sticky side down. When I cut it off I just used the Stanley knife to cut the tape. I had loads of budding happening under the tape.

I wont use electrical tape again though as it doesn't breathe nicely.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I like what you have done, been following this one on BSG, nice work and good to see you here too. This is a lively forum.

 

[sorce]

I hope you don't mind me bombing this here.
The whole time building it in this state, I thought of you guys in South Africa.


But I had wire, and some time. I left 2 crossed. Oops!



Really just to fit it under my lights!

I like yours, and I may eliminate the broken branch to COPY yours! Ha!

Welcome to Crazy My Friend!

Sorce

 

[Dorian Fourie]

I like what you have done, been following this one on BSG, nice work and good to see you here too. This is a lively forum.

Thanks Leo. Yeah definitely loads more life on this forum but still like BSG

I hope you don't mind me bombing this here.
The whole time building it in this state, I thought of you guys in South Africa.
Really just to fit it under my lights!

I like yours, and I may eliminate the broken branch to COPY yours! Ha!

Welcome to Crazy My Friend!

Sorce

Bomb away Sorce. Love what you are doing with it. Sometimes one needs to step out of the box and get crazy.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Notice how your breaks were all on the outsides of curves, where there was no wire to contain the bend?
Always make the bends so a coil of wire is on the outside; bigger wire and wider coils next time will help too.
I'd like to see movement start lower on the trunk; makes a more congruent story.

Glad it healed up, fun to get big bends going on early in a tree's development like this. Please post updates.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Notice how your breaks were all on the outsides of curves, where there was no wire to contain the bend?
Always make the bends so a coil of wire is on the outside; bigger wire and wider coils next time will help too.
I'd like to see movement start lower on the trunk; makes a more congruent story.

Glad it healed up, fun to get big bends going on early in a tree's development like this. Please post updates.

Thanks Brian. My wiring skills are terrible and I will definitely remember that in the future.

I definitely would like to bend the lower part of the trunk but it is really thick and I am not even sure if it can bend anymore. Unfortunately that is how I got it but I will take it along to my next monthly bonsai meet and get some more people to look at it.

But hey, watch this space, will definitely keep updating.

 

[sorce]

bend the lower part of the trunk

Dorian,
Look at the v notching made easy thread from Sawgrass. In advanced I think.

If that tree buds in the tape. I reckon it will have little problems healing a v cut to bend the lower trunk, inside the tape.

You can do it!

Sorce

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Thanks Sorce

I will definitely look it up.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

You'd at least have confidence it will heal up after!

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Just a quick update on the Literati

I had a read up about V notching and it definitely is something that will work. I am not going to be doing it now as I think it is too late in the season and I would rather wait for Spring (Sept 2016) before I try that. Apart from that, it is still growing like mad and another serious haircut was in order over the past weekend.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Another update on this Acacia.

In December 2015 it needed another severe haircut and trim. I am starting to believe that this species of tree is actually half weed.


Growing wild


Definitely needs a haircut


All cleaned up.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

I was away from end December to Mid January in Italy and upon my return my suspicions were confirmed about this tree having "Weed Blood" in it. It has grown absolutely wild.


I have always been breaking off the new shoots that have started to grow on the trunk. As soon as they would appear, I would break them off. The reason for this was that I was worried that it would start to create bumps on the trunk where it grows. I noticed that after all this rapid growth, the shoots along the trunk thicken up without any noticeable swelling at the base of the growth. For this reason I am now leaving the new growth along the trunk for longer as it will definitely assist with the thickening up of the trunk.


So after taking the obligatory pictures for my FB page, it was once again cutting back on all the growth.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

So in the space of exactly one year to the day from when I received it and planted it into a large container, this tree has made a huge change in appearance.

Pic 1 - 17 January 2015


Pic 2 - 17 January 2016



I think over the next few months / years it will undergo even more changes (for the better I hope)

One option that was suggested earlier in this thread is V notching for the lowest part of the trunk. I will definitely look into that in Spring 16 (September) and I also want to put some more movement in some parts of the trunk. But for now it has grown like mad again over the last month and in need of another haircut.