Deadwood maintenence question with pics

[Pigskin Pete]

I purchased and gently pruned a parsons juniper in early Spring. At that time I also carved shari and applied lime sulphur.


The deadwood appears to be healing over. I am seeking advice on what to do to maintain this deadwood feature on my tree. Do I simply carve back the new growth and reapply lime sulphur? If so, when is best to do that?

 

[RJG2]

Personally, I'd let it go until at least early next summer, and lightly re-expand the shari. In other words, I wouldn't carve to the same depth as the original shari - the new layers will give interest.

It's common to expand shari in stages for this reason, to give interest and texture - not just a flat bald patch.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

The tree is merely doing its thing, healing a wound.

Would carve back only places where the cambium is in danger of closing up. Then wait until next spring and redo the deadwood line. Should be either the same width throughout or expanding slightly towards the base at next working.

Just for information, Lime Sulfur isn’t very effective until the wood get a chance to dry out. Usually takes a growing season to be most effective. Doesn’t mean not to do it, but don’t expect the full effect until later one.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Shibui]

As already mentioned, this is just your juniper doing what comes natural and trying to heal a wound.
I get the feeling reading the post that you may be expecting lime sulphur to stop the wound healing. Please forgive if I'm jumping to false conclusion or teaching you to suck eggs. Lime sulphur is used as a wood preservative to stop the exposed wood from rotting. It will not prevent the callus from growing over any dead wood.
We also need to apply lime sulphur at least once a year to effectively preserve the wood so don't think the job is finished with one application.

You will need to keep opening edges of shari, especially on small, vigorous trees. That can be done as often as needed.
Allowing wounds to partly heal can be great when developing shari on bonsai. Each growth period adds another layer of wood on the outside of the trunk. The callus growing around the edges of your shari will have thicker layer of wood which can be great because when you peel the bark next you will now have a layered shari. Repeated closing and opening and widening shari over a number of years gives a dead wood feature with layers which looks like wood grain or rotted layers in the exposed wood. I think that's what @RJG2 is alluding to above.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Like others have said, leave it alone for now, and in spring, widen it something like shown in the photo. Let the current Shari be the deepest layer, and the next round of Shari can be a layer higher, so you start to develop some texture and character.