Help Scott pick his keeper

[markyscott]

The young trunk can be bent a bit yet. Here's one way to go.

You need a block of wood and some sturdy rubber hose cut into strips. You can use old garden hose for this.


Place the block of wood below where you want the bend with the rubber hose between the wood and the bark.


Scott

 

[markyscott]

Next you need Jackie - not the old girlfriend, but this:


Place Jackie somewhat above where you'd like the bend to be. The trunk has quite a bit of mechanical strength, so these are not going to be radical bends, just nice gentle ones. Make sure you brace the jack on a branch or something so it doesn't slip down the trunk.



Then tighten Jackie until the trunk is repositioned the way you like.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

I use number 16 copper and pieces of some thick rubber hose to hold the trunk in place.





Once the wire is tightened you can remove the jack.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Now you can bend the upper trunk away from the bend. This is a good trick I learned from Colin Lewis' Craftsy video series (Not the wiring one - the Bonsai Design Techniques one. Also a great course). Cut a 2' piece of 12 gauge copper.



Put one end in your vice and twist the wire a few times with your pliers.





You'll feel it getting a bit hard to turn.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Then I get out my cordless drill and tighten the chuck down on the free end I was twisting with the pliers and rotate the wire on low speed. This really twists the wire.





What you're doing is work-hardening the wire it gets amazingly strong when you do this - even in compression. So strong in fact that I can use a piece of the wire to push the two trunks apart above the guy holding them together. And it looks good.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

So that's what I'll do (note the thick hose between the end of the hardened copper and the trunk):



Now the secondary trunk follows the line of the primary trunk more closely.



Scott

 

[johng]

Nice tutorial as usual Scott! Your water elm is coming along. I think I might have exaggerated the bends on the small trunk more so that they don't disappear in a few years with growth.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Nice trick to harden the copper. I like the more fluid design. After removing the wires the trunk might bend back a little. Did you overbend it a little to compensate that?

 

[markyscott]

Nice tutorial as usual Scott! Your water elm is coming along. I think I might have exaggerated the bends on the small trunk more so that they don't disappear in a few years with growth.

Nice trick to harden the copper. I like the more fluid design. After removing the wires the trunk might bend back a little. Did you overbend it a little to compensate that?

Dirk/John -

Thanks and I'll get in there with Jackie and pull it in more over the next couple of weeks. I like to go slowly with hardwoods. I'll also be reducing the apex on the main trun a bit more. Right now the apex of the main trun leans right and the apex of the secondary trunk leans left. I think the movement would be better with the apex of the main trunk leaning toward the secondary trunk. Like this:



Scott

 

[markyscott]

#4. A smidge closer

 

[markyscott]

#2. Second styling this season. Before.



After cut back


After wiring


Scott

 

[markyscott]

Collected October 2015.

January 2016 vs July 2017




A year and a half in the development of two water elms. These are great trees to work on.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Back to it. A little over four weeks later and it's ready to work again. Just have to dodge Hurricane Harvey squalls when they blow through. A little more than four weeks since I worked the tree. I need to get in one more now so that this last flush will harden off by the end of September. Things start cooling off in a bit October, so I don't want soft growth hanging around that long.



Scott

 

[markyscott]

I want to offer some details about the approach I take for developing broadleaf trees by way of example with this water elm. The work I do on developing trees is seasonal and different than the refinement work I do on trees with the branch structure already in place. First, some words of wisdom from my teacher:

• "Conifer branches are bent into place. Broadleaf branches are grown into place"
• "Build branches from the inside out"
• "Direct growth by selecting a strong leader and allowing it to extend"
• "Cut back strong growth to build movement, taper and to create back branching"
• "Don't pinch (remove soft growing tips). Pinching is a refinement technique. It weakens the tree and encourages budding at the end of the branch"
• "Balance energy by strengthening the weak and weakening the strong"
• "Don't defoliate. Selectively remove old leaves on strong shoots to let light and air into the interior"

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Second point - branch development is seasonal:

• In winter cut back to create branch structure. Prune for movement, taper and branch position.
• In the spring let it grow. Don't pinch and don't defoliate. Once the growth hardens off in late spring, select shoots, wire into position and remove leaves. The shoots you keep should contribute to the natural branch structure you're developing

 

[markyscott]

Work during the growing season is very important.

• Allow a branch to grow strong. Weak branches get weaker when wired
• Remove old leaves on extending shoots. Then wire the branch and allow the new shoot to extend until it hardens off and/or reaches the thickness you want
• Cut back hard to a side branch
• If the tree is strong, it will back bud profusely when you cut back. Allow back buds to extend and then repeat
• DON'T wire/defoliate/cut back hard to no green repeatedly. The tree will get weak.
• DON'T pinch (clip off the growing tips) repeatedly. This will encourage ramification at the end of the branches - exactly where we don't want it when we're developing branch structure. We want back budding close to the trunk.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Here's an example. Consider this branch.



You can see where I pruned in July. There is an end branch that has grown as well as two interior branches close to the trunk.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

First, I remove the old leaves. Note that this I'm NOT defoliating the tree. That will slow it down - exactly what I don't want for a tree in development. All of the young leaves at the end of the branches are left in place. Removing the old leaves is important - it allows light and air into the interior so that young backbudding shoots that develop get plenty of light.



Scott

 

[markyscott]

OK - leaves removed.



Scott

 

[markyscott]

Next, we'll prune. But where do we prune to? Here's a principle that differentiates winter pruning from that which you do in the growing season. In the winter we're cutting back into old, lignified wood. In the spring, we never cut back into old wood unless we're cutting back to a new, strongly growing shoot. So we can cut back this branch to the interior shoots because they're strong. When we cut back the strongest branch, it will encourage more back budding.

Now the wire on this branch can stay on a bit longer - so I'll just unwrap a turn or to, prune and then wire the two new branches into place.

1) unwrap wire


2) Prune to a strongly growing shoot


3) wire new growth


4) Style new shoots


Scott