ONE MORE TIME! Yamadori Style Junipers

[kmdesigns]

Do you think it would be wise to repot after doing this kind of bending? I'd like to get my juniper into a better mix, but don;t know if I should wait a year.

 

[greerhw]

Do you think it would be wise to repot after doing this kind of bending? I'd like to get my juniper into a better mix, but don;t know if I should wait a year.

Never insult a tree twice in one growing season.

Harry

 

[Brian Underwood]

Well put Harry. Though if you were just going to stick it in the ground without trimming the roots, that might be do-able.

 

[kmdesigns]

I figured thats what the answer would be and I'm cool with waiting another year to repot it.

 

[Joedes3]

Twisting Shimpaku

This is a GREAT thread. As someone who is fairly new, it answered a great number of questions.

My remaining questions are:

When you wrap with the raffia and tightly put the wire on, do you scar the trunk?
Does the raffia protect the trunk from scarring?
How long should you keep the wire on?

I just order ten shimpaku from Milehigh7 and plan to try this on a few.

Thanks
Joe

 

[Smoke]

This is a GREAT thread. As someone who is fairly new, it answered a great number of questions.

My remaining questions are:

When you wrap with the raffia and tightly put the wire on, do you scar the trunk?
Does the raffia protect the trunk from scarring?
How long should you keep the wire on?

I just order ten shimpaku from Milehigh7 and plan to try this on a few.

Thanks
Joe

On junipers it is important to let the wire bite in well to set the stem. Juniper wood is very elastic and will spring back if not properly wired long enough.

the raffia is there to aid in bending the sharp bends. without it, the stems would just break. the raffia keeps the branch intact during bending not allowing it to kink and crack. It will still break though so having a little experience when doing this helps. Doing more than one at a time gives a person a chance to "get the hang of it".

Wire may be on for as long as two years. Less if it grows fast and bites in sooner. Growing conditions play an important role here. Ground growing or larger growbox may mean shorter wire time while smaller pots will add more time.

I would do all ten this year and you could always order more if you find some next year. If you do a good job you may become the next big juniper supplier!

 

[maria kapra]

my twisted juniper !!!

Great thread Al... My twisted junipers are itoigawa grafted on san jose or prostrata. Everything has already been said by Al Keppler and just wanted to show you how my juniper whips are twisted my way.... enjoy ....peter

 

[maria kapra]

my twisted junipers !!!

here's some more ....

peter

 

[maria kapra]

my twisted junipers !!!

Ok last one... I hope everybody would get an idea in twisting this darn junipers. Follow what Al Keepler has started and have fun doing it. Remember... always start with a younger whips to do your 360 twist and bends etc... peter

 

[riprap]

Thanks for the pictures, really helpful. With Al's lessons in mind I bent the tar out of some of my little shimpaku this weekend. Now I see I could probably have been even more extreme with the coiling.

 

[ianb]

Peter,

Looking at you first post, it seems like you graft on the itiogawa whips then bend them. Is the plan to take them off eventually as cuttings/layers or leave them on? I ask as some of the understock looks a little straight.

 

[maria kapra]

ianb,

When i graft my itoigawa to a san jose understock, i normally graft by the root and the other one at top. If both graft took then i will air layer the top or if the time is right then i will treat it like a cutting.

peter

 

[riprap]

Do you find that the San Jose understock makes the Itoigawa branches more vigorous?

 

[Smoke]

Hey...how's all the twisty junipers coming along?

Everyone tried a couple right?


Pictures of mine tomorrow.

Hope this wasn't an all Smoke and no fire thread.........

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Hey...how's all the twisty junipers coming along?

Everyone tried a couple right?


Pictures of mine tomorrow.

Hope this wasn't an all Smoke and no fire thread.........

I'll bite. I did a few of these several years ago that are in the ground and hard to photograph. Here is a cutting in a one-gallon can I twisted 2 years ago, did the main branch and left the leader growing straight, then decided to wire it also a couple months ago. I prefer using aluminum for this so I can compact the design more easily several times over the course of a few weeks, plus the thicker wire means it takes a little longer to dig in. I blew out one side, visible in one of the close-ups, but it didn't seem to hurt it any.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

Hey...how's all the twisty junipers coming along?

Everyone tried a couple right?


Pictures of mine tomorrow.

Hope this wasn't an all Smoke and no fire thread.........

funny you say that..... I did this in the spring after seeing Gremel's work at GSBF the previous year (i know I haven't been around in a long time) ..... need to actually repot thos guys and give them another wiring.... so far so good

see.... some smoke and a little fir3 too ....

 

[Bill S]

Made a bunch of cuttings this year that will be twisted and potted next.

 

[Chiang Cheng Kooi]

The fun part about if you do not have a branch on a desired part of the trunk, you can twist the trunk so that a branch on the left part of the trunk can be place on the front, back or even on the right. Besides this, the technique will give a trunk with twsted grain. But always twist the trunk following coiling of the wire. Branch that are too long can be make to look more compact or shorter by shaping the branch with wire in a zig zag or sinus pattern. Tree like pine that does not bud easy on the proximal part of the branch can be apply this way.

 

[Speedy]

Thanks for the useful information, and the time it took to write it all down.

One quick question, how would J. Virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar) work with this technique. I have a couple little seedlings in found in the yard a couple weeks ago. I was thinking of collecting them and making a group planting but this sounds more fun. I will probably get a couple Shimpakus early next year as well but if I have the ERCs available...

 

[Smoke]

No idea on those babies...opposite side of the continent ya know.

Maybe Mark will chime in on their usefullness in bonsai.