(Sekka) Hinoki Cypress, bark care?

[JonW]

Hi all,

I've had a sekka for a few years (I also have a chirimen and a gemstone), and it is doing very well. I was wondering about care for the bark. I couldn't find anything online and pictures of developed hinoki cypress bonsai seem to have the peeling bark intact. However, I was wondering if that is good practice, or if it should be removed like a juniper (for health and or aesthetic reasons)?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Danonito]

Following as im interested too. Im pretty sure in Ryan Neil's "Fall Physiology" video he mentions somewhere that we can approach Hinoki bark cleaning in the same way as Juniper bark but I havent seen any other post/article/vid about this point so interested to see what people say here.

Edit: he mentions in the vid that no known borers attack the Hinoki bark but no mention on the aesthetic part of this process.

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

I don't think it's common practise to remove the bark from a Hinoki cypress.
I only remove the peeling bark from Junipers once a year around this time of the year.

 

[rockm]

There was quite the discussion of bark removal (per Bonsai Mirai's video) in the bald cypress Facebook group. From that discussion, I think there is a distinction to be made between peeling bark off for aesthetics and removing some of it for maintenance. I have not seen peeling bark down to shiny red veins for trees other than junipers. That includes hinoki (even Mirai makes no real mention of doing it for Hinoki in their care listing).

Removing some bark can be done lightly for the most part to make the trunk look less shaggy, but some is retained in the photos on Mirai's site.

 

[Darth Masiah]

this is my sekka hinoki care guide from Koide Bonsai youtube channel.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKV0bhrq7AE58pnK_w_copfohbyuBYjjj&si=BOb8QI7pYHDd294E