Shohin Clump Japanese Maple

[JudyB]

What if I were to use a few 2-3 year seedlings and bunch them all up together and manage to set a tile over the roots. How long will they take to fuse once the roots get girdled with the tile and new ones grow over it?

Search here on the forum for threads from a user named Smoke. He did a thread about the very thing you are proposing to do. LMK if you can’t find it and I’ll hunt it down for you…

 

[Maiden69]

Search here on the forum for threads from a user named Smoke. He did a thread about the very thing you are proposing to do. LMK if you can’t find it and I’ll hunt it down for you…

Thanks Judy, I think I remember reading his thread, the one he used a terracotta dish to "layer" them. I was asking if a clump like this would be quicker to attain using this technique, as there were posts stating that it would take 15 years to attain this. My trident went from a 1/2" stick to an almost 3" basal flare with 1.25" trunk. I don't think it would take that long to attain the clump with that growth rate, ramification on the other hand will take quite a few years...

 

[Pitoon]

That new pot matches up really nicely.

 

[badatusernames]

What if I were to use a few 2-3 year seedlings and bunch them all up together and manage to set a tile over the roots. How long will they take to fuse once the roots get girdled with the tile and new ones grow over it?

In his Maples book I think Merrigioldi mentions pouring concrete at the base of maple trunks. I'd have to run and check but my assumption is that you plant the trees, pour some concrete, and put in more soil for new roots to grow. In terms of timing I can't say, I've seen maples planted close together beginning to fuse at two years, but I can't say if that's fast, slow, or what, and it was someone else's tree so who knows. That's just beginning to fuse, though.

 

[SeanS]

Start a new thread to discuss how to develop clumps from scratch, you’re derailing this @Brian Van Fleet thread

I’d be happy to share some of my clump starters if you guys start a new thread

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

We had a freak storm last night, trees down all over, 2 blocking the entrance and exit to our neighborhood, some still without power.
We came home to a tree down in our backyard too.

 

[Kullas]

Ouch

 

[Paradox]

Hope the tree is OK Brian...
Sucks about the pot but pots can be replaced

 

[Scorpius]

Lesson learned. Bungee rope those trees down. High wind is frequent in my area. You can find it easily on amazon along with the hooks you'll need to make any length bungee rope to secure any tree to it's table.

 

[19Mateo83]

We had a freak storm last night, trees down all over, 2 blocking the entrance and exit to our neighborhood, some still without power.
We came home to a tree down in our backyard too.
View attachment 442337

Damn that stinks. Hopefully it will recover from the fall. The one good thing about small trees is they dont fall as hard as a large one would.
Kintsugi Repair Kit
https://a.co/d/46fC7pb.
You have to Brian…. That’s too nice of a pot to not kintsugi it. If you can’t do it send the pieces to me and ill do it, it deserves to tell its story along with the tree.

 

[Dav4]

Sorry Brian. You know I've been there so I feel your pain. I'm happy to see the tree seems to have literally weathered the storm without too much damage. Too bad about the pot... Koyo or Ino? If it's an Ino and you've got most of the pieces, you know what to do. Good luck.

 

[Nybonsai12]

Ugh sorry about the Koyo. Hope the tree was unscathed.

 

[rockm]

One of the drawbacks to shohin. They move when it gets windy . Hope this one is OK and you find all the pieces of the pot. Very nice maple. Looks like damage might be minimal?

I had a similar scare earlier this month. Thunderstorm with 70 mph straight line winds and quarter sized hail...Had all my smaller trees under the deck protected from both, but the big ones got hit. Wind didn't budge them, and luckily the hail didn't break anything off.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Yeah, tree is fine, but the pot was smashed to pieces. I kept them all and will try to find something interesting to do with them.

 

[rockm]

Yeah, tree is fine, but the pot was smashed to pieces. I kept them all and will try to find something interesting to do with them.
View attachment 442435

Sheeeeeeiiiiit. Your gonna have to kintsugi the hell out of that Glad the tree made it out with no damage.

FWIW, I can commiserate on the pot (And that was a nice one). This is from the last load of pots out of Ron Lang's kiln before he retired. The UPS guy handed the box to me with a straight face even with the clinking and clanging from the pieces inside.

 

[Pitoon]

Yeah, tree is fine, but the pot was smashed to pieces. I kept them all and will try to find something interesting to do with them.
View attachment 442435

Send it to me, I would like to try and kintsugi it for you.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Hope you and the fam are OK.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Fall color shot, looking good with the replacement pot color.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Peak…

 

[Nybonsai12]

Very nice fall color and even more impressive with how good the leaves look this late in the year. Keeping J. Maple leaves in shape this long really separates the men from the boys. More and more how few can do it.

so what will the new pot be? my wants say oval.