Juniper Live Vein

[yamadorikid]

Hi everyone, i was wanting to get some information about Juniper live veins to help me create some deadwood in future.

So when creating Shari with Junipers, when you pull off their bark, it usually strips off in a up or downward direction, so its kind of like vertical strips of bark up and down the tree.

But what if you wanted to create a more twisting shari, spiralling around the trunk and downward direction towards the base.

Is it ok for the nutrients to still go up the tree, but then having to take a left and right and continue onto the top of the tree?

I tried to illustrate but apologies for my drawing but i hope its understandable.

A) The first tree is a standard shari when you remove a strip of bark. It tends to pull away vertically. Nutrients can still go up and down.


B) The second tree is a twisted shari but instead you might cut out with a knife to create a twisted spiralling shari around the trunk.

Please help if you have a better understanding with this, thankyou

Live Vein.jpg

[shibui]

From my experience, the live vein idea in junipers is mostly not true.
In older trees and those with already damaged trunks there can be some live and some dead parts. Occasionally the dead sections will still be covered with bark and not really noticeable - until you start stripping bark.
Sap does tend to flow in the most direct line between roots and branches above. There may even be a direct relationship between a strong branch and a strong root directly below it BUT all trees have the ability to change sap flow if some parts of the bark become compromised.
The vast majority of junipers we work with have live bark all round the trunk so there is opportunity for the tree to make new sap path if necessary.
I've carved spiral shari up almost straight juniper trunks without any branches dying.
The only caveat is that every branch MUST be connected to one or more roots by a continuous strip of live and unharmed bark.

Here's a juniper early on in the process. You may be able to see some disconnected shari which will gradually be joined up. The spiral toward the top does not follow the twists in the trunk or the grain of the bark. It was carefully cut and stripped to join 2 jins in what I thought looked attractive twists.

IMGP6727.JPG

Here's another one with spiral shari on both lower and upper trunk.

shim restyle 2020 11.JPG

The tree grew well for a number of years. Unfortunately when I widened the shari I failed to pick up that a section of bark had already been damaged. When I widened the shari I inadvertently took away the last living link between top and roots. The pic shows the top is dying which is when I checked closer and found the problem. What initially looked like a catastrophe actually turned out well as the tree was restyled to be much shorter.

shim restyle 2020 13.JPG

It still has a spiral shari on the lower, live part of the trunk.

You can easily achieve the second drawing on a juniper but I would probably make that shari over several years rather than going full tilt to such a thin strip of lifeline. Changing established sap pathways is possible but I suspect it takes some effort on the part of the tree so little by little will allow the tree to adjust at its own pace.

[yamadorikid]

Thanks for your information @Shibui,

This gives me some better understanding to try a little bit each year and continue it over several years.
The tree is not in a fully developed state, so the Shari can take several years to develop along with the tree.

thanks again.

[Jow]

I'd agree with Shibuis advice above with the caveat that the flexibility is reduced the older the material (or the more slowly its growing).

The time to be forcing shari lines is early in the development.

Personally i think the better way to get twisting shari is to twist and bend the material when it is thin and flexible and then by default any shari peal will follow the twist and turns of the trunk.

Joe.

[dansai]

I have to agree with Jow. Twist it up while young, with, or without a thin shari.

Or if you can't twist it now because it's too thick, old, or stiff, then start with a small thin shari and widen it over time. If you peel off bark and cambium too wide in a twisted fashion the wood underneath will have straight grain and will look out of place. If you widen it over a number of years the new growth should follow the twist and so the deadwood will have grain that also follows the twist.

[legoman_iac]

Having never done this, nor have any really well developed juniper yet ... but one technique I've seen for this is to:

"Wire the trunk, wrapping a candy cane style of stripes up the trunk, then as it swells, it'll dig in, which gives you an area to strip, no?"

Ofcourse the above advice is super relevant, and this technique might be more inclined to kill the tree.

Just curious if this technique is used?

[shibui]

Spiral wire will certainly change the sap flow pattern. If it can't go straight up because the wire is tight enough to constrict circulation the flow will change to follow the unconstricted area.
One of the flaws I can see with this is that it will tend to create a very uniform spiral which is unlikely to look natural. It may be possible to wire in such a way as to create a more natural twisted spiral but I think freehand and planned would look better.

[shibui]

Cleaned some of the juniper dead wood today.
While I was at it I widened and extended some of the shari on these. I think the photos better show how I have made spiral shari on these trunks, not always following the grain of the wood.

IMG_6125.JPG

IMG_6127.JPG

IMG_6128.JPG

IMG_6132.JPG

[Jow]

Very cool!

[yamadorikid]

Cleaned some of the juniper dead wood today.
While I was at it I widened and extended some of the shari on these. I think the photos better show how I have made spiral shari on these trunks, not always following the grain of the wood.

IMG_6125.JPG

IMG_6127.JPG

IMG_6128.JPG

IMG_6132.JPG

Wow it looks very nice Shibui, looks like best practice is to do small shari in different places around the trunk and slowly extend them out over the years.

[shibui]

start small and extend gives different wood texture due to different layers of wood as the tree grows but it is still possible to do a full length shari in one go if you want. Just plan ahead so no branches end up without connection to roots.