AusBonsai

Hi MoGanic , mate i would carve a few grooves into it and get some young Shimpaku moving around it . If you push plants into the area's in the trunk as ie "crevices" it has the potential to split the dead wood . That is one very nice piece of dead wood i can see this in 5-10 full of foliage and one heck of a natural statement to boot . Rip into it and please make a progression on it . The juniper in your topic could be mounted along with several smaller long leader type Shimps . Then your well on the way to a very nice Tanuki .A good clean up of the wood will reveal so many natural features you won't need 600 years to convince anyone .

Cheers Alpine

alpine what do you do in the way of stabilising and holding the dead wood in position in the pot?
do you wire it in?

That little shimp won't be, but I have a good nursery with plenty of shimps which I'll hunt out. I was actually going to give this stump away at some point because the tree it came from was one I had very high hopes for before it died

Time to get out the little rotary and get to work! *checks time* - next week!

matty-j wrote:alpine what do you do in the way of stabilising and holding the dead wood in position in the pot?
do you wire it in?

Hi Matty-j, mate i wire over the dead wood in both directions as high up as possible and around the base of the pot . I don't give a bugger what it looks like as long as it stable . After a season or two there is enough root mass to keep it stable even after a re-pot . I have seen plaster bases made on the trunks or even fiber glass however this takes up too much room and has to be removed at a later stage .These Tanuki are only trainers so anything goes as long as it does the job required . I'm sure there is plenty of material from the so called guru's that is never seen due to the unorthodox methods employed to get the required results . Mate i'm not the least bit offended if some-one with more or less experience points out faults in my methods , they work and i've had quite a few years to test them out . In most cases the base of the trunk is trimmed to balance itself the wire is added for security and peace of mind in a gale force wind .

Cheers Alpine

Hi MoGanic , look forward to a topic on the progression from stump cleaning to the start of your trainers . Good luck with it .

Cheers Alpine

cheers mate!