AusBonsai

yeah i would be keen as, might not be able to do grunt work though

i have to go down to nambour soon for specialist nerve testing so i might be able to fill the boot with some stumps but dunno how i am gonna do it, might have to hit shannon and dayne up for help while i am down there!


jamie

Maybe you have to look at minis Jamie, after all bigger isn't better for bonsai.

Wise words of wisdom Greth I'll prepare some sumo cuts for you in about 3 weeks Jamie

Greth wrote:Maybe you have to look at minis Jamie, after all bigger isn't better for bonsai.

thats why i stick with and am obsessed with shohin, this tree's final finished height will be no more than 200-250mm, if that i reckon, it will work really well with the size of the trunk, when i collect i dont look for bends and twists, or size as such, i look for nebari and potential, whether the tree will budback after chopping down low and the likes, hence the ficus that i love so much, but celtis is right up there on the list, celtis seem to be just as tough and hardy as fig!

i am trying to get some of the off cuts of my celtis to strike roots dunno how it will go but it might work, might not, as i was watering today i actually noticed a small seedling in my garden bed and i swear it is a celtis... i am starting to wonder if i have spread them to hervey bay as they arent really around here...

bundyfisher wrote:Wise words of wisdom Greth I'll prepare some sumo cuts for you in about 3 weeks Jamie

sweet as mate sounds good

jamie

Hi Jamie,
Some friends of mine recently showed me a technique for developing an upright trunk on broom style zelkova which may be of interest to you. The information was provided to them by Hero Saito. They drilled a hole right though the centre on the trunk and threaded a seedling through which would eventually mold in with the rest of the tree and provide that central trunk line which is so often missing in collected brooms such as yours. Even if you don,t apply this technique your new tree has a great future.

craig


that sounds like a very interesting idea! i will definately keep it in mind if it isnt working out how i want a need a central trunk, i will see how this develops for now as i think it will work out quite well as is. it is not going to me a huge tree, i think my virt doesnt exactly show my vision, that was more of a pot idea virt, just thought it to be appropriate to have some foliage on it, my vision for the tree is where the V cut has been doe will be the first bronch of, then it will branch out, and divide more and more, eventually becoming a broom style. hopefully anyways


cheers for the idea though, it is definatly a posibilty


jamie

yeah celtis are great the thing i have noticed is they suffer alot of die back at the top when cut back so now i cut high wait till it shoots then cut back to height and cut paste my big privett has shot from the base at root level but not from the trunks yet so its alive but slow

well it looks like i have fluked the right technique for them then doesnt it what you said is exactly what i have done!

and its great you privet has shot, im sure it will shoot higher up soon!
start a thread progressional on it when you have enough pics!

cheers!


jamie

Hi Jamie, I'm curious, now that I have seen this V-cut technique, because your aim is a broom style, have you considered creating an identical cut directly across the existing V-cut in order to create 4 identical main tips????

i get what your saying, i havent considered that no. on an elm it would definatly work, as you can just about garuantee they will pop from the wound! that would definately make for an interesting veiw. i wouldnt do it on a stump that i would be wanting to come out awesome on though. if you could get a stump that you could test it with i say go for it, elm i am talking about.

the problem with doing something like that with my celtis is the V cut is actually sloping back from the front face of the tree, so the cut is lower on the back side to allow any water to drain out so it doesnt pool and rot the wood, although celtis wood seems to be quite hard compared to others.

i think your idea would definately be possible though, and i might even try it on an elm if i can get one with enough size, and do it probably higher than expected though this would allow yo to chop further back if it didnt work as expected.

good thinking Jester

jamie

Jester wrote:Hi Jamie, believe it or not I have not seen this technique before. From your experience, what do you think is the likelihood of shoots coming out of the tips of the V's????

i have successfully used this 'V' cut technique on 2 broom style bonsai for celtis and it works well. I even did the 'V' cut at time of collection and manged to get shoots sprouting every where around the edge of the V. My first one had a a trunk dia of around 50mm and the 2nd one around 80mm dia 6 years ago. They are both doing very well.

In the first year I let all selected shoots grow (no cutting) and used some wire to sort out the direction and to give the roots some strength.

My smaller one has almost closed the initial V cut scar. The larger one is rolling over quite well.

gday stimson

this gives me lots of hope for the technique with celtis, did you use any cut pastes or anything when you done this? or just left it as is, the other celtis i have collected has got shoots coming from around the cut wound which made me beleive that this would work similar to elms?

any chance you could post shots of yours for us all to see?

cheers


jamie

just an update, the tree is going well, i am happy with the way this is gonig, it has been growing freely, a little bit of wire just to direct some shoots and this is where we are at
jamie

Good job Jamie I can see this being a great little tree, I would let the branches grow freely until they are close to the size you want. Then cut back and grow the next stage I think you will get better healing this way. CHEERS ROD..

thanks Rod that was pretty much my plan, i just had to get some sort of direction on the shoots otherwise they wer all gonna be going straight up.

these are great trees to work with, i am quite happy with its progression, i am tempted to cut the bottom out of the container it is in and let it grow into the ground, the basket it is in is full of roots already they have just powered on

i do need to chop back that long right hand root though, it is just to big and i think it is a little unnatural?

Jamie