AusBonsai

This is a bundle of rubbish , failed fuse whips with major wire marks and a few pole straight trunks . Basically its too damaged not worth the effort in making another growing area for this material . With a bit of effort i have just wound and bound them together , a quick root prune and slipped them back into the trident grow bed .No care was taken with these and a few breakages happened but i just can't bring myself to throw them out . Now 20 become 1 and in a couple of years it should become a very nice trunk with character, might just work better than last years effort .

Cheers Alpineart

Could be very flash indeed alpine!

I've got a few fused up bundles also (schleffera, figs and mels) but I find that as the bundles have more whips it gets harder to keep them growing at similar pace. I tend to find a handful going gangbusters and fusing rampantly and a few at the other end of the scale doing nothing. Irregularity works in these stumps, but Murphy's Law seems to dictate that you get a bunch of underperformers in one area holding back the overall stump. Thinking this year I'm going to spin the bundles around (mine are pots) more often and try and move foliage around to stop the worst cases of out-competing. Do you do anything to try and balance growth during the fusing process?

Hi Steve B, Mate i have created all different configurations using similar sizes and ages as well as anything goes . Mother nature is the dictator i just go with the flow . I found last season the fusing Tridents i had in the top terrace grew up to 1.2m-1.8 m in height yet very little fusing took place even though they were secured with electrical cable . The year only the side growth will be allowed to take off and the tops will be continually cut off .

I have several fused trunks that are well and truly fused leaving only an outline mark of the placement of the whip, these fused in the first season . Usually the smaller/younger the whips the better the result but not always . Last year proved a very poor year for fusing trunks here . Plaiting is the best method as they are forced to grow together and can't push each other apart , but i try various combinations to get different result . I'm looking for knarly trunks in 3-5 years with bases at around 50-150mm good taper and 400mm-800mm high depending on how many whips or small plants i tie together .

The biggest issue here is slaters making their home inside the crevices in the trunks and they ring bark the odd trunk which doesn't help as this loosens the bundles and decay sets in .I have had good success in pots but i have way too many plants hence i throw 20 together like this rather than plant 20 out.

Cheers Alpine

I did the same thing with a bunch of Taiwan maples I had left over from a box of them I bought. I didn't need another 20 little maples so I just tied them all together like you have done.... but, I cant account for some little elms and I think at least one of them is wrapped up with the maples.

could two different types of trees fuse??

Great form Alpine! This is the most natural fused clump I have seen. I hope they take!!

Regards,
Steven

Hi paul2229, mate its better than throwing away material , as for different species fusing i would imagine they could grow together fusing with age . Weather or not they will survive is another question .

Hi Steven , this was just thrown together and as usually when done in a hurry they often look better than toying around like a little old granny . It looks natural from the onset so hopefully it will retain the same character as it grows .The only trim this had was a couple of thick roots and a few breakages .

I will do some research on how to keep slaters at bay , they seem to be the only issue as far as damaged done during the growing period .


Cheers Guys Alpine