fused juniper squamata, ispired by anntal :D
Posted: October 10th, 2009, 1:16 pm
hey guys, this is my mornings work, i picked up a small juniper today from a loacal standard nursery that is now starting to get into some bonsai stuff, mostly starters and such but the owner who i know quite well had one there waiting for me, he was gonna give me a call but i popped in before he had the chance 
when i got there i walked straight past it not even knowing it was there for me bocause it had sold on it, i also picked up a couple of other trees but thats for another time.
when i got to the counter to pay for the others he asked me if i spotted the tree he had waiting for me with the sold sticker on it, as i took a quick glance over it i seen some potential then it hit me
i had a couple of small juniper squamata seedlings at home and this was the time to use them as i was just waiting for them to grow on. the fusing technique that anntal posted a while back here is the link viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1154&hilit=juniper+squamata+3 this is what gave me the idea!
so my methods i used was reasonably simple although this technique i reccommend having some one to help as some parts can be quite awkward.
first was just looking at the trees to figure out which ones will go where and how to wrap them, after working it out i prepared everything so i wasnt rushing around trying to find everything as i went.
had my soil mix ready to go, grafting tape, zip ties, sprayer to keep the roots moist, tools, and the camera!
next was a bare rooting session, i bare rooted each one seperatly and misted the roots well to keep them moist.
now here is the trickier part, it was wrapping the trees around each other so they were close enough to touch and fuse, i did this by meself hence the awkwardness. getting all three together at the base then wrapping reasonably tight but not too tight with grafting tape slowly working my way up the tree, then a zip tie to hold them in well was used, getting a bit further up where the foliage started i had to trim some of the foliage where the trunks meet in order to get good fusing of the trunks!
trimming and then wrapping with graft tape, and a zip tie to hold it was the process, in all it took me about an hour to get them together nicely to where i was happy with it, i was constantly spraying the roots to keep them moist so they didnt dry out.(as you can see from the pics the root mas wasnt huge but had a fair amount of feeder roots, i didnt do any root pruning or removal, just raked them out and placed them so they are radiating from the trunk. and i placed a piece of tile under the tree so that they wouldnt grow down at first they have to grow out
using a soil mix that is free draining is quite important yet it still needs to hold moisture, i use a propagating mix that a local nursery sells in bulk, a mix of a potting type soil and sharp sand, i add into that peat moss and some slow release fert pellets, the peat moss works quite well in retaining moisture yet it still allows water to drain from the soil, the mix is about 60%pot soil, 20%sand, 20% peat. this has worked quite well for me with my junipers in the past
after potting up and using a chopstick to work soil between the roots and being happy with where it sat, a good water in and some seasol mix i am quite happy with the result for now. styling will take place later down the track as i want to leave the tree for now to get some nice strong growth.
using this proces it has increased the size of the trunk at the base from half an inch to well over an inch, i intend on this tree being of shohin size, i will most likely be airlayering the top section of or using it as jin or both
thanks for the inspiration Antonio
regards jamie
when i got there i walked straight past it not even knowing it was there for me bocause it had sold on it, i also picked up a couple of other trees but thats for another time.
when i got to the counter to pay for the others he asked me if i spotted the tree he had waiting for me with the sold sticker on it, as i took a quick glance over it i seen some potential then it hit me
i had a couple of small juniper squamata seedlings at home and this was the time to use them as i was just waiting for them to grow on. the fusing technique that anntal posted a while back here is the link viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1154&hilit=juniper+squamata+3 this is what gave me the idea!so my methods i used was reasonably simple although this technique i reccommend having some one to help as some parts can be quite awkward.
first was just looking at the trees to figure out which ones will go where and how to wrap them, after working it out i prepared everything so i wasnt rushing around trying to find everything as i went.
had my soil mix ready to go, grafting tape, zip ties, sprayer to keep the roots moist, tools, and the camera!
next was a bare rooting session, i bare rooted each one seperatly and misted the roots well to keep them moist.
now here is the trickier part, it was wrapping the trees around each other so they were close enough to touch and fuse, i did this by meself hence the awkwardness. getting all three together at the base then wrapping reasonably tight but not too tight with grafting tape slowly working my way up the tree, then a zip tie to hold them in well was used, getting a bit further up where the foliage started i had to trim some of the foliage where the trunks meet in order to get good fusing of the trunks!
trimming and then wrapping with graft tape, and a zip tie to hold it was the process, in all it took me about an hour to get them together nicely to where i was happy with it, i was constantly spraying the roots to keep them moist so they didnt dry out.(as you can see from the pics the root mas wasnt huge but had a fair amount of feeder roots, i didnt do any root pruning or removal, just raked them out and placed them so they are radiating from the trunk. and i placed a piece of tile under the tree so that they wouldnt grow down at first they have to grow out
using a soil mix that is free draining is quite important yet it still needs to hold moisture, i use a propagating mix that a local nursery sells in bulk, a mix of a potting type soil and sharp sand, i add into that peat moss and some slow release fert pellets, the peat moss works quite well in retaining moisture yet it still allows water to drain from the soil, the mix is about 60%pot soil, 20%sand, 20% peat. this has worked quite well for me with my junipers in the past
after potting up and using a chopstick to work soil between the roots and being happy with where it sat, a good water in and some seasol mix i am quite happy with the result for now. styling will take place later down the track as i want to leave the tree for now to get some nice strong growth.
using this proces it has increased the size of the trunk at the base from half an inch to well over an inch, i intend on this tree being of shohin size, i will most likely be airlayering the top section of or using it as jin
or boththanks for the inspiration Antonio
regards jamie
oh shucks thanks steve 