AusBonsai

Gday folks!

Nothing better to do on a wet, cold Winter's day than to attach 22 Trident Maple seedlings to a wire ring and slowly weave them together using jute twine...
Check back in a couple of years.

Thanks.

Fly.

Nice work Mr.Fly. That's the thing about bonsai, slow process. Now if only we could have one of those 'but here's one I prepared earlier' moments.

gday fly

nice work! its very neat, it seems these fused tridents are the flavour of the day!!
can you give us some dimensions please?

a little tip with this sort of thing if you dont have enough whips make your frame smaller at the base I am going to be trying these with figs and elms as soon as they grow big enough, right now they are in there seed form

Jamie

Jamie wrote:can you give us some dimensions please?

a little tip with this sort of thing if you dont have enough whips make your frame smaller at the base

Gday Jamie!

As a reference, the grey plastic disc that I've connected the "trunk" to is approximately 200mm across, and the turntable beneath is 300mm. As you have stated, the way to deal with lower numbers of seedlings is to modify the scale you're working on.

Thanks.

Fly.

Very nice Fly , i'm getting lazy and just bunching the remainder of the shoddy whips together .This one should be nice and neat .Cheers Alpine

thanks mate

this one will have a very nice base for sure! its bigger than i thought aswell

(the tip i gave wasnt just directed at you mr fly, it was to anyone that reads it )

Jamie

any fusing on that trunk?

Very nice Fly, As Asus asked, any idea of sucess?
I know its only a been a year

Ken

Asus101 wrote:any fusing on that trunk?

kcpoole wrote:As Asus asked, any idea of sucess?
I know its only a been a year

Gday KC & Asus!

I had expected it to be mostly fused by now, but there were a couple of factors (mistakes ) which have prevented the whips from joining one another:

> Lack of growth (lack of care) - home renovations last Summer meant that I didn't give my trees proper care. This little creation spent virtually all Summer in shade: if it had been in a sunnier part of the yard, its growth may have been double.

> Poor choice of binding material - our wet Summer saw the jute twine decompose relatively quickly. By the time Autumn came, the twine was falling apart, and not exerting any pressure on the whips. (What I found interesting was that some of the whips were throwing roots inside the twine bindings.)

The roots are still attached to the plastic disc, and the wire ring is still in place within the base of the trunk, so even though the whips haven't fused, they are still held fast. As you can see, I have opted to use the same twine (and jute webbing), despite its failings last year: I believe that if I can achieve strong growth early in the season, the decomposing twine shouldn't present a problem.

I hope to remove the wires and reduce all branches by about 2/3 in mid-Summer. In the meantime, I need to create massive growth.

Thanks!

Fly.

Fly, would this work with gums?

soda wrote:Fly, would this work with gums?

I see no reason why not. Gums will graft themselves if they are held togethere so they do not move.
I have lots of self sown Callistimon whips I am goin to try this summer too

Ken