BONSAI TECHNIQUES 1 AND 2 FULL

Here I am standing in my 18 month old seedling forest. This technique will work with Metasequoia glyptostroboides. In only four weeks the seedlings had all fused at the contact points where they were wired together. I already had seedlings, so I experimented by wiring 3 pairs of seedlings together. There is an article in a book titled Bonsai Master Class that demonstrated an approach grafting technique (referred to as fusion) of multiple Trident Maple seedlings to create a large trunk perfectly tapered bonsai in a very short time and I thought this might work with Metasequoia glyptostroboides. What to do with 100 trees? Planting 100 trees is quite a chore and disposing of a critically endangered species (IUCN Red List) like Metasequoia glyptostroboides was something I was not willing to do. 100 of those seedlings survived through the first winter. Having read how hard they were to grow I was surprised to find that 156 of the seeds germinated. When spring rolled around I shook the box and hundreds of seeds fell out. During the late summer and fall I gathered the cones and tossed them in a shoebox for the winter. Fast-forward 18 years and that broken stick had grown over 60 feet tall and produced several hundred seed cones. What arrived was a pathetic bare rooted broken stick, so I planted it in the corner of my yard and ignored it. In 1990 I purchased a Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood) through the mail. Metasequoia glyptostroboides ( Dawn Redwood) Fusion Bonsai The lesson to be learned here is to grow your own seedlings, have enough seedlings to complete the project before starting and assemble the tree as quickly as possible. The last 20 seedlings applied to the frame suffered little or no shock and are very healthy.

BONSAI TECHNIQUES 1 AND 2 FULL

Three months later and the tree is looking pretty healthy.Д«ecause the assembly had taken a full week the first 100 seedlings went into shock with 2 dying completely and several dying half way up. This is the tree fully assembled one week after first starting. This is a close up to show how I overlapped the seedlings as I tapered the top. This was all I got finished the first day. I tried to add a few twists to give it some character. The following Wednesday the 50 missing trees arrived so I completed assembly and planted the tree in its growing pot. I still needed 20 more seedlings to complete the assembly so I planted the partially completed tree trunk in a large pot of sand hoping to keep the roots from drying out. Thursday I attached 30 seedlings, Friday I attached another 30 seedlings and Saturday I attached the remaining 40 seedlings. I did not want to wait for all the seedlings to arrive before beginning assembly (who knew when they would arrive) so I prepped the seedlings, put them in a bucket of water and went to bed. The first 100 seedlings had arrived on a Wednesday. Finally one week later I had all 150 seedlings. Just one small problem, the company only sent 100 seedlings but they had charged me for 150. The representative apologized and said the trees would arrive in a week. After 2 weeks with no acknowledgment from the nurseries web site of my order I fired off an e-mail. Meanwhile I waited for the seedlings, and waited. The seedlings when applied to the frame have a tendency to smooth out curves so all movement in the frame needs to be exaggerated, otherwise you lose all the character of the trunk shape. I learned from the first project to intentionally give the frame much more size contrast from bottom to top. The second frame and the one I would use for this project was identical in shape but 3 times larger. The first was a small prototype designed for an informal upright style. I ordered 150 Trident Maple seedlings and began building my frame. One week after assembling my first fusion bonsai I decided to start project 2. Acer Buergerianum (Trident Maple) Fusion Bonsai

Bonsai techniques 1 and 2