Sitting around watching the grass grow most certainly has whiskers on it .I get tired of looking at tree’s in pots and with the body out of action well i have all the time in the world . I decided to style the big Zelkova rather than wait another season . Using stripped 20 amp electrical cable recycled from building renovation jobs done prior to the motorbike accident , with the inner insulation left on i wired the main branches into position ,The center earth wire was utilized by unraveling it and wiring the secondary branches and shoots . Close to 40 meters of wire has been placed on the tree  . I  have never used bonsai wire since i started playing with tree’s finding over head power cable made from aluminium and electrical cable does the job as god as i need . While it may not suit the most fastidious players   its each to his own after all they are only trainers .

I use around 5 km of wire in  a full season so that expense is out of the question . All theses wire if stripped can be annealed to soften them or used as is . With all the wiring done its onto the styling and shaping into an Informal Upright , yes it will have a broom shaped canopy  . The finished height of the trainer is around 700mm with a width of 500mm .. The base at ground level is 90mm however once the new roots have developed it will be raised up in the pot and then it will exceed 110mm .The sacrifice branches will remain on the base for this season, however the will have wired applied to them and some movement placed into the new trunks before they are layered off to begin their life as trainers .

After the new flush of growth begins this will undergo a defoliation of the leaves and possible another later in the growing season .I’m more than happy with the progress of this tree .

Cheer Alpineart

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