Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

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Beano
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Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by Beano »

Hi,

I see many people suggest carving bougainvillea cuts and treating with wood hardener rather than making attempts to heal them, and am wondering if it is possible to try and heal a large bougy cut?

I have one I chopped in the ground and the leader branch is rolling some callus over the top edge. I doubt it will cover the whole cut but I am surprised to see it!

The top half of the original tree is now a cutting, but it has some very ugly large chops at the same place on opposite sides of the trunk from previous treatment before I received it. They have a small amount of callus. With the branches it has, it could be a nice tree, but only if the opposing large scars heal well. Is it worth bothering or just make a new single trunk chop and train the lowest branch as a new leader?
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by Beano »

I think looking again the answer is chop lower and maybe carve out the trunk so the chop connects to the lower cut. It looks a bit ridiculous the way it is. Since it’s a cutting the only reason I haven’t done that already is it’s a bit wobbly still. I was waiting until repot time.

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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by shibui »

I think that all plants will eventually heal over a cut. The problem occurs with species that have soft wood which tend to rot before the wound can heal over. If the wood in the centre of the cut rots away the callus cannot grow across. Wood hardener may keep the wood intact for long enough for the callus to grow across.
Carving is often used when the heart wood has started to rot. It may also be used when someone does not have the patience to wait for the years it would take to heal a cut. Carving can also be used to remove or disguise lack of taper, ugly junctions or other faults.
If you want a scar free bougie and are prepared to wit the years for it to heal you should work toward getting that. If the wood starts to rot you may be able to fill the hollow with some compound as a base for the callus to grow over or maybe reassess the design to include carving.
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by tinto »

Hi shibui
"All plants will eventually heal over a cut" but a Ginko never does. Too old on
The evolutionary scale to have developed this ability. However, Could you please tell me, do shimpaku junipers ever heal a big cut?
They very slow to heal, and will it happen in my lifetimes?
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by Matthew »

Ginko will heal over. I have a 25 year old one that a cut a lower branch of 7 years ago. 90% healed
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by tinto »

The scar will never be invisible though, and the variety of ginkgo will also have influence. you might heal a small branch, but a larger one will scar. I have 20 year old cuts on an old ginkgo that show no sign of healing. I have listed a few of the hundreds of websites re ginkgo pruning,
Pruning
Pruning scars do not heal, so avoid making large scars. https://kwanten.home.xs4all.nl/bonsai.htm . The ginkgo home page
Pruning scars will not heal, so avoid cutting large branches. http://www.absolutebonsai.com/ginkgo_bonsai . absolute bonsai page
When grown as bonsai, the Ginkgo will grow to about 16 inches tall by age six. Unfortunately, pruning the Ginkgo produces scars that do not heal. Therefore, any pruning should be done extremely carefully. The best time to prune the Ginkgo is in the spring and fall at http://www.bonsaioutlet.com/content/Gin ... Outlet.pdf
Unfortunately, pruning the Ginkgo produces scars that do not heal. Therefore, any pruning should be done extremely carefully. http://www.bonsaigardener.org/ginko-biloba-bonsai.html
Ginkgo Bonsai Tree - Ginkgo biloba
http://www.chinesebonsaigarden.com/ginkgo-bonsai-tree
Ginkgo Bonsai Tree, scientific name Ginkgo ... Pruning should be done carefully since scars don’t heal well. ... Pruning should be done very carefully because scars ...
Do Ginkgo Wounds Heal?

I’ve heard and read several times that “Ginkgo scars never heal”. I’ve also heard and read “Ginkgo scars heal, but extremely slowly”. My experience with my one Ginkgo leads me to believe that the latter is true. Or wait. Maybe both are true? http://lakeshorebonsai.com/?tag=ginkgo-biloba
Great care must be taken to protect the bark as it is delicate and scars will not heal. https://www.bonsai-bci.com/index.php/by ... kgo-biloba
The bark on these trees is very delicate though, and the tree may not heal well if the bark is damaged. So, use caution working around the trees with tools and avoid tilting your ladder up against the tree trunk. https://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-t ... inkgo-tree .
Last edited by tinto on May 4th, 2018, 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by shibui »

Surely someone has pointed out that not all information on the internet is absolutely correct Tinto.
[quote][/I’ve heard and read several times that “Ginkgo scars never heal”. I’ve also heard and read “Ginkgo scars heal, but extremely slowly”. My experience with my one Ginkgo leads me to believe that the latter is true. Or wait. Maybe both are true?quote] These 2 statements are contradictory. How can both be true?
It is true that both ginkgo and shimpaku heal slowly they do heal. Matthew has already offered a first hand experience of one that is doing so. I also have cuts on my ginkgo and, while they are very slow I can see the callus growing around the edges.
P1190243.JPG
P1190244.JPG
As to whether the area ends up healed invisibly we will need to wait and see.

I am working with many shimpaku. When I went looking for examples of healed scars they are hard to find. That does not mean it does not happen. Most of the reduction pruning on shimpaku is converted to jin so there are not usually scars to heal. I have been developing some trees with shari winding up the trunks. The plan is to start with a narrow shari and gradually widen year by year as the tree grows to give layers and texture to the dead wood. In the beginning this process was frustrating because, in may cases the narrow shari healed over and had to be reopened. I submit that shimpaku must therefore have the ability to heal over wounds.
P1190248.JPG
Here's another case. In this picture are 2 approach grafts. It takes really good eyes to spot them because the cuts have healed quite well though it has taken about 6 years.
P1190245.JPG
I have another cascade shimpaku that I had to split the trunk into 4 in order to bend it. There's still a small area that has not healed because I had to undo the binding when it swelled at both ends. Since then the expanding callus has pushed the split apart rather than healing over properly however more than 2/3 of the splits have disappeared.

I have noted on some trees that it does take far longer to heal than others of the same species. I'm not sure whether that is due to traits of the individual plant, conditions or techniques. I have showed that sealing a wound definitely speeds up the healing process. Clean, concave cuts also allow the callus to grow quicker. Trees that are allowed to grow faster can cover a cut much quicker than the same tree that is not growing much or is not healthy.
These factors could, in part explain some of the internet opinions you have been reading.
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by treeman »

I think it's both true and false re gingko (and bougainvillea for that matter) healing. It all depends on the speed of growth and the mass of growth. In other words allowing the branch above the wound to grow without restrictions will in theory help close any wound provided the ratio of size of wound to mass of new growth is low. As soon as you interfere with growth (prune), you increase that ratio and reduce the speed of wound closing.
Also, it's true that some plants like gingko don't seem to be capable of actively closing a wound compared to say Acer palmatum which can close a wound even with little top growth provided the wound is kept moist. (consider some air layers which heal over) Instead, those species can only use the actual diameter increase of the branch to close a wound so pruning a large branch from a gingko bonsai is not very likely to have results. Same goes with bougainvillea. In the case of the OP's example, to close those wounds would mean letting the top growth grow out to 3 metres or more.
Last edited by treeman on May 4th, 2018, 3:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by Beano »

Thanks for all the responses. I’m thinking I’ll just cut it lower and have one big scar instead of 5 big scars. Even if it does heal there’s a risk of reverse taper if I try.
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Re: Is healing scars possible with bougainvillea

Post by longd_au »

I agree with both Treeman and Shibui.
I can show you several spots where my gingko has healed over and it didn't take 10 yrs. I am talking about fairly large cuts too.

Top growth is important though.
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