Jade raft advice

[Ryszil]

Morning all,

In my backyard I have many jade trees that have been in the ground or pots long before I moved into the house. To compliment buying new plants from nurseries I have decided to try and use a lot of what I have ground out the back (jades, a ficus and I think a japanese boxwood or similar and a few others). I found this guy out the back:

Jade_all.jpg

It's been neglected for a long time but the price is right so why not give it a go huh? At my level of expertise the whole thing is a little daunting to tackle so I decided to try and use parts of the tree to experiment with, my first being a raft. I chose this branch:

Jade_branch.jpg

Cut it off:

Jade_cuttoff_rot.jpg

Built a frame out of some leftover steel mesh I had:

Frame_rot.jpg

And then tried wiring it and cutting back, the wiring isn't great I realise but it's my first.

Jade_wired_rot.jpg

The largest trunk is roughly 30mm wide and obviously far too tall which is the reason for my post. Can anyone give some advice on where they would cut the trunk(s) and how to being creating some pads? I realise it will take time, I was going to pot it in a grow pot for a while in some cacti and succulents soil mix and let it grow and then eventually find the right pot. The overall length is roughly 30cm with the trunks being about 15cms apart. It's sitting out the back at the moment for the cuts to dry out. I plan on many more experiments so if I have chosen poorly please say so and I can refine my methods.

Thanks guys

Russ

[Raging Bull]

Jades are very easy to propagate from cuttings, so why not do a few more? Imho the spacing of the uprights on your raft looks too even. With so many branches to choose from you could surely pick a couple that are less regular. If you wanted to, the tall one could be cut back without harming the cutting, there are plenty of growing buds along the branch. Last autumn I hacked a couple big old jades we've had in pots for years and severely root pruned them as well as taking promising looking cuttings and just putting them into plastic posts. They are all growing well. Go for it and be ruthless They are very tough, but it may take them a while to take off if the weather is still colder down there.
Cheers, Frank.

[Ryszil]

Good on ya Frank, thanks once again for the reply.

You're right in the spacing's being too even, nature doesn't grow even does it? Hopefully a couple of shoots will come out to break it up a bit. I'll do another one based on your advice plus a few different kinds, I have a lot of choice here plus my wife is happy with the price and cleaning out the backyard in the process its a win win. When you say cut back the tall one, do you mean get rid of the entire branch that shoots up and just leave the thicker bit?

[shibui]

jade should shoot from any of the nodes so you can cut any part of this back to whatever height you want and expect it to produce new shoots from the stems.
Just remember that if you are hoping for a 30 cm tall tree you do need to cut well under that to allow the new shoots to grow up to the planned height.
Pruning any plant makes them grow new side shoots which is the basis of the ramification that makes branches look like branches instead of just sticks.

[robb63]

G-day Russ
Jade is a great species to learn bonsai techniques on and you appear to have a glut of them
If you search through old posts about Chinese Jade you will find good examples.
Most good looking jades have one vital element which is trunk taper. From thick to thin, tapering upward.
Weather cutting for a raft style or other taper is a good first base. Followed closely by some movement if possible
That's why you'll sometimes see people take something like a 2 meter tall jade and hack it back mercilessly.
Leaving just a thick, short stump with maybe one branch left to grow into a future trunk.
Having all that free jade stock does mean your able to try many different styles and learn from each one
I agree with Frank about the spacing, uneven works better and a branch with a bend makes a more interesting raft.
Hope you have lots of fun.
cheers

[Raging Bull]

Hi Russ,
I would cut the tallest one back to be either taller or shorter than the middle one. After that I would try to train all of them to lean a bit to the right and not have cross-over branches. And like Robb said, introduce as much taper as to can by cutting thicker trungs shorter and having new shoots continue the trunk. Cheers, Frank.

[Ryszil]

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys. I have to admit tapering and the like hadn't really come up yet as I had only played around with nursery stock already trained. I think I will either hack it right back or try something else. That was the point though, its all experimenting at this point. I've been reading and watching videos now on creating taper am I right in thinking that the new leader will eventually blend into the old trunk and look like one?

Thanks again

[shibui]

the new leader will eventually blend into the old trunk and look like one?

When cutting back to a side branch, an angled cut also helps the old thick trunk and new, thinner leader blend in until they grow a bit and look even better. I often just make a flat cut then, when the new leader shows it is strong and growing I make the angled cut to disguise the pruned area.
Hope some of that makes sense.

[Ryszil]

Very much so. Thanks heaps guys