Root Wrap Technique

[Grant Bowie]

Hopefully self explanatory set of sketches

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Black pine 21 years old from seed using the above technique and now ready for intensive wiring, candle snapping or removal, and then needle reduction in summer

[Grant Bowie]

Set this to music. The Root Rap.

Doof, doof, doof, doof.

Wrapping saves time
And wrapping saves money,
Its a cool technique,
As sweet as honey.

Doof, doof, doof, doof.

[mick]

Now I understand

So what is the height and diameters ( big and small) of the cone Grant?

Cheers
Mick

[Grant Bowie]

Now I understand

So what is the height and diameters ( big and small) of the cone Grant?

Cheers
Mick

I have used some rubber that used to come packed between pots . you cut it into a strip about 150mm to 170mm and about 300mm long and then form it into a cone; trim of the pointy bits and either insert plant through the hole at the top or lay the rubber flat and lay the seedling on it and then form the cone around the tree and roots.

If you start with a bigger seedling go bigger; smaller seedling start smaller.

Bubble wrap could work, foils, etc. The more flexible the better as you could pre shape it rather than have a fixed perfect cone shape.

Grant

[BoNZai]

Thanks Grant,

Great technique!
I'm sure people will give it a go.
I know I will

BoNZai

[Grant Bowie]

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Hope this all helps.

As I said it does not work with all trees. Have tried Figs, Black pine and Corky bark elm.

What happens to the soil/potting mix we insert into the cone? It just seems to disappear over time. The roots expand and fill all the space inside the cone and once robust enough you gradually remove the cone. Keep it covered for as long as you can before curiosity gets the better of you.

[mick]

I was under the impresion that the cone was a solid material . Do you think foil would get to hot?

[Grant Bowie]

Cone can be of anything maleable. Use your judgement as to what suits your climate, shade, watering etc.

[kvan64]

I have seen my uncle using rain water pipes for fixed cylindrical shape (turn roots to a trunk) and flexible lead sheets (2mm thick) for various shapes. I will take some photos next time I visit him.

[Grant Bowie]

I used PVC water pipe with Pyracantha for an exposed root style bonsai many moons ago.

The roots run down and thicken but don't fuse. Also a good technique but if you can get movement into it all the better.

You could get the roots growing then take it out of the tube, manipulate the arrangement, wrap the roots and soil with something soft and maleable and put some bends in it to give interest.

[Jordy]

It it hard to grow and water your plant when you're using this method?

it looks great! I'd really like to give it a go one day

[Grant Bowie]

It it hard to grow and water your plant when you're using this method?

it looks great! I'd really like to give it a go one day

Its a ten or twenty year exercise so it should be right now or soon, don't wait for someday.

The tree would be its most thirsty during spring when it has heaps of sacrifice branches on it(about years 6 to 8 or 9). Black pines dont mind plenty of water so do what you have to do to keep it hydrated. Keep moving it to bigger pots; you could even "slip pot" in summer if you feel the need.

However I never found it to be a problem keeping it moist; just watered it along with everything else. (At one stage I grew 12,000 pines in one year so it was just one of the many)

[Japh]

However I never found it to be a problem keeping it moist; just watered it along with everything else. (At one stage I grew 12,000 pines in one year so it was just one of the many)

12,000?! What do you do with them all?? (This isn't rhetorical... I'm genuinely curious!)

[MasonC]

yer. even 12,000 seedlings would take up HEAPS! of space. And that many new plants? Where do you live? On a farm?

[Grant Bowie]

However I never found it to be a problem keeping it moist; just watered it along with everything else. (At one stage I grew 12,000 pines in one year so it was just one of the many)

12,000?! What do you do with them all?? (This isn't rhetorical... I'm genuinely curious!)

Sold them all of course!!

I used to run a wholesale propigation nursery devoted to just bonsai species and sold them all up and down the east coast to specialist bonsai nurseries.

I had my own seed trees on the property(planted by me) and collected or bought those I didn't have. Black pine can have viable seeds after as little as 3 years.

I probably propigated about 1.2 million plants over 18 years, and yes I had a 7 acre farm with a 13 million litre dam to water it all.

Nurserymans back caused me to retire to Canberra. (at least that was the theory)