Walnut

[Jan]

This walnut was rescued from an abandoned orchard in 2000. I felt that the trunk had character and while the walnut leaf is not ideal for bonsai (neither are wisteria leaves) I thought that I’d have a try to make something of it.

The leaves have reduced considerably with pot living and regular root pruning. I have to regularly check the plant for scale (large and few) which is easily dealt with by manually removing the scale. The plant is very forgiving like many deciduous trees.

This is the plant as at November 1, 2009

2009-11-01_Walnut-1.jpg

Jan

[Jan]

Hi Jan, great photo and really nice tree. I have never seena walnut tree before. Is this the persian walnut variety (Juglans Regia) ???

No, it would probably be a Juglans nigra. The tree is a shoot from the root after the top died off (see hollow where the original trunk has died) fruiting walnuts are usually Juglans nigra rootstock with Juglans Regia grafted onto it.

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Here the tree has further developed its leaves. I use immersion watering with all the trees; it gives a through watering to the trees and is very water conservative. I water using a set of recycled deep twin tubs; one for watering and the other for draining. There is a container beneath the outlet to catch the drain water which then goes onto permanent plantings in the vegetable garden (strawberries, etc). We are on tank and dam water, with dams now too low to pump from (drought) I will have to start carting water to my garden tank from a river some miles away.

Reduction of the leaves on this tree has come along and should improve with time and root pruning. I am considering either full or partial defoliation (cut back to the two leaflets closest to the branch) to encourage a new crop of smaller leaves but I will not do so until the current heat wave eases up

[Jan]

December 22 I partially defoliated (cut back the leaves to the last two leaflets – too hot and dry this year to be too severe with them) this Walnut to try to get it to put out some new growth.
Still mulling over where to introduce trunk movement to best advantage.

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[Jan]

This Walnut is 73cm from the top of the pot/soil to the highest point on the branches,

Jan

[Jan]

There is some interesting “character” in the bark on the right side of the tree; I chose the current front because of the interesting hollow made by the death of the original grafted top and the way the tree “leans” towards the viewer over the top of this hollow. The branches all seem to flare back from the current front nicely. I’ll be wiring them in autumn with that windswept flare/fall in mind.

I’ll keep your thoughts in mind arron_tas and look critically at the trees as I work on it. My views on which side will be the eventual front may well change when I settle on where and how I’m going to introduce more movement to the trunk. I like the arching lean and don’t want to loose that completely, but am looking at trying to emphasise some of the bark character/damage by putting those portions of the trunk on the outside of curves. Just what can be done will be decided by how game I am and how much bend I can get without nasty cracking sounds! Walnut bark damages easily so the contact areas will have to be well protected.

I’ll need raffia, and some hooks, bar etc suitable to make jacks to bend the trunk, so until I make it to town......

[Jan]

After much procrastinating (I’m new to serious trunk bending so that’s as much nerves as design decisions) I’ve finally made the leap and bent the walnut trunk. I’ve been researching various methods of trunk bending on internet sites and in books. Joining the competition is pushing me to investigate techniques and try new things as I’d hoped.

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I decided to wrap the trunk in electrical tape to help support the trunk and to try to prevent the bark lifting/splitting away form the trunk through the bending process. I applied the tape from the top down, sticky side out, followed be a second wrap, sticky side in this time, starting from the bottom and overlapping to help exclude water. The electrical tape has a certain amount of elasticity, is strong enough to act as a support, is easy to remove and cost effective.

I raided the scrap steel supply next to the shed for suitable “formwork” material (no handy hardware store out in the bush so we do a lot of recycling) and gathered tools (hacksaw and “G” clamps) then off to the work bench in the shade house.

I wrapped the base of the tree in a used motor bike tyre tube, to pad the interface between the steel and the trunk, and to protect it from being marked by the cable ties I used to hold the steel formwork in place. I wrapped each trunk location, where bends were planned, in rubber tyre tube and cut sections of 1 ¼ inch poly pipe (approx 4 inches long and split lengthwise to form two “U” sections) to use as additional padding.

I secured a piece of stainless steel to the base using cable ties. I then used a reversible clamp to push the trunk far enough away from the steel to put a short section of steel tube in place at the point where the trunk had a natural shari on the opposite side. I thought that placing this first bend where a limb (possibly a second trunk) had been torn away on the outside of the bend it would look more natural. I placed a second steel tube section (this one with a section cut out to stop it rolling/moving) at the top of the stainless steel form to tip the branch junction away from the form so that the junction would be above the trunk base. I used a “G” clamp to draw the trunk between the two steel tubes towards the stainless steel form creating a curve above and below the clamp and secured it in place with cable ties.

With all the steel hanging off one side of the tree I used a steel guy wire (padded with a section of poly pipe at the branch end) from the branch junction to a drain hole anchor point in the base of the pot to stabalise the tree. I placed guy wires, also padded, on the three major branches and moved them into position, anchoring two to the base of the steel formwork and the third to a loop wire around the pot.

The walnut was foliage pruned back to the last two leaflets and watered to settle any disturbed roots. I will continue its normal watering/feeding routine as we approach autumn.

Jan.

[stymie]

I'm 'gobsmacked' over the 'engineering'. A for effort Jan.

[Pup]

As the saying goes necessity is the Mother of invention. Stymie might remember this remark, When proclaiming atop score for effort like this.

The Saying as follows( OI loik it Oil boi it and I'll give it Foive )

A Stymie said AA for effort I do hope it proves to be worth it.

Cheers Pup

[Jan]

There wasn’t much of an autumn show of colour with the leaves cut back on the walnut and the warm again/cool again weather in our area. This walnut held its green leaf colour, gave a flash of its glorious butter yellow colour and dropped its leaves at the first serious frost, as did the full sized deciduous trees locally.

I’ve reduced the watering to keep it moist but not wet, and it still sits on its bed of moist sand to provide some humidity around the plant. In the river gorge we can have monster fogs some mornings that protect us from the frosts, but we can also have runs of clear days and nights with big frosts drying everything out. The cold winds can also be quite drying here so I maintain a bit of humidity and use a double layer of shade cloth to provide wind protection for the plants.

After a long run of fogs, grey overcast days and icy weather, today dawned clear and sunny; ideal for me to get a couple of images of this tree in its winter tracery. I’ll use this opportunity to take a clear look at the branch structure both in the physical tree and in the images. I find that an image sometimes can highlight an area with room for improvement that isn’t as obvious when looking at the physical tree.

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I look forward to Spring to see if the trunk has set into its new position.

Jan

[Jan]

I’ve been contemplating increasing the bend in this Walnut. Yesterday dawned a nice sunny winters day to work in the shade house, so in the afternoon I headed for the workshop to borrow the big red “G” clamp.

I positioned the “G” clamp against the bending frame and the padded trunk and started turning the handle, listening for objecting sounds from the trunk. I’ve increased the bend and taken the cable ties up by about 2.5cm. The bend now seems to be more in harmony with the rest of the tree. The increase in this top bend changed the angle of the apex, allowing me to tighten the guy wires on the branches and increase the “dip” in the head of the tree.

2010-07-17_17.39.23_Walnut1BendingMore.jpg

I have always thought of this tree as feminine in aspect, with her slender form and elegant silver/grey bark. Being part of this competition has been the catalyst I needed to take “the big step” and introduce movement to the trunk. I feel that the sinuous curves have given her the aura of a ballerina graciously inclining her head to her audience.

[Watto]

Congratulations, a great improvement in my opinion.

[Handy Mick]

I think you can call this, modern art.

[Jan]

With the run of serious frosts and damp weather I have been thinking about the electrical tape binding the trunk and the possibility of moisture underneath it doing damage to the trunk or deadwood of the sharis.

Today I resolved to remove the electrical tape where practical; it had done its job supporting the trunk through the initial bending process and was no longer necessary. Removing the tape involved a bit of contorted (my wrists and hands, not the plant) cutting with a small straight blade attached to a 15cm handle (part of my small kit of carving tools). I managed to remove all the tape not under areas where pressure is being maintained on the trunk to bend it.

The area beneath the tape was certainly moist but started to dry in today’s breeze and has done no apparent damage. Still, I feel happier with it and any potential problems gone. There was a slight compression of the bark at the lowest edge of the wrapped trunk but with the tape removed and months to go before submitting the final images of the tree I am hoping this mark will disappear.

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I again tightened the guy wire on the lower branch to widen the gap between the two branches on this side, giving what I feel is a better line to the lower branch, over all and better departure angle from the trunk. I hope that this will allow better differentiation between the branches when in leaf.

[anttal63]

Well done Jan!!! Its truly lookn like a ballerina.

[Jan]

The walnut leaf buds are starting to swell so I have removed the “bending hardware”, the last of the electrical tape and the rubber tube packing from the trunk. I don’t want to risk creating pressure marks in the trunk as the plant begins to move with the spring.

Again there was some mould on hollows/deadwood on the trunk under the electrical tape; the mould seems to have done no harm and was easily removed with a stiff, nylon brush. I may try tape again on smooth barked trees but can see that it is unsuitable where hollows allow an opportunity for mould to develop.

The roots were cut back significantly; walnuts seem to cope well with root pruning, to the point of being all but glorified cuttings. I have not taken it back nearly that far this time as I am happy with the existing root spread and simply want to establish a more compact root run. I will be maintaining only minimum foliage so the demands on the new roots will not be great.

I used an open sandy mix to promote root ramification, and incorporated some local, long stranded moss to help with even water retention, then mulched the surface with long stranded moss for the moment (suitably coloured gravel will eventually replace this). I find that the roots of walnuts, indeed many deciduous species, seem to enjoy a proportion of long stranded moss in the mix in my very dry, “winter icy/summer hot” climate. The plant was watered in with seaweed solution at a little less than the “stressed tree” strength and won’t be fertilised until later in the season.

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The plant was repotted into a six-sided glazed pot, mid blue in colour with soft shading. I am very happy with the colour of this pot as I feel that it both compliments the silver of the walnut bark, and, that the delicacy of the colour and shading enhance the elegant, feminine “feel” of this walnut. The pot is a little larger in diameter than I had been looking for (choices are limited in my rural area, though I haven’t stopped looking) but I think that the depth of the pot balances the thickness of the lower trunk of the plant well and augments the impression of root stability and tenacious grip that have allowed the walnut to survive the imagined ravages of wildlife and spring floods and yet, still prosper.

Jan.