AusBonsai

Hi all,

We were given a tree a few years ago that had coarse foliage but a nice trunk.

We are now experimenting with grafting it completely over to Shimpaku foliage.

We did 3 in arch grafts last December and separated the support branches 3 weeks ago and the y look as if they have taken well. We will do many more and also do some side grafting soon as well

Grant

Nice work grant! There are a lot of junipers out there with great potential but terrible foliage. If you have the time, changing foliage over to better species is a great technique.

I saw it done a lot over in Japan, changing shimpaku with bad foliage into itoigawa shimpaku, needle junipers into itoigawa etc. There are a few pics on my blog about approach grafting directly into the live vein with both new foliage and new roots to make one large juniper into several smaller itoigawa shimpaku.

http://nichigobonsai.com/2011/03/02/app ... rafting-1/

http://nichigobonsai.com/2011/03/03/app ... rafting-2/

Pardon me if I am wrong with this, but the scions do not look as though they are aligned properly with the stock plant thus ensuring a good graft in the right direction. They seem too much 'across' the other branch instead of in the same direction. Another thing that I would probably do is to trim back the scion when severing it from its own roots, to restore the balance lost between roots and foliage. How long ago were they cut free? And if it was a while, did they survive?

Hackimoto wrote:Pardon me if I am wrong with this, but the scions do not look as though they are aligned properly with the stock plant thus ensuring a good graft in the right direction. They seem too much 'across' the other branch instead of in the same direction. Another thing that I would probably do is to trim back the scion when severing it from its own roots, to restore the balance lost between roots and foliage. How long ago were they cut free? And if it was a while, did they survive?

We also did some in the same direction but have not severed them yet.

We will also ad more grafts now that we now how it responds.

Boon showed a variation on the technique where he cut an almost square notch in the branch(at right angles) to give a new branch, which is in efect what we have done with the first 3.

As stated in the first message they were severed 3 weeks ago and seem to be doing fine.

Cheers,

grant

This is something I will certainly do with my Junipers. What time of the year is best for grafting Junipers?

Thanks

Hackimoto wrote:Pardon me if I am wrong with this, but the scions do not look as though they are aligned properly with the stock plant thus ensuring a good graft in the right direction. They seem too much 'across' the other branch instead of in the same direction. Another thing that I would probably do is to trim back the scion when severing it from its own roots, to restore the balance lost between roots and foliage. How long ago were they cut free? And if it was a while, did they survive?

Most of the time in Japan they wouldnt reduce the foliage on the grafted branch but instead they would slowly weaken the root section by removing bark or cutting out chunks with branch cutters so that the new host roots could start to take over. That way the new graft stays strong and the graft's roots can be slowly removed from the picture.

The direction isn't such an issue, its more a matter of lining up the cambium layers. I have had grafts work across the grain, with the grain and also backwards! (ie. pointing down with the graft cut made upwards).

Webos wrote:This is something I will certainly do with my Junipers. What time of the year is best for grafting Junipers?

Thanks

The best all round time is late winter / early spring. Just before the tree starts it spring growth.

Aproach grafts can be done throughout the growing season but the longer growing time they have the faster they will graft.

side grafts can be done at varying times but i think early spring is a good / best time.

Hi Grant and others.
This post has quite uncanny timing. A couple of days ago I cut the last of the approach grafts off one of my junipers as well.I have 2 of these. They started life as upright, tight packed conical bushes with prickly leaves. I grew a number of them in the ground for a few years but only dug 2 as a trial. They have achieved good trunk size but the very vertical growth was hard to tame as bonsai and they bite quite severely when I'm working on them so about 5 years ago I decided to try grafting this one to shimpaku foliage to get the best of the existing trunk and the great foliage of shimpaku.

My attempts at grafting shoots all failed so I resorted to approach grafts to achieve this.
Some things I have learnt while trialling this:
Approach grafts can be placed at any time of the year but the bark of the stock lifts more easily when the tree is growing during spring and summer.

You need patience. Some of these took more than 12 months to achieve a good union (some grafted reasonably well after just 6 months so it is possible to get quicker results)

It appears best to separate the scions from their own roots in winter. Most that were cut in spring and summer died off - I think the foliage demands more water than can cross the new graft initially. Cutting in winter allows the cells to realign slowly while the foliage demands are less. With the last lot I did as Jow suggests and removed bark from the scion stems a bit at a time over several months to force the new graft to take more from the host rather than relying on its own roots for water and food. When the scions had achieved a reasonable union I also cut back the host foliage above the graft severely hoping that would force the host to unite with the scion more to use the new foliage to survive.

Allow another 12 months before trying to wire or bend the scions. Initially there is very little holding them together and I have broken 2 of the last summer grafts off this tree while attempting to shape it this week. The central trunk with the remaining stock foliage has been left because it has another late approach graft at the back.

Over winter I will try to find time to carve the leftover branches of the stock plant as jins. I'm hoping that this will end up being a juniper with lots of dead wood like you see in Japanese pictures
It is certainly a good way of producing advanced trees with desirable attributes quite quickly - wish I had dug the rest of them now