Field grown Callery Pear

[MattA]

Well spring is in full swing here and I finally have a bit of free time. Given that this baby was planning on just growing right on thru I decided to get in & have a look at what was happening. This is the tree before starting work, growth over winter has been so good you can barely see the bag around the layer.

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I pruned out it right back to the bare minimum and removed the bag. No roots had formed and even tho the growth had been strong there was not as much callous as I had expected. It seems alot of the energy had been going into bridging the wound.

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Cleaned up the wound & trimmed the bottom edge off the callous (this prevents roots going straight down, rather having to extend from the sides of the cut).

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While doing all this I decided to give it a bit of fresh soil. I slipped it out of the foam box, removed some of the soil from the top of the box & around the sides but trying to disturb the roots as little as possible. Back filled the bottom with some fresh soil & slipped it back in. Top dressed with some gravel to keep the soil from washing out now the box is fuller. Bagged the layer back up & its ready to go for another season.

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I dont plan on leaving this one long, as soon as roots start to show around the edge of the bag it will be "off with her head".

Matt

[bodhidharma]

Interesting Matt that it didnt produce roots. Now i did the same on a large Hawthorn layer this year with the same results, Bridging of the layer, but took it off anyway. The tree is pushing new shoots like there is no tomorrow and looks like it not going to turn back at all. Go figure.

[Jamie]

hi Matt

I like the taper and interest on the trunk on this one! I can see why you want to do an airlayer to get the root spread nice! I think where you have run into a problem here is the width of the actual ringbark, it looks very small for the size of the trunk, if you can get it wider I would definately do so, the callous is a good thing it will throw roots but it needs to have that ringbark wider so it doesnt try and bridge the gap, If possible I would go at least 4-6 times wider if possible, I can see it is close to the root system so could be difficult, I think where you have done the top of the ring bark is perfect

look forward to see how you go

jamie

[MattA]

Bodhi, I was a little miffed about not getting any roots given how much this baby grew, however when I saw the bridging it made sense. Would love to see your hawthorn.

Jamie, the ring i have stripped off is almost 2cm wide and had i made my initial cut deeper & fully removed the cambium it would have been fine. I really want to be able to get 2 trees out of this and as such dont have room to make that cut any bigger.

The ratio often used in demo's & drawings/explanations of layering are usually on much smaller wood. I was taught by an old nurseryman many years ago that all you need is about an inch, enough to stop the flow and allow room for the callous to form without rejoining. If this layer had been set late winter early spring & cut fully it would have rooted and been removed by dec. This whole process has been more about testing the method & limits etc.

I had a look at the photos of when it was first done & I can see areas of cambium that had been left, the cut was done very quick & rough with a small arbortech. In areas that had been cut into wood there was no bridging & the callous was alot fuller. I have cleaned off the healed areas and also deepened the cut into old wood to prevent it happening again.

I had planned on removing the layer & treating it like a huge cutting but in the end I decided to let it go another 3months, it will be off before the end of 2010. Whats a couple extra months when i have 5yrs on the top & 10 on the base to bring them where i want and its such nice stock.

Will keep you all posted as she goes along.

Matt

[Jamie]

Hi Matt

cheers for the explanation! I can understand that you want to use the base too, Im bad for not throwing stuff out that has the slightest bit of potential.

it interesting why you didnt remove all the cambium in the first go, I have had problems with layers that have the slightest bit on, a willow leaf fig that frustrated me for a couple of months as it calloused over, I recut, it calloused over again and finally I got jacked off and took it off and treated it as a cutting, it was a very slow period for that one, it was on the edge of taking or not for a long time, it has come back well now, another year or two and it might be an ok tree.

have you considered slicing the bark on the top layer vertically and using a small stone or wedge to flare out the base some more? the callouse has started doing that, it will heal rather quickly to giving a better flare to the top section.

jamie

[Edward Scissorhand]

Hey Matt, Its ashame it didnt have any roots. Although arent those orange nodule bits, the start of roots forming?

[MattA]

Edward, your eyes dont deceive, it is getting fired up to root so its worked out good timing for me. With the cut back slip pot & feed up it will thump away and should be full of roots before the end of the year.

Jamie, I made the cut with an arbortech & just didnt check it, assuming (the worst mistake anyone can make on anything) that having used it the cut would be deep enough, this bark is mega thick & hard.

With undercutting the callous it will generate more but they will form around the outer edge & should shoot sideways instead of down. A couple of years of unrestrained root growth will pull it out the extra bit to finish the effect. I find ground growing for girth or ramification cant be beaten. Take a sad spindly thing & 2 years later it can gain inches (depending on the species). Might have to do a photo series of diferent trees that illustrate the benefits of it. It is especially good for producing minis quickly.

Matt

[Graeme]

Should be a great tree you have there Mate. If it continues to bridge the wound one trick to try, as you mentioned in an earlier Post, double wrap a piece of thick (6mm would be good) wire around the wound. Make sure the wire is tight and you should achieve success mate. Good luck with it.

[MattA]

I mentioned this tree in another thread so thought I should update. This is the tree as of about a week ago, as you can see growth has been stronger on one side than the other & this is due to not being turned often enough.

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Peeking in the bag and WHAT Still no roots

Ok so why have I no roots? there is no bridging that i can see and lots of proto roots formed but they have all been dying off.... The sphagnum was staying too wet! With the size & odd top edge of this layer it is impossible to get a tight seal so extra water has been getting into the bag when it rains (and its done lots of that over the last 2months).

The way i see it I have a couple of options, I can dry out the moss a bit & seal the bag better, I can put a pot with some other medium around instead OR "off with its head" and I think thats the option I will go. If anyone has any other ideas they would like to throw at me I am more than open to them, this baby gets me excited more & more everytime i look at it.

Will pots updates once I make a decision & do the work.

Matt

[Ozmad]

for those that have Bonsai Today magazine's, it's also in issue's 2 and 33

[MattA]

I looked at this tree during my morning rounds of water and decided today was the day... Off with your head!

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It took almost 2hours by the time I got everything together & did the job. I used an arbortech to cut a deeper channel right round & then finished off with a saw. A tray of akadama was prepared & the offcut simply placed ontop & wiggled down into the medium then a layer of sphagnum spread over the top. It will reside in a fishtank in the shade house until it recovers enough to go onto the bench.

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Now its wait & see time...

[FlyBri]

Gday Matt, and Happy Boxing Day!

Congratulations on the removal of that top clump! It's difficult to tell from the photos, but it doesn't look like the layer had set many roots before you removed it. Is this the case? If you can get it to survive, it will be great Pear stock, either as a clump-style or single-trunk Sumo! The original stump is now a blank canvas, too.

Please keep us informed!

Thanks.

Fly.

[MattA]

Hey Fly,

Many thanks for your words, I intend to grow the top half as a multi trunk with lots of carving out to be done to hollow most of it out. I dont know about the bottom half being a blank canvas, its constraints make it an interesting one for me. as thick as tall & nothing to it, should make a great shohin in a few years (well maybe in someone elses hands)

Your right in your observation, the top had not produced any roots. It had loads of calous & proto root but no root, they had been rotting off in the wet moss. I checked the top about 3pm yesterday (ie 24hrs after) the leaves are still fresh crisp & cool to touch with very little loss of colour. All I can do now is wait & hope for the best.

Matt

[MattA]

Just had a look & took this photo, 36hrs on & she is looking fighting fit considering its effectively just a giant 6" thick cutting.

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[FlyBri]

Gday Matt!

Looking good! I've had some success in removing layers which had produced only the 'proto-roots' that you mention - I think the key is to provide a lot of water and really good drainage to get the callouses to shoot.

Thanks and good luck!

Fly.