Tall and Lanky becomes short and twisty

[nick-laing]

This juniper was from a bonsai class I took last year. I was relatively proud of myself not having much knowledge of bonsai and I happily kept it alive and healthy.

But since being a member of ausbonsai I started to feel more could be done with this tree....

So out came the heavy wire and inner tube!

I spent a good deal of time preparing the tree and slowly twisting and compressing the trunk.
Now I will leave the tree till after spring to recover and in the mean time start thinking about the styling direction.


Before

Before.jpg

After

IMAG0105.jpg

IMAG0109.jpg

[john tapner]

Nick - You are on the way. If it were mine, at this stage I would either plant it in the veggie garden or a bigger training pot to accelerate the growth. Being in a bonsai pot is all very nice but if you want to grow the trunk to take advantage of the work you have done, accelerated growth is the way to go.

Cheers

John T

[nick-laing]

Thanks John,

Unfortunately I just moved into my Girl friends apartment in st kilda... 10th floor..... So I have taken over the balcony no real room for planting into larger pots.

We have plans to move in about 6 months to hopefully a place with a back yard.

The pot itself is reasonably good size for the tree right now so I am happy to leave it be for the time.

Additionally something that cant be seen under the bike tube the lowest part of the trunk was scored with a blunt knife to induce swelling some months ago which has added around an additional 2mm of thickness in the healing process. So as this continues to heal the trunk should swell more.

[kcpoole]

Like it a lot
Looks a lot like mine

Ken

[nick-laing]

Got a photo Ken?

Love to see to get some ideas for future styling.

[kcpoole]

Hi Nick
I was referring to the Juniper I twisted Last year just like yours. I will be unwrapping it soon and repotting so hope it all is good.

See my tread on twisted Juniper which was inspired by Jows posts
viewtopic.php?f=131&t=6410&p=73618&hili ... per#p73554

Ken

[nick-laing]

Ah yes I remember reading your post now.

Jows post inspired me to twist this one up

I have another small one thats had its first twist up but some splitting occurred due to the thickness of the trunk.

[kcpoole]

I have lots of smaller ones I did when Jow first posted.
They are all in large pots and growing hard
A few years for them yet.

Ken

[nick-laing]

I think its a great exercise. I have a few others that started at 3 for $10 stock all with about 1.5 cm width trunks that take to the process quite well.

I picked up a nice juniper at the sale day in Kew that had a similar process done to it that is ready for styling...

255187_10150194333397155_520522154_7564387_2972135_n.jpg

Not sure where to go with it though :/