AusBonsai

greg27 wrote: ↑February 8th, 2020, 11:43 am

treeman wrote: ↑February 8th, 2020, 10:51 am I tried on of these once. I gave up.

What was it that made you give up? Too hard to keep them going in a pot or end results not worth the effort?

Every time I cut a branch it stopped growing and started somewhere else. Just like a gum tree. There is probably a way but life's too short for these bastard trees - for me......

treeman wrote: ↑February 10th, 2020, 8:42 pm Every time I cut a branch it stopped growing and started somewhere else. Just like a gum tree. There is probably a way but life's too short for these bastard trees - for me......

Thanks mate, something to watch out for.

Quick photo update on this stump. So far it seems to have taken well to its new life in a box.

A bit of structure after some much-needed advice from Matt and Luke at the SA Bonsai Society virtual workshop.

Looks great now, Greg, what an improvement!
Is it mainly just wiring that you've done to improve the look of tree here?
Was there any info from the workshop that might be helpful to know about peppercorn bonsai?
My peppercorn isn't as nice to look at as yours, but in a similar fashion, it is quite leggy - nice thick trunk but long thin branches. Just can't seem to figure out how to make it look like a tree so much.... I have faith now though, seeing yours transform.
Cheers

juan73870 wrote: ↑April 9th, 2020, 8:52 am Is it mainly just wiring that you've done to improve the look of tree here?

Yep just some wiring. A few weeks back I removed all the branches where there were two or more from the same location - unfortunately I didn't take any photos, but I removed easily two third of the branches. It was pretty thick and bushy before that!

The advice from Matt was on the shape of the branches - you should be able to see the rough sketch here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 320&type=3

Awesome, thanks for the link Greg.
So it's basically letting them continue to be the branches they already are, but giving them a bit of structure, with a bit of a kink here and there?
I'm a long way from needing to worry about it, but I've always wondered how I'm going to create ramification on these trees, seeing as they seem to just want to grow these long branches made up of long leaves and if i make a cut, instead of branching into two, it just continues where it left off and grows a single branch from where I cut it. I don't know if I'm making sense, but yeah, I've always wondered how to go about that on peppercorns. Any ideas would be helpful.
Cheers

juan73870 wrote: ↑April 9th, 2020, 9:09 am So it's basically letting them continue to be the branches they already are, but giving them a bit of structure, with a bit of a kink here and there?

Yep spot on. I suppose I'll leave them to hopefully thicken and lignify, then I can worry about cutting to introduce a bit of taper where required later.

juan73870 wrote: ↑April 9th, 2020, 9:09 am I'm a long way from needing to worry about it, but I've always wondered how I'm going to create ramification on these trees, seeing as they seem to just want to grow these long branches made up of long leaves and if i make a cut, instead of branching into two, it just continues where it left off and grows a single branch from where I cut it. I don't know if I'm making sense, but yeah, I've always wondered how to go about that on peppercorns. Any ideas would be helpful.

That I'm not sure about either. I have some branches where it's split off by itself, but on those that I have cut it does as you say and just continues on as a single branch. As an evergreen, and with the pinnate leaves sort of giving the appearance of branching, maybe ramification is less important on these... not sure!

Very cool to see you setting the structure like this and it shows the value of club membership and indeed, virtual workshops. Thanks for the update.


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greg27 wrote: ↑April 10th, 2020, 7:15 am maybe ramification is less important on these... not sure!

I like that. All trees are different. Main thing is - if you love it, then it's perfect

I decided to attempt some carving on this stump to sort out the flat cuts at the top, and also to add a bit of a hollow at the base for some interest. In one of my more stoopid moves (that includes the time I ended up in the emergency department with four stitches after collecting a tree) I removed the safety collar from my cordless router, chose a small router bit and went to work. It did the job but the way it kicked around probably isn't ideal, so I'll add some proper carving bits to my shopping list.

So here's my first carving attempt. You can see some pretty obvious machine marks so I'll need to clean it up a bit with something a little more refined, but I sort of achieved what I was aiming for!

I'm possibly having some success with branch development of this stump. A couple of weeks ago I trimmed the end of each branch, and now there are buds forming at the nodes, generally at least three nodes on each branch but in some cases at all nodes on a branch.

Wht a lovely stump
good luck and looks like recovering nicely

Ken

kcpoole wrote: ↑April 30th, 2020, 8:45 am good luck and looks like recovering nicely

Cheers Ken, it's recovered amazingly well. It's regarded as a weed down here so I shouldn't be too surprised, but I had read in a couple of different places that it doesn't appreciate being potted up. It's definitely a quick grower (and seems to be a fan of Charlie Carp and Rooster Booster).

I've had some carving fun on this stump. There's a hollow running through the whole thing now; it still needs a fair bit of work but hopefully it'll end up looking tortured, old and interesting.

It also looks like it might be about to flower which is cool.

Tiny flowers