AusBonsai

Hey all,

I have a JBP that has some nice natural shari and I was wondering if anybody could give me some advice on how to refine/develop the area further.

Attached are some pics of both sides of the trunk

front right side/back Cheers,
Kez

Hi Kez,

At this point, you'd want to start to remove some back in areas you think are already dead and just widen little by little till you start to see some green and STOP! Apply cut paste around the edge only and leave that for a few months until you see the edge start to callus and then get in there with a tooth brush and some water and clean the dead wood out. Apply a dilution of lime sulfur and water at 1:1 and add a drop or two of indian ink if you can for a beautiful natural feel.

I have it on good authority from a Japanese master that applying lime sulfur as soon as bark is removed can do a little harm to the tree. The thought is that if you can avoid any ill effects through patience, you should. Unfortunately due to language barriers, I was never able to fully grasp the theory behind this.

In any case, keep the post updated with your work as you do it!

Regards,
Mo

Howdy,
The purpose of shari is to have a visually different element on part of a trunk/branch etc.
The 'shari' in this case has healed over and now looks almost no different to the rest of the trunk.
Consider why any part of this tree needs to have dead wood such as jin or shari. Do you want to draw attention to a particular area by highlighting with shari? If so then get stuck in with tool or blade.

kez wrote: have a JBP that has some nice natural shari and I was wondering if anybody could give me some advice on how to refine/develop the area further.

Hi Kez,

using a small pointed scraper or something similar , carefully remove/peel off the bark which is now covering the deadwood/shari between the 2 Cambium lines. After that , again carefully clean out loose wood and remaining bark from the area. Try not to create Shari which goes down below soil level, Shari under soil level is a starting place for rot/decay.

The deadwood is most likely hard and dry already so you could treat it with a solution of Lime Sulphur to help start preserving it. Try not to stray from the deadwood when applying although it won't hurt the living tissue it's alot better to just be neat and tidy without alot of runoff and/or marking of the actual Bark. In any case you can gentle wipe any excess lime sulphur from unwanted areas with a damp cloth.
Hope this helps a little.