Needle Junipers "Another challenge"

[alpineart]

These have been on the radar for around 12 months

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, I got a phone call this afternoon asking if I still wanted them . Off like a gut shot greyhound with the trailer in tow . Having a forklift handy to do all the removal and loading is a bonus

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. Off with their heads and into the trailer

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These are actually 3rd hand being transplanted by the brother of the original purchaser some 14 years ago , the lady had them for several years and where large stock when purchased .These would have to be 25 years old and have plenty of character from pole straight to cascading branches/smaller trunks .

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My young bloke is 6 foot plus and his expression says it all

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. These have been set up wherever possible in the front

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and back yards

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.Now all I have to do is find a large quantity of young Shimpaku stock to inarch graft onto them , 20 or so will do , If anybody has some for sale don't hesitate to PM me .
.

Cheers Alpineart

[melbrackstone]

crikey!

[kcpoole]

Nice score Alps.
Going to be a very long term project there I think for these!

Ken

[alpineart]

Hi mel' , Noah was a little speechless when I pulled up and asked for a lift but he did appreciate the effort involved . I offered him a free trunk of his choice if he takes up Bonsai again

Hi kc , mate long term projects are not my best choice but with Shimpaku grafted onto them will make for some nice chunky smaller group/forest type configurations . I have some larger stock Shimps' and a few cuttings taken 18 months ago which could be Inarched now just to make a start , time for Bonsai work is something I lack at the moment .

Originally there was only 5 trunks/tree's but 1 split apart on removal so a couple of other could easily be turned into smaller more manageable trunks .

Cheers . Alpine

[bodhidharma]

Nothing to say except "Good luck" fingers crossed and hope you have better success than your last challenge Alp's.

[alpineart]

Hi Bodhi , these buggers have good fibrous root masses , not bare rooted and I only trimmed 2 or 3 - 20-30mm thick roots on each so they should survive even though its hot up here . I"m firing on all cylinders lately so they have a better chance as well.
I actually worked for the original owners/ purchases of the nursery stock this morning , now his totally convinced I"m not only a bloody good Chippy but a nutter as well .

Cheers . Alps

[bodhidharma]

now his totally convinced I"m not only a bloody good Chippy but a nutter as well .

Cheers . Alps

We need to be a little nuts to do what we do Alps. It, well...Just helps, doesnt it.

[alpineart]

We need to be a little nuts to do what we do Alps. It, well...Just helps, doesnt it.[/quote]

It certainly helps with the balancing act , the so called normal people seem to struggle with life . Come to think of it I don't know too many so called normal people , even my Wife struggles with the term "Normal" i prefer creative nutter myself .

Cheers .

[alpineart]

Well there you go , I haven't killed them and with new growth sprouting its time to get into the next stage of development

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These had a good trim and are being cleaned up ready for some inarch grafts over the next couple of days . Cant expect do it all in one hit , but it will happen . A good productive hour with a sabre saw and the basic trimming is done allowing access to the multi trunks and create some movement and taper

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, still need to clean a couple up

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. This is the grafting stock on loan to complete the task , an old Brian Sampson trunk will be used for long shoots rather than trimming them off

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. These are some stock purchased from Shibui a few years ago and neglected by The Hacker.

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In need of a re-pot {all done } and major trim he has kindly lent the to me for 18 months for the purpose of using the long shoots for grafting as long as he receives a grafted trunk in return . No cash outlay to me , but a bloody big commitment not to kill his tree's was worth the deal . Might get a few grafts on today depends on motivation which has subsided after a big weekend of travel and fishing .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

A lazy 4 hours and 20 grafts later their taking a leap into the future

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. This Needle juniper was grafted with Shimpaku about 2 years ago

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while the donor trunk hasn't been severed or the shimpaku itself trimmed it has doubled as layering stock , waste nothing . Tomorrow is another day , but work commitments means the rest of this job will have to wait until later in the week .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

This was another lazy 6 hours work get these to attached made for a challenge in itself . My old phoenix graft needed a trim however this was a better solution

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. This large lanky bugger was difficult to position being over 1.8 m in length and being mindful that it is on loan and will become a literati and its in this position until Autumn 2018

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, I took a little bit of extra care . With the mid to upper sections done and dusted on 5 of the 6 trunks {50 plus grafts} now all I have to do is set another 50 odd grafts around the bases as soon as I can locate some long donor material .

Thanks to "The Hacker" this project is on the road to progress .

Cheers . Alpineart

[Raymond]

[alpineart]

Hi Raymond , mate its a bit late to be setting grafts but with things still growing so well here its better than leaving it for another 6 months . If they begin to fuse , the grafts will tell me , if they don't then they can be re-set in another position in Spring . Nothing ventured nothing gained as time waits for no-one . I will power feed these with Rustica Plus which is high in N-P-K and slow release to get the juices flowing a little longer ,

I'm confident the majority will take , bound to be a few that won't for various reasons , hence the volume of grafts applied with more to follow . Planning on setting a few other grafts on other deciduous species as soon as time permits

Cheers . Alpine

[Raymond]

Hi Raymond , mate its a bit late to be setting grafts but with things still growing so well here its better than leaving it for another 6 months . If they begin to fuse , the grafts will tell me , if they don't then they can be re-set in another position in Spring . Nothing ventured nothing gained as time waits for no-one . I will power feed these with Rustica Plus which is high in N-P-K and slow release to get the juices flowing a little longer ,

I'm confident the majority will take , bound to be a few that won't for various reasons , hence the volume of grafts applied with more to follow . Planning on setting a few other grafts on other deciduous species as soon as time permits

Cheers . Alpine

The amount of time and effort you put in just amazes me...

[Jarad]

Nice work Alpine!

You could almost charge people to come out to your place for a tour and tutorial/workshop!