Apparently live organisms living in the trunk makes the bark of the trunk more distinct therefore making it older. This technique will save years of growing(you can make the trunk look 50+ year old in three years) but will also need patience.
Step 1:
Get a fine sandpaper and scratch the bark all around the tree, just lightly try not to get to the cambium (green stuff) were just aiming for the phloem wich is right under the bark.
Step 2:
Cover all the scratched with at least 1cm of sphagnum moss(I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what kind of moss it is).hold the moss in place loosely with a wire.
Step 3:
Wait wait wait.
And thats basically all of it.
i am curious to this, do you have any examples you can show us? i would be concerned that the moss would end up causing troubles more than anything mostly rot. what sort of species do you use this technique on??
jamie
SHOHIN YAKUZA!!! taking the top half of trees of since 2005!
and growing trees for the future generations! 50+ year plans
i think with the likes of corky bark elms and the sorts you will get decent corking and aged bark in a relatively short time anyways. i have a young corkbark and it has started to cork up over the past 6 months, and it is coming up nice, i wouldnt say it was that old either, i presume it was a root cutting maybe two or three years mate.
jamie
SHOHIN YAKUZA!!! taking the top half of trees of since 2005!
and growing trees for the future generations! 50+ year plans
I was going to use this is the Literati comp
I had not heard of sanding the trunk first but I have heard of using the spag moss. I think I have seen pictorial results but can't remember where that was
It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.
My memory is comming back. I remember reading how they noticed the bark buried by mulch was much more aged than the bark left dry when they came up with this technique. I will be intrested to hear how Orion came accross this. I remember the reason being given as moisture but maybe Orion knows something they didn't
It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.
A good way to get aged bark happenng on a trunk quicker is to cover the trunk with something like black plastic or foil etc. You wrap the section of trunk or the whole trunk if desired so that light dosnt penetrate the bark and this causes the bark to thicken and create an aged look. If you have a pine that has maturing bark on it and place it next to a wall for a year Or so you would notice that the side thy was against The wall would have got more fissured and aged looking bark then the side that was in the sun. This is a technique I learnt over the last few years from a guy i know.
Hugh
Tree Makers Making Australian Bonsai
School - Nursery - Store
dunno ant, i would like to know aswell though. im all for finding quicker ways to do things but i also think that its bonsai and some things should just not be rushed or sped up
SHOHIN YAKUZA!!! taking the top half of trees of since 2005!
and growing trees for the future generations! 50+ year plans
I would suggest if you were going to give this a try then rub the sandpaper up and down the trunk, NOT arround it. Going around the trunk would be the same as ringbarking the thing. I have done similar to this, but instead of sandpapering I cut slits in the bark with a sharp knife (Exacto, I think from memory). Definately made the trunk appear more interesting from memory, but I can't remember what the tree was I tried it on - may have been a Chinese Elm possibly.
Graeme I will forever defend your right
to disagree with my opinion.
That rings a bell, I had forgotten about this for years. Colin Lewis is the name you are looking for. He had a progression that was on his old website, before he moved to the USA, he did it with a Hawthorn. He did say to keep the sphagnum damp at all times. It sounds fine in theory, I remember that he said it is impotrant to remove any roots that begin forming on the trunk. Perhaps it is only viable to speed up bark formation on trees that naturally develop rough bark? If it works, oh the possibilities.... it could be tried on Tridents since we can't get Brent Walston's rough bark Tridents from California. What about shohin White pines on Black Pine roots with the graft union hidden by flaky bark. Same for Blue Cedars, or Mugos or Scotties. Bodhi could do some Shaggy Bark English Elms, or perhaps you could create Fagus crenata 'Nishiki' to hide the evidence of that air layer Antonio
Who's gonna try it?
Cheers,
Mojo Moyogi
...Might as well face it, I'm addicted to Shohin...
"Any creative work can be roughly broken down into three components- design, technique and materials. Good design can carry poor technique and materials but no amount of expertise and beautiful materials can save poor design". Andrew McPherson - Furniture designer and artist
i would be keen to try it but it would be on something that wasnt a prized tree, but i dont have anything that would really suit, as yet anyways. i got clero but they get a rough bark quickly anyways.
with the rough barked species i cant see it helping much more apart from possibly speeding the process up a bit.
jamie
SHOHIN YAKUZA!!! taking the top half of trees of since 2005!
and growing trees for the future generations! 50+ year plans
...Might as well face it, I'm addicted to Shohin...
"Any creative work can be roughly broken down into three components- design, technique and materials. Good design can carry poor technique and materials but no amount of expertise and beautiful materials can save poor design". Andrew McPherson - Furniture designer and artist
taking the top half of trees of since 2005! 
