Air Layer - Pyracantha [1] & [2]

Way back last year in early spring I chose two spots in which to have my first goes at air layering. Both pieces were quite uninteresting, not much movement, taper, the bark wasn't even old looking. The only asset was the thick trunks. Reason I chose such poor material to work on was: A - I didn't have any better, and: B - It was more a practice of the technique than to produce the material.

At that time I had no sphagnum moss so, instead of using the conventional substrate, I used peat instead (peat is just broken down sphagnum moss anyway so I thought it wouldn't do any harm). I used an old kitchen knife -which was sterilized in a pot of boiling water to prevent fungal infections from harming the new roots- and made a ring (around 9cm thick for a 6cm trunk) and cut my way through the bark until reaching the sap layer -a hard light woody section) where I scraped away the thin layer of cambium to reveal a lighter white wood underneath. The ring was constantly the same thickness all the way around the trunk and made sure there were no bridges where the tree could heal the wound instead of produce roots.

I then placed a sandwich bag with an opening at both ends around the trunk and tied it in securely just below the incision. Filled the back up with my soaking peat until I couldn't see any signs of the cut -make sure you really pack your substrate in so there are no air bubbles- and tied it in at the top with another wire tourniquet. After securing it at both ends with a second piece of wire I wrapped the ball of peat and polythene in cling film until I could just about see the substrate. The cling film wrapping has a tendency to become highly addictive and caused me to go a bit over the top at one point.

Well, after many months of anticipation the time came in which I could unravel the polythene from my air layers. After checking there was sufficient roots under both layers I severed the bottom using a saw. After this I carefully removed the polythene from my air layers to discover a mass of plump, white roots. A good technique I've learnt to remove the soil/moss from the roots with minimum damage is to dunk the roots into a bucket of water. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of  Pyracantha Air Layer [1], but here's [2].

As you can see from photo I cut a bit too far down, that can be solved next re-pot (at least it's better than cutting too high). I will update with new pictures of each layer as they develop if they're interesting enough to show.

Prune - Chinese Elm [5]

After pondering over the design options for this tree over the last 6 months, I decided to go ahead with a hard prune to force more buds on the trunk. If you're stuck with design options for a tree, I find it helps to have a play around with it on paint: cutting down the trunk, drawing on new leaders, adding branches and foliage until you have a design you are happy with. You can then base your design work on this design. Here is my original virtual for this tree that drove me towards the removal of large straight section on the side of the trunk and helped me chose which apex to keep or not.

Front Virtual

Having this design in mind, I went ahead removing all the foliage on the large straight section on the side of the trunk, getting ready for it's removal in early summer. I decided to cut back hard on the branches that wouldn't be included in the final design to force buds that I could use in the future. Here is the before and after photos of the prune.

Front and Close up of Trunk - before prune

The chalk shows where and what I will be removing in early summer to ensure a clean heal.

Front - after hard prune

I then made a virt from the picture with all the leaves removed so I could get a clearer picture of what I will be aiming for. There are still two apexes left at the top as I am still deciding on which one to remove.

Front Virt

This will now be allowed a full seasons growth ready for wiring and pruning in autumn/winter.

Prune - Chinese Elm [1] and Chinese Elm [4]

With some nice weather over the weekend, I thought I would get some hard pruning done on a couple of my elms. The first elm (Chinese Elm [4]), had a nice basic structure with a couple of overly thick branches too high on the tree which needed removing. Here are some before and after pictures.

Front - before prune

Front - after prune

Back - after prune

After pruning the unwante growth and branches from the tree, I thought the apex looked too high on the tree, and was too far to the right for it to look aesthetically pleasing. I decided to draw a virt of my intended apex I will be aiming for in the next few years.

Looking at the apex, it looks like a candidate for an air layer. Depending on the trees response to the prune, I will consider an air layer this year.

Front Virt

I also had enough time to give a prune to my favourite SUMO elm (Chinese Elm [1]). The branches didn't have enough ramification, so I decided not to prune back to a bud as I am confident that the branches won't die back (like on a maple, or a birch). Here are some before, and after shots.

Front - before prune

Front - after prune

Prune and Repot - Lonicera nitida 'Elegant' [2]

As the buds began to grow on one of my Loniceras, I decided a repot into something more free draining would be needed to get the most growth out of the tree as I could. It went into my deciduous mix of 3 parts moler clay (cat litter) : to 1 part multi purpose compost.

The pot was cramed with fine, feeder roots - always a good sign - of which a good 50% were removed. Here are some before and after pictures.

Front 1 - before repot and prune

Front 2 - before repot and prune

Front 1 - After repot

Front 2 - after repot

To balance out the root removal, I gave it a good prune to direct growth in the places that it was required, and remove any unwanted, overly thick branchs too high on the trunks. During which, I uncovered an interesting trunk with taper and movement, but from an angle that would mean losing the smaller trunk.

Front 1 - after prune

Front 2 - after prune

 Front 3 - after prune

 Front 4 - after prune

In the end, I decided to keep the smaller trunk and see how it grows. I will probably end up taking it off, and sticking with Front 4. Here's a virtual of what I will be aiming for if I decide to lose the trunk.

Front 4 Virt



Repot, Wire and Prune - Chinese Elm [3]

Before repotting this tree I decided to give it a prune and a wire to clear out the clutter, and wire the thicker lower branches further down before they get too thick.

Tree before pruning or wiring

As you can see, all the branches were growing in an upwards direction (typical of younger trees). I wouldn't to recitfy this issue by wiring the lowest branches horizontally, and giving them a prune to encourage secondary branches to form.

Tree after prune and wire

The canopy has taken on a more domed shape, and once the tree has filled out in a few weeks should be looking a lot better.

After repot

Whilst repotting I discovered an area of the trunk that was previously covered and decided to pot it up higher in the pot to show this. Now that more trunk is visible, I'm hoping for more branches lower down to fill the gap between soil and branch.

Repotting Season

Over the last fortnight I have managed to repot six trees, with my Ficus due one this Saturday. Here's few pictures of the outcomes. As you can see the majority of the trees have been potted up into something bigger to maximise growth. I used my usual mix of 3 parts cat litter : 1 part compost.

Acer palmatum before repot

Acer palmatum roots

Acer palmatum after repot

Chinese Elm [1] after repot

 Chinese Elm [2] after repot

For this tree I decided to reveal a bit more of the nice nebari underneath and removed some ugly surface roots around the back.

Chinese Elm [3] after repot

Chinese Elm [4] after repot

Chinese Bird Plum after repot

I felt it has been a productive few weeks and my repotting skills have greatly improved as a result. Now I feel far more confident about repotting trees.

Repot - Chinese Juniper

I have this tree in my collection for around a year now, bought it for wiring practice unsure of the final image and regret paying the £30 I did, as with a greater amount of knowledge I have come to the conclusion that it is a very poor tree with no real pros and a lot of cons. Since purchase it has put out very little growth, put this down to poor medium and pot bound roots. Recent advice has told me that October is a good time to repot coniferous trees (I was due to repot my juniper in the coming spring but it was root bound, so decided autumn would be the better option, also providing it with better winter protection).

This current growing season (2011) the tree hasn't put out much growth and has, instead, been producing juvenile foliage (unsuitable for bonsai) so to develop it I decided it would be potted up into something bigger allowing it more room to grow, this would also mean I wouldn't have to do too much root work before winter. I also wanted to change the potting angle as the tree leaned forward too far.

Front View (before repot)

Potting mix (decided to go for 3 parts cat litter : 1 part compost. I like using some organic medium in my mixes as it helps hold onto more fertiliser and water than inorganic medium.)

Growing box, plenty of drainage holes to ensure free draining mix.

Front View (after repot, and a good soaking)

Reasonably pleased with the outcome and will be on a high feeding regime this coming growing season in the hope that it will be rewarding me with tons of new growth that I will be able to work on in the coming years.