From: tmkelly@shootist.EBay.Sun.COM (Tk)
Newsgroups: alt.bonsai
Subject: Re: Next project?
Date: 14 Dec 1992 02:07:04 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: tmkelly@shootist.EBay.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: shootist.ebay.sun.com

In article 3968@aio.jsc.nasa.gov, kell@lark.jsc.nasa.gov (TED KELL) writes:
> In article <1garisINNd7a@male.EBay.Sun.COM>, tmkelly@shootist.EBay.Sun.COM (Tom Kelly) writes...
> > 
> >My next project is going to be a sinuous root planting.
> > 
> >It's a form of raft style.. where you get a group planting by attaching several
> >trees to a trunk laid in the soil (supplementing the branches now turned into
> >vertical trees).  
> > 
> >Conceptually, it's like grafting, but in this instance you attach the trunks and 
> >leave the roots in tact for all the trees involved (the horizontal host and the
> >new trees as well).
> > 
> >It's pretty ambitious, because of the difficulty of the grafting (it's not 
> >supposed to show when you're done)... but what the heck...
> > 
> >Tk
> 
> I'm not sure that I understand what you mean by "attaching several trees to a
> trunk."  In fact, I'm sure that I  don't understand.  I've seen things in books
> about getting branches to look like trunks, but this doesn't seen to be that.
> Please explain.
> 
> Ted

Okay, Ted... I'll try... I don't know if words will work as well as a picture, but I 
haven't got a way to do it graphically. 

First... start with a tree (we'll call it the host)... lay it horizontally in a pot with
soil (having trimmed the branches that cannot be left growing now vertically, but probably
a bit sparsely).  Hopefully, the trunk of this host is supple enough to have done a couple 
of bends in it so that it lays a bit like a snake in the pot.  It may have 3-7 branches now
growing vertically as trees (and a rootball feeding them all at one end of the pot).

Now, if that isn't enough trees for your group planting (say you wanted 13 or 15 total)...
you can just plant them randomly in the pot and get a nice forest appearance (I have three
of these.. and I like them)...   

OR...

...you can take a number of separate trees of various sizes (but all of the same species
and variety as the host) and add them to the host trunk.  You do this by making a small 
stripping on the host trunk (as if you were going to air layer, but only part of the way
around the trunk) at each point where you are going to "add" a tree to the trunk.

Then you cut a concave in each of the trees to be added (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the
base of each tree) to fit the stripped area on the host trunk.  Apply rooting hormone to
encourgage "attachment", and put them together like a jigsaw.  A little of the cutting
paste on the outside of this "joint" to help them heal and prevent disesase... bingo!

When done, you will have your host trunk (slightly "s" shaped) with it's own rootball at
one end of the pot, providing life to the trunk (and original 3-7 branches now vertical
trees) while it grows together with the 6 or 8 individual trees you "added" (and each of
them still has their original roots to feed them during this growth and healing process).

End result?  a raft-style planting that you have absolutely controlled the palcement of
each tree (on either side of the host trunk), and thus prevent spend endless hours searching 
for the perfect specimen for lyour vision of a raft... 

Examples of good stock would include:  shimpaku, maple, beech... and I'm sure many more.

I saw this in two of the Bonsai Today magazines (though I don't have them here, so I am
unable to note the actual #'s), and watched a demonstration once at a club exhibition.

Obviously, the hardest part is getting a good healing between the host trunk and the 
added trees...  and not killing anything while cutting to make the pieces fit.

I hope this is clearer, but I won't be surprised if I failed to communicate it properly.

I'll try to get the numbers of the BT magazines. They did a great job of explaining it...


Tk

Newsgroups: alt.bonsai