So, kind of a funny story. I was working with a local bonsai guy who is quite prolific in the bonsai social webs, in the “bonsai is easy” camp. He’s really proud of how he’s this bonsai maverick who breaks all the rules. He’s also an extremely kind and generous person so I don’t fault him for any of it. At the end of our meeting, he says, “Well, do you want to work on something together?” “Hell yes!” And I go through his container stock and pick out a Zelkova with a funky monstrous nebari for a Shohin.
He asks me, “Ok. What do you want to do with it?” I point out a front, walk through a line, primary branches. He says, “Sure, that would be the standard thing. But here we break rules.” I ask, “Ok, what do you see?” Instantly, he replies, “Chop it off”. Its July.
So we get the sawsall. After the flat cut, too low, “Cut paste?” “Nah.” “Bonsai soil.” “Nah, just nursery stuff.”
Well I had to break with the rule breaking with that one. I brought it home and at least put it in 1:1:1 bonsai soil. The brutal summer went fine. No Hokidachi glory, but one runner did emerge over the Fall. A miracle. That was last year.
Ok. Now with the questions. At this point Im just experimenting with this tree.
First, As you can imagine, without cut paste, the cut site brutally dried out in middle of the Summer when we did this thing at a completely incorrect time. Don’t we want to do really Early Spring for trunk chops, especially on species that move a lot of water? When trying to shave down the callous angle, I was surprised at how far down I had to go (pictured). I got good phloem and cambium but it was weird, very uneven and I had to cut a deep angle to find a consistent ring of it. What should I expect for budding ?
Second, I smoothed cutpaste over the fresh wound and live tissue, but buds won’t form there on the live tissue line, right? The healthy tissue, covered by cut paste, is it just being exposed for callous development, rolling over the wound site? I expect to come back and re-activate the tissue maybe in mid-July and then again in Fall.
Thirdly, if buds don’t form around the cut paste perimeter because they are occluded by cut paste, how do you ever get a broom-style of buds around the perimeter?
Desecated Trunk chop
No live tissue in sight
Live tissue at a crazy angle. Is this atypical - a result of the intense dieback from “maverick” decision to not use cut paste in July-August.
Pasted.
The miraculous state of health in this tree, despite the abuse.
