Category: MY WORK

Hi, everybody,

today I would like to share with you the Air Layering or Marcot that I performed yesterday on one of the mine Prunes mahaleb Yamadoris.

Remember this picture? This is the Prunus mahaleb that is about to be air layered. The left (yellow) section needs to be separated from the right (red) section! This beautiful left section, full of age-old death wood, goes to my dear friend Tony Tickle (UK) and the right trunk/tree section stays with me in Holland…if all goes well that is?!

Before I start a little explanation about the different layers that make up a trunk and branch.

Just look at the quick drawing I made to explain. The bark on the outside of the tree protects the living cambium layer that lies under need it. This cambium layer produces the growth rings adding each season new layers of phloem and xylem to the tree. The cambium layer is a very thin living layer that produces phloem towards the outside where it eventually becomes bark and xylem towards the inside where it becomes sapwood. This all-important cambium layer is responsible for the growth of stems and, important for the technique that I am going to use, the roots! The phloem transports all the food and hormones that are produced by the leaves downwards to the roots. The xylem is basically vascular tissue that carries the water and other dissolved nutrients all the way up to the leaves. 

So now we know this, how does those air layering work?! Where new roots have wanted a strip of bark is removed with the help of a sharp knife or in my case a small iron saw! After the strip of bark with the phloem is removed with the help of a sharp chisel (this was very easy on this Prunus) the thin layer of cambium is scrapped off with a sharp and clean knife! This is very important to do because if the cambium layer is left intact the tree or branch will not be fooled because the flow is not disrupted and most likely will not produce new roots if only the bark and phloem are removed! A sticky paste is made by adding the rooting hormone to water and that is then applied generously around the edge of the wound (on the side closest to the top of the branch or trunk). Then a thick layer of moist (but not soaking wet) sphagnum moss is applied all around the wound. This all is packed in with a piece of transparent plastic that works as a water barrier and allows the sunlight to come through. Holes can easily be made at the top of this plastic if watering the sphagnum moss is later necessary! When enough roots have grown from the wound, this depends on the species and the vigour of the parent tree, the trunk or stem is removed carefully with a saw from the mother tree and is then planted in a training pot. So now we know how to let us see what I did with this old Prunus yamadori?!

The red arrow shows the point where the air layering needs to be made. This is a thick and old side branch that grows from the lower left side of this massive trunk. This long branch or almost trunk is full of old deadwood and although it those not fit into the design that I have planned for this tree, it would be a shame and almost criminal not to try to save it to become a future Bonsai of its own!! 

This is more or less where the air layering will be made! This is the widest part of this trunk and therefore will be the best future root base of the new tree when it is separated! This site consists mostly of deadwood and the 2,5 Inch live fain grows mostly on the other side!

A look at the future air layering from the other side of the trunk. The red arrow points at two branches that need to be removed because they are in the way and because they don’t have a future growing near the future new root base!

With a concave cutter, they are cut flush with the trunk line and sealed with cut paste. I don’t want any change of infections that close to the new roots!

The wound is properly treated and sealed with cut paste! The red arrow points at a Jin that is also in the way of the future marcot and therefore also needs to be removed! Here you can clearly see that this section of the trunk is the widest and there for the logical choice!

Red arrow points at the Jin that is just removed. The old Jin just above it proved to be almost completely rotten and broke off easily when I checked it with my hand! A little stump that still was hard is left for Tony to decide if he wants to use in the future when this trunk is separated and starts its new life in his garden in the UK…if all goes well that is?!

Here that rotted old Jin is removed up to where the hardwood started! The branch growing to the right side of it is left as an engine for the new roots that hopefully will grow below it! It is again up to Tony what to do with this branch in the future?!

A closer look from the other side. That jin stump could be interesting in the future and that branch that is left can be left and used in a design or be transformed into a Jin as well in the future?!

With the use of a wire, the angle of the air layering is checked from both sides until I was satisfied! Red arrow: Then with the help of a thick black marker two lines were drawn, one next to the wire and the other one about 2 Inches further down the trunk.

With the help of a small iron saw, I carefully sawed through the bark! using this saw was an experiment because in the past I had struggled to make a clean cut when I used a sharp knife and I was right…it worked like a charm! Straight lines and a clean cut without the chance of cutting off a finger or damaging the bark! Red arrow points at the bottom cut!

With a just sharpened chisel, the bark was piece by piece carefully removed. At the top of the fresh air layering, you can see where the life section stops and the (brown) deadwood part starts!

With a sharp and clean knife, the cambium layer is carefully scraped away everywhere along the top incision! Making sure that nothing is left so that there will be no cambium flow possible between the top and bottom incision! This now will trigger the tree to make new roots along that top incision….if all goes well that is?! 😉

Then a paste of rooting hormone and water was applied to the top cut and below it. This was left to dry so that it would stick to the surface even when the wet sphagnum moss is applied! This rooting hormone powder (from Bayer) will stimulate and help the production of new roots!

First, a layer of water and rooting hormone-soaked sphagnum moss is applied and held in place by a strain of 1 mm aluminium wire. Then the second layer of in-water-soaked sphagnum is applied on top of the first layer and is also held in place with wire.

Then the sphagnum is completely covered by a double layer of strong transparent plastic that is tightly held in place with aluminium 1mm wire. Both ends of the plastic are tightly taped shut to make sure that nothing will move. In the future when the sphagnum gets too dry, small holes can and will be made at the top of the plastic ball to be able to insert water to wet the sphagnum!

The whole air layering is seen from the front side of this old Prunus. From now on it is fingers crossed and anxious waiting and watching until the first roots appear through the plastic! I forgot to tell you that all the foliage above the air layering is cut back to 2 leaves to minimise the need for water! I will try to keep this heavy monster and its air layering out off too much direct summer sun heat and hope for the best!! 🙂

I will keep you all informed if there is any progress and I hope you enjoyed this little story this far?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

Hi, everybody,

here are some pictures of the rewiring and styling sessions I did on my two Prunus mahaleb yamadori that were collected in 2012.

Below: Both old Prunus mahaleb had grown amazingly during the past season and the wire had to be taken off before it would dig into the bark! But the branches did have enough time to grow more or less into their desired position and stay there!  Now it was time to loosely rewire all branches again and to reposition them where necessary!

Below: Just look at all the former suckers that last season was bent down into the ground to create new roots! This is a very easy but important technique to use on these species that create tons of these suckers during the whole growing season! The ones that form every were along the trunk need to be removed immediately when they are not useful in your design, otherwise, they will leave ugly scars!

Below: Remember that I told you earlier in the repotting story of Wolfie about the lucky stone that I had found by chance in the soil of one of my Prunus mahaleb? Well, it was in this tree when I was removing unwanted mosses and weeds from the soil surface to expose the roots to light and air so they would thicken more quickly!

Below: The red arrow shows a branch that grows straight and ugly directly upwards and although I wired it before, it still needs to be removed completely because bending it won’t make it look any better! This branch is much too prominent in your face and it is impossible to make sharp bends in a branch like this and I don’t want it to look like an arch!

Below: Here the branch is completely removed and now the lines and the flow of the branch are much more natural and pleasant! The eye of the observer can now follow the flow of the branch unobstructed right to the tip of it! Lines and even more open spaces are very important in Bonsai! Even in the more natural-designed Bonsai like these two! I believe that branch structure is of the utmost importance in Bonsai design even in the more natural-looking ones! Creating a bushy tree to save time and then calling it a Bonsai is wrong! Proper branch building is an intricate part of Bonsai art and should not be neglected to get a quick result or to fool the public! At least that is my opinion!

Below: Here most of the branches are wired and bent and fixated into their desired position. On the right side, two main branches still look a bit stiff in this picture and most likely will be bent some more next season with the help of raffia! The red arrow point at a to strait looking branch that grows from the old hanging branch that over the decades had rooted into the ground! This gnarly-looking branch full of stunning deadwood plays an important part in my overall design and a straight line that the new branch that grows from it is very unwanted and looks unnatural and ugly…so it needs bending with the help of raffia to protect it from breaking!

Below: Here the branch is wrapped with one layer of water-soaked raffia, this will protect it from breaking or cracking! Soaking raffia for a while in the water is important when the water evaporates the raffia will shrink a little and embrace the branch even tighter, therefore working better!

Below: Just one on an old removed branch stump secured layer of 3,5 mm wire is applied and the branch is carefully bent into its new more natural-looking position! Some light moving up and down was also created to make the branch look less stiff!

Below: Top view from that same branch. To hold the branch into its new place a  strong copper wire is secured to one of the many ground Jin that stick out off the ground in front of the tree. The branch looks more pleasant now and because it is now automatically brought closer to the tree, it has become more of a part of the overall appearance! So a win-win situation!

Below: All work done! I know it is not a very good picture and things are a bit hard to see…but this tree is very heavy and I can’t lift much these days! But I hope you can still make out the overall impression of this very promising tree?! The stumps sticking out off the ground in front of the tree are mostly natural Jins, left from old branches! They will stay to play a big part in this old tree’s natural design!

Below: Here the old tree is in full bloom! The very late hail storms we had the last couple of days have sadly removed most of them! I am very happy with the progress of this tree…only finding a pot will be a crime! I think I will have to let one be specially made for me in the future! I am afraid a normal-shaped pot will not fit it?! But that’s for later!

Below: Here you see the second Prunus mahaleb that is already wired here and the branches are brought back into their desired position. This old tree was like the other one burned by forest fires and the amazing old deadwood is all scorched, this created beautiful black and grey tones all over the incredible deadwood that man cant copy! The top and top branches are hugging the amazing deadwood section from behind to emphasise it!

Below: Here you can see the, for now, finished tree.  The thick jin in the bottom middle still needs some work in the future to make it more elegant and a lot of the by-now dead bark below it needs to be removed as well. I am not yet sure what to do with the ground Jins that stick out off the ground in front of the tree..but they can always be removed later when I am sure! On this Prunus, there were also created new roots from suckers, but not as much as on the other one.

Bellow: The old Prunus in bloom! It needs to be more tilted to the left like in the picture above, but this picture is all I have! I like this twin trunk design, it looks natural and honours how this old fighter looked when we found it! With some more years to create finner ramifications, it will look amazing and unique and I can’t wait to find a fitting pot for it and show it to the world! I am so immensely grateful to my dear friends who allowed and helped me to collect these stunning works of nature! They brought joy into my live and I have these beauties in my garden to remind me every day of how wonderful live, nature, friends and doing Bonsai can be….thanks guys!!!

I hope you enjoyed this story of my two Prunus mahaleb, it took forever to write, but I found a very long way to at least get it right for you all to read! I am glad that I am able to do my hobby again with joy and a head full of ideas and I am glad that I can again share it with you all! There is more to come, so watch this space!!!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..