6 itoigawa cuttings

[MrFancyPlants]

Sourced from @Nybonsai12 in the Summer of ‘24. I haven’t moved them out of the trey they came in yet.
I was thinking I’d move three into pots and three into pond baskets. The winters are real mild here, so I was planning on doing this soon. For the pond baskets I was going to use turface and potting soil, 50/50. Does anyone still use that for growing trees out? It seemed to work fine for a couple JBP in orchid pots.
I was also thinking of twisting most of these up, but I have a terrible track record for that sort of operation. Maybe I try to bring to a club meeting with some chopstick anchors in place to get someone else to do some twists for me.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Some folks here use turface and swear by it.

For us tired it and found particles are flat and the media dries pretty darn fast. So we opt to other more porous media.

For your situation would use 75/25 P & P. 75%. 3/16-1/4” pumice with + 25% peat or sorted coco coir.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Shibui]

Looks like those are a bit thick to be getting real tight bends. I prefer very thin trunks for making really twisty juniper trunks. You should be able to get some gentle bends in those trunks - more if you are carful and take it in stages. Even tighter bends if you wrap the trunks first.
If there are multi trunks or branches, consider wiring all branches. Even branches you intend as sacrifice branches should be wired and bent, Straight jins on twisted trunks looks out of place so twist it all up.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Some folks here use turface and swear by it.

For us tired it and found particles are flat and the media dries pretty darn fast. So we opt to other more porous media.

For your situation would use 75/25 P & P. 75%. 3/16-1/4” pumice with + 25% peat or sorted coco coir.

Cheers
DSD sends

I was just thinking to use the turface since the pond baskets are so big and save the premium components.. but suppose I could always sift the pumice back out to be thrifty.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Does someone have a resource on making it twisty? I always mess it up. I did spring for some rafia.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Does someone have a resource on making it twisty? I always mess it up. I did spring for some rafia.

The tricky part is making it look like it isn’t contrived. If you raffia the trunk clockwise, wire it clockwise, and make most of your twists clockwise; not corkscrew, but random and in all planes, front to back, side to side, and even doubling back. Start right at the soil level, with tighter bends lower, and loosening as you go up. Start with the end in mind; know about how tall you intend the finished tree to be.

Here is an example of a curvy trunk I have been developing on a Japanese Red Pine from seed for nearly 20 years. Each year, I try to add some movement in a few branches that could become the next leader. It’s a little hard to see all the movement, but there’s a lot going on.

And here is a post from Al showing some cool movement on pines:

Thread 'Squashed Pines'

Mar 18, 2025

Well today was pine day. The pines came later in the evening yesterday and when I got home today I started right in on making the future trees. They came in individual capsules of potting medium out of what I can imagine was a test tube. Very neatly packed and came very quickly. They came from the Jonsteen Company thru Amazon.

Each tree was wired and prepared for "the bend"



All the trees were bent into the windy trunks just like I did on the hornbeams...

• Smoke
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Pines

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The other thing to remember is that the trunk you wire will be weaker than the other branches, so it will not thicken up while the other branches do. So you really need to add movement in one year, take off the wires and prune back the too-strong branches, and let the trunk with movement start to strengthen for a year, and then repeat again a year later.

 

[Shibui]

Not a resource on how but maybe some inspiration?
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/twisted-shimpaku-junipers.68129/

I endorse comments by @Brian Van Fleet
Definitely start low - At root level rather than ground level because there's often more trunk below soil level. Straight section below a twisted trunk looks terrible. I know because I've made that mistake a few times. Now I try to wire and bend before potting up so I can be sure of getting low bends right from the roots.
3D bends important vital.
Definitely avoid the corkscrew though you will probably find that's easier said than done. Doubling back seems to be a good option to break up the corkscrew.