Lorax7 ‘Old Gold’ Juniper #1 progression

[Lorax7]

Picked this one up from Lowe’s in the clearance section (75% off, woo!). Recently, I saw Hugo Zamora do a trunk splitting demo and I wanted to try it that technique, so this is my practice tree. Here it is before being worked on:




It’s ready for it’s closeup, Mr. DeMille.

 

[Lorax7]

Photos below are from after doing two trunk splits and wiring. FYI, no need to let me know that my wiring job on this is hideous. I’m well aware. Had a hell of a time getting my big meat hooks into the tight spaces among those branches. Wrapped the branches first with grafting tape and put the electrical tape over that. Put moist sphagnum moss on the split branches (except for the first one I did because I forgot that step). Not completely confident that all the split branches will survive (middle one on the left is iffy, in my opinion). But, hey, it’s a practice tree. Learning something new was the whole point.

 

[thebonsaiproject]

Nice stuff, that's something I've wanted to try as well. Was there anything you learnt during the process that if you did it again you would change? Aside from missing the sphagnum hahaha

 

[Eckhoffw]

I’m liking these Old Gold junipers.
Very common in the big box stores, and pretty cheap.
That movement low is awesome! It’s a shame it’s bared out down there. Typical with these spreading junipers.
Sweet practice material.
Excited to see how it pans out!!

 

[Lorax7]

Nice stuff, that's something I've wanted to try as well. Was there anything you learnt during the process that if you did it again you would change? Aside from missing the sphagnum hahaha

Be careful about supporting both sides after you’ve done the split. I broke one of the sides when I was trying to put the sphagnum on and wrap with the grafting tape. If I was doing that over, I’d temporarily secure the split branches to other branches at their ends just to help hold them up while I was doing the wrapping. Once it’s wrapped with the copper wire, it won’t need the temporary support.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Wrapped the branches first with grafting tape and put the electrical tape over that. Put moist sphagnum moss on the split branches (except for the first one I did because I forgot that step).

They might just root in those locations because it stays pretty damp like that. I prefer raffia because it dries. Raffia isn't expensive and I've found it in every hardware store and gardening store for about 90 cents per bundle.

I have one zombie pfizer juniper that looks almost similar to yours. The foliage on these things is terrible to work with. So consider using practice trees to get some grafting practice. Grafting small scions isn't that hard and when timed right.. You basically can't go wrong. I'm doing chinensis on one and sabina var. rastrera on the other.
Since the foliage is so bad, and because they accept grafts pretty easily, you could probably focus on trunk lines for the first couple of years.

 

[Lorax7]

They might just root in those locations because it stays pretty damp like that. I prefer raffia because it dries. Raffia isn't expensive and I've found it in every hardware store and gardening store for about 90 cents per bundle.

I have one zombie pfizer juniper that looks almost similar to yours. The foliage on these things is terrible to work with. So consider using practice trees to get some grafting practice. Grafting small scions isn't that hard and when timed right.. You basically can't go wrong. I'm doing chinensis on one and sabina var. rastrera on the other.
Since the foliage is so bad, and because they accept grafts pretty easily, you could probably focus on trunk lines for the first couple of years.

What are the problems with the Old Gold foliage (aside from the fragrance that’s not so pleasant)? I’ve done grafting on a pine before but not on junipers. I’m aware the timing is different (around February for pine grafting… around May or June for junipers). I’ve seen photos of Shinji Suzuki grafting itoigawa onto a Shimpaku yamadori and noticed that the technique he used was quite different from what I learned to do with the pine. On the pine, the technique was basically to wrap the needles in a cocoon of grafting tape, cut the branch end in a wedge shape, cut a little slit in the branch of the tree, insert the wedge end of the branch and line up the cambium layer as well as you can, wrap the joint tightly with grafting tape. What I saw in the photos of Suzuki-san grafting a juniper was a lot of rooted cuttings in plastic pots, with each attached to the tree somehow and the plastic pot floating in the air. I don’t know the name of the technique. I couldn’t see into the canopy well enough to determine exactly how the scions were attached to the tree. What technique do you use for grafting junipers?

As far as the sphagnum, grafting tape, and electrical tape for the branch splitting goes — I was just doing my best to replicate what I saw Hugo Zamora do in a demo. It’s quite possible his reason for using it may be related to the relatively dry climate in Mexico. I’ve got plenty of raffia on hand. Can certainly try with that for comparison next time I do another branch split.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The foliage never really tightens up and reverts to juvenile quite easily. So making nice pads can be a challenge.
I think you've seen what we call approach grafting. Scion grafting is when you take a shoot, wrap it in grafting tape and insert it, just like your pine grafts.

 

[jandslegate]

The foliage never really tightens up and reverts to juvenile quite easily. So making nice pads can be a challenge.
I think you've seen what we call approach grafting. Scion grafting is when you take a shoot, wrap it in grafting tape and insert it, just like your pine grafts.

That's the experience I had with mine as well. The foliage reminded me much more of Thuja than Juniper. Granted I'm not at all an expert so I probably added extra adversity to mine. At the end of the day I kept trying to make it be something it wasn't and eventually it was just another lesson of impermanence. I'm tempted to try another just to get some experience with grafting. Good luck with yours. The branch splitting exercise is also something interesting I'd like to try.