Lorax7 Hinoki #1 progression

[Lorax7]

Hinoki nursery stock and pieces of deadwood acquired fall 2021 from a pet shop (sold for aquarium use). I believe the deadwood is mopane wood. It’s very hard, dense, heavy wood. My intention for this planting is to create a tanuki (phoenix graft).


Did an initial lime sulfur treatment on the deadwood to prepare it:


Carved a channel in one of the deadwood pieces with the Dremel:



I may do a bit more carving. I also plan to treat with lime sulfur again. Missed some spots the first time as it was getting dark out when I was finishing up. I figure it’s easier to treat the deadwood fully before assembly than it would be after.

 

[Lorax7]

Finally got around to putting the tanuki together (May 2022).

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Cool!

I know some people hate tanuki, but I think they look great when well executed. I put one together this spring with a shinpaku whip, but a hinoki is certainly a more original choice.

I actually did a very similar thing to you with dowels use to hold the trunk into the dead wood.

Following along.

 

[Lorax7]

Update:
Replaced some of the cable ties yesterday and added some neoprene padding because the tree had grown enough that the cable ties were starting to make indentations. Since, I was replacing cable ties, I took the opportunity to also wrap the trunk around the deadwood once at the apex.

Roots are starting to escape out the bottom of the pond basket since I’ve had it sitting on the ground all summer.

 

[thebonsaiproject]

The shape looks great already. Did you dilute the lime sulphur at all when applying it to the deadwood?

 

[Lorax7]

The shape looks great already. Did you dilute the lime sulphur at all when applying it to the deadwood?

Yeah, I always dilute my lime sulfur. I just guesstimate by eye, but it’s generally somewhere in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 lime sulfur, with the remainder water.

 

[Lorax7]

Wired it

 

[Lorax7]

Now that I’ve removed all the wire that was on the branches, the next obvious step is to get it in the ground to thicken the trunk and get it to adhere to the deadwood.

It’s root bound in the container and I’m doing minimal disturbance of the roots, so I’m not particularly concerned about planting now even though it’s not the ideal season for transplanting hinoki. I planted it on top of a tile to promote lateral growth of the roots and prevent it from putting down a tap root underneath. I figure I’ll leave it in the ground for about 3 years or so and then dig it up again to do root work.

 

[LeftHandLuke]

Thanks for documenting this. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!