Overgrown import Ito

[bwaynef]

I don’t know much about this one prior to it coming to me. I was told it’s imported and while I can believe it, it’s possible it could’ve been grown stateside, though given its current condition, I’m thinking an import that belong to someone whose collection expanded while he got busy with life.

Here it is as I received it.

 

[bwaynef]

I took it to a workshop in case the first tree I worked on didn’t fill the time. (I was the last one working on a tree but the Kiyozuru turned out nicely.). There, Julian Tsai looked at it and smiled. He said, “If it were MY tree, I’d build a shohin with the first two branches and make everything else deadwood.” He then went on to describe the financial benefit to that plan, from a professional point of view. He suggested approach grafting those two branches to bring the foliage in closer, but then mentioned that they likely needed to strengthen to increase the chances of the graft taking.

It was at about this point that I brought it home and created a bit of deadwood as Julian had denoted.

 

[bwaynef]

I let it grow over winter and the apex kept getting more and more dense. Today it got opened up a bit and I was excited to see more budding under the apex than I’d seen in other trees from this “batch”.

I am going to try to root some of these cuttings as I continue to ponder reducing it to the lowest two branches and making deadwood out of the rest. It’s the wrong time of year, but another batch I started earlier in the year is still looking strong, so we’ll see.

 

[WavyGaby]

Very cool tree. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

 

[River's Edge]

I c

I let it grow over winter and the apex kept getting more and more dense. Today it got opened up a bit and I was excited to see more budding under the apex than I’d seen in other trees from this “batch”.

I am going to try to root some of these cuttings as I continue to ponder reducing it to the lowest two branches and making deadwood out of the rest. It’s the wrong time of year, but another batch I started earlier in the year is still looking strong, so we’ll see.

I can understand the suggestion. Particularly with the amount of work involved in grafting, compacting and reducing foliage for eventual new design. Curious to know how much of the upper portion he suggested would actually work out to be be kept as deadwood. Some of the upper sections seem to have been developed incongruent with the manner in which the base was started if kept. Did he have any comments on that aspect?

 

[River's Edge]

Posted twice, this one removed

 

[shohin_branches]

Now isn't the right time of year for it but this would be a good tree to just wire all the branches on and see if you can continue the movement that's in the trunk. It will create more interesting deadwood and help open up the canopy for backbudding.

 

[bwaynef]

I can understand the suggestion. Particularly with the amount of work involved in grafting, compacting and reducing foliage for eventual new design. Curious to know how much of the upper portion he suggested would actually work out to be be kept as deadwood. Some of the upper sections seem to have been developed incongruent with the manner in which the base was started if kept. Did he have any comments on that aspect?

I was surprised at the suggestion, but it made more sense as I pondered it. I almost dismissed it at first because it wasn't what I wanted to hear ...although I didn't have anything in particular in mind either. From what I remember, he mentioned that the timeframe for this path was several years shorter than getting this tree vigorous and restyled and then letting it settle in and giving it a final styling. His suggestions were primarily aimed at how he could get the most value out of the time spent with the tree. From a professional viewpoint, it makes perfect sense, but I'm not yet a professional so I don't HAVE to live in that same space right now. (Still, its valid, and VERY much under consideration right now.) He later gave me an example of a similarly styled tree. Obviously, this isn't a "virt" to overlay precisely onto my tree, but it seemed to convey his intent. You can extrapolate how much he'd keep as deadwood, but seems like most of the substantial branches could be stripped and retained as deadwood.

 

[River's Edge]

I was surprised at the suggestion, but it made more sense as I pondered it. I almost dismissed it at first because it wasn't what I wanted to hear ...although I didn't have anything in particular in mind either. From what I remember, he mentioned that the timeframe for this path was several years shorter than getting this tree vigorous and restyled and then letting it settle in and giving it a final styling. His suggestions were primarily aimed at how he could get the most value out of the time spent with the tree. From a professional viewpoint, it makes perfect sense, but I'm not yet a professional so I don't HAVE to live in that same space right now. (Still, its valid, and VERY much under consideration right now.) He later gave me an example of a similarly styled tree. Obviously, this isn't a "virt" to overlay precisely onto my tree, but it seemed to convey his intent. You can extrapolate how much he'd keep as deadwood, but seems like most of the substantial branches could be stripped and retained as deadwood.

I am currently working with an Itoigawa that was a former show tree, let go for ten years with no work. The tree changed owners from one older person with health issues to another!
Acquired the tree in 2017 and have spent the last seven years. It is now ready for grafting in close. I have compacted as much as possible, rebuilt the root ball and the tree is healthy. With luck the tree will be back to display level in another five years.
If the professional point of view involves primarily efficiency and profit the level of work involved does not make sense. If the professional point of view involves primarily making the most out of the material or respecting the heritage of the material. Former owners vision etc.I think there is room for one more tree that will take longer than expected. Probably a silly point of view given my age.
I do understand the suggestion, not sure that it is really less work though if done properly! I do think it would result in a better tree simply because of the difficulty of carrying out the level of twisting throughout the tree that was begun in the base. For that reason I would limit the amount of deadwood remaining, along with a desire to keep it proportionate with a shohin.
Long comment, lots of room to take either approach. Always fun to have mature material to work with and transform. Enjoy the journey.