Reverse taper fix (JBP)

[Daniel.K]

I've got a small shohin japanese black pine (thunderhead) thats been clearly grafted and developed poor reverse taper and was wondering about applying a tourniquet to try to ground layer it.
I was wondering if its not too late as here in Sydney it is the beginning of the very hot summer and i have no experience with this technique although I got all my theory from a-z.
Did I miss the window of the opportunity or can I still give it a go.
Pine was restyled 3 months ago and its pushing candles all over.

 

[Adair M]

Generally speaking, JBP does not ground or air layer easily. I've seen it done in the Japanese magazines.

The reverse taper will probably be there a long time. It appears the scion thickens faster than the stock, unfortunately.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Don't do a ground layer at the beginning of the hot, dry summer season. Wait until weather cools some in autumn.

The tourniquet method can work, but success is not 100%. Worth a try. The year before you do it don't do any styling, or hard pruning. Making the air layer is a big stress for the tree. Keep an eye on the health of the tree during the process, don't resume styling techniques until a season after the air layer separation.

 

[Daniel.K]

thank you guys, the tree is quite vigorous but I will wait till it will pick up 150% and next year I will airlayer it properly just after winter when it will start getting warmer and everything will be waking up

BTW does the same thing apply to JUNIPERS or are they bit easier to air-layer?
I'm thinking about shortening one tree to make it into nice informal upright shohin as the taper and bended trunk is not very appealing..

 

[discusmike]

Hard to tell,is it just the rootstock thats smaller?ive scored the bark before with a razor knife in the reverse tap. Area,and it causes the area to swell,would work really well if the tree was in the ground

 

[0soyoung]

Don't do a ground layer at the beginning of the hot, dry summer season. Wait until weather cools some in autumn.

Huh? I don't get it Leo.

Water is drawn up by the foliage, through the xylem which remains intact. Photosynthates from the foliage go downward in the phloem which we interrupt by a tourniquette/girdle.

What is the relevance of hot, dry summer versus cooling in autumn?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Looking at the photo, it's clearly a very young tree; 3-5 years at most. Far too soon to know the extent to which reverse taper is going to be a problem.

If the scion grows faster, plant it a little deeper and be sure the lowest parts of the scion that form the "V" are at the sides, and just at the soil level.. If the stock grows faster, keep it higher, and turn it 90 degrees so the "V" faces front and back...this puts the fatter stock to the sides and gives an appearance of flared trunk. It's critical to identify the best front possible with grafted trees, and everything else flows from that front.

I have a grafted Zuisho I'm working through the same thing with. I'll try to load a photo tomorrow, but it's in the ground and may be hard to see.

 

[Poink88]

Hard to tell,is it just the rootstock thats smaller?ive scored the bark before with a razor knife in the reverse tap. Area,and it causes the area to swell,would work really well if the tree was in the ground

This is similar to what I did on mine and it is fixing the problem...it is still ongoing but I intend to keep repeating it to increase the base thickness also and create proper taper.

What I did is randomly "stab"/"slice" the trunk downwards to the base all around below the swell/reverse taper. Let it heal then repeat.

 

[thumblessprimate1]

The pine looks very young and small, about 2 years old. I think there's a lot of things you could do. One thing that I think might work to help remedy this problem is to approach graft a seedling or two to the rootstock. It may help give it flare and the foliage could grow to act as low sacrifice branches.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Huh? I don't get it Leo.

Water is drawn up by the foliage, through the xylem which remains intact. Photosynthates from the foliage go downward in the phloem which we interrupt by a tourniquette/girdle.

What is the relevance of hot, dry summer versus cooling in autumn?

Air layering is a stress on the tree - agreed?

The original poster is in Australia, not the USA. Sydney has relatively mild winters, and long hot dry stressful summers. Trees go somewhat dormant during periods of heat stress. It is best to not to add the stress of creating an air layer just before the stress of the very hot dry summer. In Sydney, autumn or early spring would be better times to do air layer than during the stress of summer. I am not certain how cold Sydney gets in winter, so my hem and haw was about best timing, early spring vs autumn. No argument with your outline of the mechanics, just trying to take the growing conditions of the original poster into account.

 

[Dav4]

thank you guys, the tree is quite vigorous but I will wait till it will pick up 150% and next year I will airlayer it properly just after winter when it will start getting warmer and everything will be waking up

BTW does the same thing apply to JUNIPERS or are they bit easier to air-layer?
I'm thinking about shortening one tree to make it into nice informal upright shohin as the taper and bended trunk is not very appealing..

Junipers, as a rule, are much easier to layer then pines...I've had success with both Shimpaku and prostrata. Good luck.

 

[Adair M]

Dav4 is right about junipers being easier to layer. They're propagated from cuttings, so they definitely root easily.

 

[Daniel.K]

sounds like a good news.
and again, tourniquet method under ground or classic air layering with bag of sphagnum moss and rooting hormone?
As for the season, the area where I live is going into the summer and temperatures are reaching over 40 degrees (C). I have to shade few of my trees but pines are going crazy
Winter is at times close to 0 but generally around 5-10 at night and 15-20 during the day with often showers...