Shou Sugi Ban for grow boxes

Jzack605

Jzack605

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I kind of regret not doing this to my growboxes. It looks awesome and should help the wood last longer. Anyone do this for theirs?
 
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Brian Van Fleet said:
Do you?
Not worth the effort to me, it’s just a grow-out box, I have no problem with the look of wood, and don’t want charcoal on my hands every time I move it.
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I don’t but I’ve concidered doing it this week actually with propane torch.

I was thinking to sand box lightly and wash it with soap and oil.

I don’t want to worry about bumping into it, or just being a mess either..

I would like to think there is a way to avoid the soot...not sure what that is..you raise a good point, as well as it’s just a grow box...

new to me
 
Use a strong varnish and a paint roller. That stuff holds way longer than charred wood.
Turpentine based, the conifers don't mind it.

Or, spend your time and money on making another box. My mycorrhizae love untreated wood.
 
Jzack605 said:
I kind of regret not doing this to my growboxes. It looks awesome and should help the wood last longer. Anyone do this for theirs?
Click to expand...
Wow now you've got me full of regret that I didn't do my boxes, my benches etc this way!! Have just "gotten into" this type of finishing (properly, had been using butane on deadwood as-preservative instead of L.Sulfur for years now as it just works better), been making some stands and using it, some things I should mention that seem confused in other posts here:

- you're not going to be all sooty, it's only giving-off soot during the process, just like paint will get on you during application. I can char a piece of wood, have my hose running gently and just use a stiff sponge on it (under the running water) and voila super quick&easy to finish.

- this is legitimately a very very effective wood-preservation method

- the time-spent is relatively trivial, for instance Re the comment about "can't waste my time on that!"- if you feel that way then you're, presumably, buying premade containers and this doesn't pertain to you ;) If, however, you are building your own boxes then it's not a "time waste" it'd be a mere fraction of the box-build time.


I also wanna add/comment on wiresguywires' post-- You hit on a good point there regarding mycorrhizae, I've certainly noticed this effect (the substrate's myco 'joining with' the wooden boxes) but I've never seen any discrepancies between wooden/non-wooden boxes, so would be very curious whether there's an actual boost to the tree because the fungi's have that extra wood to digest....would love to hear more from anyone better-read on how myco works / how resources are shared (ie if the hyphae are eating all that wood, but were already giving the tree the most the tree could uptake, then wouldn't the extra fungal-colonization of the wood be irrelevant to the tree?) Will say that I always add some amount of wood-chips to any substrate explicitly because the hyphae seem to 'take to it' better than anything else in my mixes, heck I can(and do) reach into established containers and grab a chunk of cob-webbed wood to break-up and use to 'seed' new soils/substrates ;)

Thanks for the idea OP, I totally get the concept of "when it's done, throw the box out" but I work with a lotta trees and am not looking to make more boxes than-necessary (nor would I even if I only had 10 trees as I hate being wasteful), I've actually got a box in-mind that'll be getting this treatment now for sure :) Really wish I'd learned of this before assembling all my benches/displays because I would've done it instead-of painting, someone's mentioned in this thread that varnish is OK....that'd worry the hell out of me, not only does "varnish" encompass myriad formulations (even if turpentine-based) with unknown ingredients but so far as I understood it a burnishing simply outlasts varnishing (unless we're talking about repeatedly varnishing it versus a 1-time shou sugi ban burnishing)

Gotta say this produces some outstanding finishes, the luster of it can be incredible if the wood was smooth enough will snap some shots of pieces I've done this week (some got water-base poly, some got real poly, others just the burnishing--- that is now my preferred method, just burnish / no poly)
 
The species of wood is at least as important as the process. Different saps react differently at elevated temperatures, and that's where the rubber meets the road. It's not the process. It's the process applied to certain species.
 
I forgot I made this thread!

occasionally I see a tree in a grow box that I think fits it better than a “real” pot. There was a rhododendron shared here that fit that.
 
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Forsoothe! said:
The species of wood is at least as important as the process. Different saps react differently at elevated temperatures, and that's where the rubber meets the road. It's not the process. It's the process applied to certain species.
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Absolutely!!! Have had a blast w/ BC wood, Oak & Loropetalum weren't remotely as nice to work with (BC wood is also just so light & smooth it's amazing, have this beautiful, tall knee that's sanded pure-white and am still fretting over what to do w/ it Re preservation as I don't want to alter that white hue or the sheen and am uncertain if that's even possible IF I want to do any forms of preservation-treatment to it)

I'm uncertain how relevant saps are to it, though....saps aren't homogeneously distributed through the woods, yet the woods I've done so far (maple/oak/loropetalum/bamboo/Ilex) have all responded to burnishing* quite uniformly I think the variance has far more to do with other physical attributes of the wood-fibers than sap (just the sheer variety in woods blows my mind, our Live Oak here is 76lbs per cu.ft., would not be surprised to find BC's were nearer to 25lbs/cu.ft.!!)

[also...."It's not the process"....that's a bit loose don't you think? Shou sugi ban can be done in many ways, w/ and w/o stains, heck even just "how charred?", or "how much rub-off after the charring?" are two variables in the process that offer a million combinations, if anything I've found that while the woods do react distinctly there is more-than that much distinction between varying shou sugi ban techniques! I will say it is something I'm only familiar with on a small-scale level, if your experience is with wood-siding for homes or something then I'm sure the species is critical however for decorative/aesthetic pieces - regardless of species - they get black&charcoal'd when you do it, and they're capable of being sanded-back to whatever level of 'remaining-burnish' you like, of course their non-burnished coloration will vary but every species of lumber will absolutely follow that path]
 
penumbra said:
It is what you make of it.
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Isn't so much of life?!? :D

For me, it's certainly worth it, making new boxes is - obviously - more difficult, time-consuming & wasteful than simply removing the tree for root-work and, with the box empty, replacing the bottom metal-mesh screening, replacing the corner-screws with larger ones (or just wrapping L brackets around the corners if the wood isn't taking screws tightly anymore) Hate throwing-out something that can be salvaged, just as a general stance in life, but when it comes to boxes I am always rebuilding-when-able (and trust me it is truly no bother/hassle for me to build a box I've made so many dozens, have all the materials & tools on-hand already, just wouldn't replace one before it dies ;)
 
Jzack605 said:
I forgot I made this thread!

occasionally I see a tree in a grow box that I think fits it better than a “real” pot. There was a rhododendron shared here that fit that.
Click to expand...
I'm so glad you did!! I found it via googling "shou sugi ban bonsainut" to see what was on here, found yours 1st, anyway I was browsing because I've got over half a dozen dead-collected-trees(yamma's that didn't survive and have aged/cured wayyyy over 1yr) and found shou sugi ban to be the best way of working most of them, however when I found your thread here it was perfect because I'm literally in the middle of working a larger Bougie that's in a box that, when I picked it up, a side & the bottom both gave-way, had to bear-hug it "on my thighs" just to get it down safely, anyways my initial instinct was simply "this'll get tossed, not re-used" but, upon finding your thread, now "like the 'challenge'" of doing my normal rebuild only using the burnishment to enhance its longevity this time around :D


(*because of edit-times I've gotta elaborate on my ^ earlier asterisk here: I put an asterisk next to 'burnishing' because I'd been using that term for years - it's the only viable way I see of protecting deadwood in FL if you have heavy irrigation - but was surprised when, in the past weeks getting into some woodworking, when I learned that "burnish" does NOT mean to use fire, it refers to frictional heat only not combustion heat! But, like I've got no intention of stopping:
- calling yard-collected bougies "yamadori bonsai", or
- calling shou sugi ban "yakisugi",
, I've also got zero intention to stop using "burnish" to describe shou sugi ban, there's just no way I'm gonna walk people through a 4-syllable japanese term when "burnish" will immediately convey what I am trying to describe ;D )
 
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