Split trunk experiment

[scarriedoc]

I know Leyland cypress make bad bonsai but bought this for $9 so I thought I'd experiment and practice doing some wrapping and wiring on thicker trunks. I have no idea what im doing, but I thought it might look cool and give some "age" to the trunk if I split it and twisted the left side, keeping the greenery there while leaving the right side to look like dead wood, or at least from some portion upwards. I saw Peter Chan do a split in a trunk, but only to wire it for more movement. Should I wrap the right side with sisal to keep it from dying the whole way up, at least for the lower right portion above the split that I wanted to keep some greenery? Any other comments? I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Shibui]

Not sure if I understand the questions or maybe you have not understood the basic premise here.,
The unwrapped section should not die just because it has been split. To make dead wood we remove the bark. Where there is continuous connection of bark between roots and branches the tree will continue to grow.
The reason for wrapping is not to keep it alive, rather to stop the trunk or branch from cracking when it is bent. Wrapping is normally only applied when making more severe bends that those gentle ones you have made.

 

[scarriedoc]

Ok, thank you. I was thinking the wrapping would keep it from drying out and dying, but thank you for this lesson. I will leave the lower right side unwrapped and only remove some bark from the upper right half. We'll see what happens.

 

[rhuarc]

Any update on this?

 

[scarriedoc]

Any update on this?

It lived even up to the time I put it out for trash. It was a Leyland cypress, so I literally just bought it to try to "practice" splitting and bending on bigger trunks. Both sides appeared to still be living at the time I decided I just didn't want it anymore...which was about 5 months.