Nah, I'll just finish it right here, right now. Here it is:
This is a re-do of a tutorial I posted elsewhere years ago. It shows the technique of “Baby Bending.”
I learned the phrase and technique of baby bending from Dan Robinson. Others may have also developed and taught this technique in various forms, but I am not aware that anyone has placed the emphasis on it that Dan has. Those familiar with my book about Dan Robinson, "Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees," can find on pages 84-85 his theories about the science behind the formation of gnarly branches on ancient trees in nature. In this tutorial, however, I will merely focus on the technique, and the appearance of age that the technique creates.
In a nutshell, ancient trees develop gnarly branches over a period of centuries. In bonsai, we don't have centuries to produce the effect. Baby bending can produce the effect in only several seasons, as will be shown in some progression series below.
There are other ways beside baby bending to get similar results. One such technique is "clip-and-grow," made famous by the Lingnan School of penjing in southern China. The technique works very well in tropical or semi-tropical climates where the fast annual growth rate makes it practical to create results in a reasonable period of time. Clip-and-grow technique also produces very realistic results, since it most closely mimics what actually goes on in nature.
Another approach is to use standard ramification techniques developed in Japanese bonsai and its imitators. These are the techniques usually found in American and European books on bonsai technique, and they are the mainstay in temperate climates with shorter growing seasons. The effect, however, is not nearly as convincing as cut-and-grow or baby bending in my opinion, often producing an image that is more stylized than convincingly natural in appearance.
The fundamental premise for the technique can be summed up in the old saying, "As the twig is bent, so grows the tree." Without understanding baby bending, however, people typically fail to bend the tree's twigs while they are still easily bendable twigs, instead waiting until the branches thicken and mature a bit more. However, depending on the species, the small twigs may get rigid and brittle even within one or two seasons, and attempts then to impose gnarly-ness will often simply result in a broken or dead branch. It is best to do it when the branch is still a “baby,” still supple and bendable, and this is all the more true since sharp bends - which give more bang for the buck visually - quickly become impossible in some species.
Sharp bends along the length of the branch, again, are the ideal here, not merely using the wire to create curves or undulations. The bends should be anywhere from 15 to almost 180 degrees, and occur in all three dimensions, and at irregular intervals along the branch. Bends that are unexpected can create a dramatic effect, and irregular zigzags will mimic the gnarly branches found on old trees in nature.
In addition, the bends you are after should occur along the length of the branch, not just right as it leaves a trunk or a larger branch: wrapped wire can alter the angle that a small branch takes from its origin, but extreme bends there are often not tolerated, and in general I prefer using guy wires to place branches in space, and reserve wrapped wire for bending.
It is important to understand that bends which look extreme when first imposed will often be softened over the years as the branch thickens, such that extreme bends are seldom too extreme for the final image as the tree matures under your care.
Some species will tolerate extreme levels of bending, and even repeated bending, as you get the image right, whereas in other species the cambium will simply get disrupted and the branch will die. Also, in some species the wood will be hardened and will easily break when bent even in the first year or two, and these species need to be bent less radically. Azaleas and Japanese Maples are delicate in this way in my experience. Many conifers, however, and a number of deciduous trees are much more flexible, and sudden 90 degree and almost 180 degree bends are routinely tolerated by young whips. It is best to experiment with a branch or two first if you are not familiar with how your tree will respond.
A final point is to use wire on EVERY small branch when you first start to style a tree. This also comes from Dan: "Every branch deserves to be wired". It will also build on the previous bending if you repeat the process on all the new whips you intend to keep each year for a few more seasons at least after the initial styling, and perhaps on some trees to simply do it every year long into the future.
Although I am not a perfectionist about impeccable wiring technique - viewing wiring more as a means to an end than an end in itself - with baby bending it is important in delicate species to wrap the wire evenly and firmly against the bark. Without doing this, two problems can arise. First, loose wire will not produce as tight a bend in some directions, depending on where the looseness is in relation to the direction bent. Secondly, and more importantly, keeping the wire tight against the bark protects the vital cambium from separating away from the bark and sapwood, in which case it becomes very susceptible to disruption, which results in death of the branch distal to the cambial wound. This is a serious danger in some species.
So, wrap firmly. If it digs in a little it will merely add to the effect in many species, and besides, unlike using wrapped wire to place branches in space, the gnarly bends will usually set before the wire digs in. Of course, though, keep an eye on it over time, especially during times of branch thickening, such as the fall, when many temperate climate trees store nutrients in the cambium, causing a sudden, marked thickening.
I will post now several progression series where I have used this technique to create a fairly convincing illusion of great age in just a few years in trees that typically sport boringly straight branches.
First a trident maple, developed over four years:
