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Topical Times – Academy Class – Afternoon session

A regular update on the life and times of John Hanby’s Newstead Bonsai Centre……..

Topical Times – Academy Class – Afternoon session

Our last post under the “Topical Times” banner was on the 19th May and detailed the morning session of a recent academy class where we caught up on a number of ongoing projects.

In the afternoon we turned our attention to some grafting. We have already had some good results with approach grafting using Ittogawa rooted cuttings.

We now wanted to experiment using the scion sealed bag technique. A rather leggy Juniper Pfitzeriana was used as the host tree.

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The method was discussed and suitable Ittogawa material was obtained from some of our stock plants. The cuttings were grafted onto branches and then placed in sealed polythene bags together with some damp sphagnum moss. One cutting was not placed in  a bag so that the results could be compared.

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Next it was the turn of some tall Trident Maples where the tops had already been air layered. The foliage was reduced and a selection of branches made.

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Some branches were deliberately left long and used to make a thread graft in the lower section of the trunk.

This was quite an intense days work, catching up with all the past creations in the morning and starting some new projects in the afternoon. These are invaluable lessons for the students as together they witness and execute established bonsai techniques that they can then apply to improve or enlarge their own collections. Looking forward to the next catch-up already !!!…….