Sometimes, bonsai don’t always go (or grow) as planned. That’s the case with this Monterey Cypress Eric started 15 years ago from seed. At one point, it was healthy and refined enough to be part of a Bonsai Society of San Francisco annual show. Now, it’s almost dead. Eric hopes to bring it back to life with a design reset!
00:01:05 When the tree first started declining in health a few years ago, Eric thought it had root rot and treated it with multiple fungicides. After, the entire tree other than 1 branch died. Monterey Cypress are susceptible to a pitch canker fungal infection that gets into the cambium and suppress growth, deform and kill branches or occasionally the entire full-size tree.
00:01:58 Eric plans to reorient the foliage to more of a “cypress shape” and use a Dremel tool to strip off the rest of the bark; on the living branch he will remove wire and then rewire.
00:02:32 The Dremel tool isn’t getting the job done so Eric moves on to splitting and carving. He sees evidence of beetles or small insects that chew on cambium.
00:03:37 What happened first – the tree died and then beetles, or beetles caused the death. Close-up of beetle evidence.
00:04:43 Close-up look of what could be canker (small area of dead tissue, which grows slowly, sometimes over years). Side of lifeline has a weird look.
00:06:05 Eric comments on how the properties of wood when dry (dead) are very different than when wet. Splitting the bark to create natural-looking deadwood, using a different process than the fiber-pulling he did with Junipers in a recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JARjCuoTRk.
00:07:27 Finding tunnels in the wood is a sure sign that a borer beetle larva is the cause.
00:08:58 Insect frass (feces) creates interesting features for deadwood.
00:10:47 Eric finds a couple more holes in the wood.
00:11:10 Using a Dremel with wire wheel to strip off remaining bits of bark and smooth out the wood enables Eric to accentuate some of the contours in the wood.
00:12:12 Wire wheel is done for this session. Time to remove the wire!
00:12:48 Starting over with design of the tree – new wires added. Eric explains what he sees and how it guides his design plan.
00:13:56 From refined, show-ready tree back into middle development. Reset and go back to middle development techniques.
00:15:48 Structure Eric has set is intended to be the foundation and he won’t do any more work for now; he’s just going to let the tree grow.
What experiences have you had working on trees that need to be completely redesigned due to dieback? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for watching – give the video a like and share it with friends. Subscribe to the channel to be informed of new Bonsaify videos!
