This is a bit of a different post covering a tree that has found its way back into my collection lately.

I originally grew this as stock from a cutting and put some early bends into the trunk line. Soon after the wiring of the cutting i gave it to a friend who did the bulk of the work in forming it into a tree and growing it on.

As luck would have it, the tree recently found its way back into my collection.

Stupidly, i didn’t take any before pics, but when i received the tree i re-potted it, changing the angle a bit and fully wired the tree removing a branch or two in the process. All in all, building on my friends work, its forming into an interesting little tree!

Above: The tree post re-pot and styling.

But…….. it still has a while to go.

Normally a shimpaku of this thickness i would keep as stock and grow hard and fast to thicken the trunk and develop the shari’s and live veins. Luckily we cut shari’s into the trunk last year but i still need to focus on developing trunk thickness and continue to develop the sharis as things thicken.

This is somewhat difficult in a tree that i don’t really want to grow out of shape or get too much larger. What i want is to thicken the trunks and keep the tree’s foliage well managed.

The solution is………. Sacrifice branches.

Above: The two main trunk/branch lines.

The tree is built off two main trunk lines as per the diagram above and ideally i would like to thicken both of these lines. To do this i will likely grow two sacrifice branches.

Above: likely locations of sacrifice branching (shown in pink).

I will locate two sacrifice branches (one per trunk line) but in slightly different locations. The sacrifice branch in the apex will be toward the top of the trunk line as i want the entire upright trunk to thicken.

The second sacrifice will be on the first branches trunk line, It will be located back from the first branch tip though, to avoid the branch holding the foliage from thickening too much, keeping it in scale with the other branches.

Above: the image in my head i am aiming for.

I will likely also wire the sacrifice branches into interesting shapes reinforcing the tree’s movement so i can use them as future jins.

To further facilitate this thickening i will be making a shari on the opposite side of the trunk to the shari’s we have already made. I’ve covered this a bit more in THIS post. I am hoping this speeds up the whole process quite a bit. Also keeping the majority of the foliage trimmed and compact should direct a lot of energy into the sacrifice branches which will be left un-pruned. Hopefully allowing them to grow quickly and do their work.

That said however, i do expect this process to take a number of years to get to the thickness level i am after.