Thread Graft / Root Graft Tutorial : Part 2 (Drilling and Attaching Seedling) 

Now that you mention it, I have seen it. I should have been better with my preparation for this video. Thank you for bringing that to my attention!

@@smalltrees You're welcome. You won't forget anymore now...

i guess you can use baking paper for that purpose

I just tried to use some things I had available (cling wrap, moistened newspaper) and had mixed results. I'll give baking paper a shot.

That's a good tip, thank you. In this case with this seedling, that would have made the roots of the seedling I selected angle upwards. As I imagine it, would this only work with nebari that are already very flat? Those that angle upwards would not match with this technique very well, would they?

@@smalltrees in one year saplings it doesn't matter. You just select the roots most perpendicular to the trunk as your keepers or bamboo skewers placed under the structural roots either side and on top of the graft work well.

I see. I may try it once or twice off camera and make sure I am comfortable with it before I show it in any video. thank you very much for the insight!

@@smalltrees no problem, good to see folk doing diligent, careful work for a quality end product rather than some quick hack n slash channels.

For sure. Some people will do some crazy, great looking work but you know it's just going to kill the tree.

Thank you! This has fused but I didn't separate the graft yet. I probably will in the spring.

Do you mean that you do an approach graft and then leave the seedling attached for a while after the graft has taken as a sacrifice branch? I've not, but mainly because I ground grow most of my trees and so I get a lot of growth every year. If I had one in a pot that I wanted to thicken up, I might try it.

Thank you very much! I am proud of where both I and the tree have gotten to.

Both very good tips! I think I tried to wrap the buds with cling wrap, but couldn't do it. I need some raffia or something. I will definitely try the wood on the exit side on my next graft. Simple, but very smart!

I'll cut the roots closer to the trunk eventually. With this tree having especially radial roots, I wanted to see if they would fuse by themselves. If so, the nebari will be insane. In either case, you will use a combo of specific soil and root work to get the feeder roots where you want them. All of my trees and really all of my content is focused on work that I do on trees that are still in the very early stages of development. I do a pretty good job of keeping feeder roots close to the trunk on ground-grown trees, but there is definitely a different approach when you start to think about potting a tree.

This video was shot just a couple days ago. The tree that I showed before the tutorial actually does have a before and after. The video where I made the root grafts on that tree was made last year, and you can see it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-siMFRiLfK_4.html . The update video was filmed last week and can be seen here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lmgKojpGkRY.html

@@smalltrees Got it. I thought you mentioned it being spring a time or two, which might not be a glaring error in your climate zone. But I'm in zone 6 where it's 10 degrees Fahrenheit as I write this, so actual spring for me is far, far away. XD Keep up the great videos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

My spring usually comes pretty early, and my winters are mild, so they almost blur together.

Thank you for the kind words!

Luckily for you, I have an intro video on the subject, and I did a follow up on it as the first in the uncut series I think. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GRHYW_LZzmg.html

@@smalltrees Ok I will take a look, I also appreciate your speedy responses

I get most comment notifications straight to my phone, so I try to stay on top of it. After you watch my video, search for Ebihara Maples or Zelkova on Google. His methods changed the way people practiced bonsai when he first began showing his trees.

I used my own. I make it and sell it on my website!

In general, no, but I may be able to get it with this tree without a lot of additional effort. If so, I'll gladly take it!

I'm sure it has been done, but you would need foliage above it to keep the tree from dying back below the graft before it could take. If you wanted to graft a leader for the future, before you chop the tree, that could be easily done.

@@smalltrees AWESOME! Thanks!

No problem! I'll look for an opportunity to make a graft like this and make a video if I have a suitable tree.