Chinese juniper with deadwood attached advice please.

Hi everyone

I have a chinese juniper with a piece of deadwood attached to it, could anyone give me advice on this please i have cleaned the old filler that was on the tree to the deadwood and was going to fill it back up with white wood filler, But the deadwood looks worn and needs a good clean as well.

Would anyone use arcylic white paint on the deadwood anyone with advice on this?

Also the white filler would anyone paint that as well or just leave it white?

any advice would be most welcome on this

This statement I copy from Wikipedia hope can help u.
Once deadwood has been shaped to the designer's plan, the exposed area is treated with a bleaching preservative. The most common is a horticultural combination of lime and sulfur, available from many garden outlets. The preservative protects the wood from rot and pest infestation, and provides a uniform bleaching that resembles weathered, aged wood.[9] If the lime-sulfur mixture used, it is usually colored with a small amount of dark paint to make it look more natural. Without paint pigments, the lime-sulfur solution bleaches wood to a bone-white color that takes time to weather and become natural-looking

If u want to know in detail please refer below link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood_bonsai_techniques

I like the "bone white" color of lime sulfur. Also sometimes the deadwood will begin to rot, in this case a product called MinWax wood hardener is used this really protects the wood. It does not leave the wood white, instead it will darken it some. Either/both of these products must be applied on a regular basis, the lime sulfur probably every six months and the wood hardener every year.
I am more bothered by the exposed screws. Can they be put in all the way? They should be stainless steel. If those can't be put in all the way maybe shorter screws should be used.
In Bonsai you tree is called a Tanuki or Phoenix graft.

Cheers Samson for your helpful advice on this tree.

Cheers Billy for your advice as well yes the screws go all the way in they are only out whilst I clean it and renew the filler

Kindest regards mark

Mark Cutter wrote:Cheers Samson for your helpful advice on this tree.

Cheers Billy for your advice as well yes the screws go all the way in they are only out whilst I clean it and renew the filler

Kindest regards mark

your aim is for the living tree to grow onto the piece of dead wood so it becomes one trunk with no visible join. - this means you dont want to be undoing the screws and seperating the two parts really, otherwise the tree is set back to the start again. The filler is not really part of the design either, ideally the living part of the tree will match the contours in the dead bit - you may need to carve a few bits here and there to get a nice neat match up.

once you have the live and dead bits matching nicely screw it on nice and tight (brass screws are best) and let the heads go quite deep into the living bit - then it heals over the top and the screws are invisible inside the tree. in time the live bit swells and looks more natural. From now on you need to use a wire brush to clean the wood, before using lime sulphar or cuprinol or similar to stop the rot, but you need to do this carefully as the live bit must remain attached. I've done well with a pressure washer in the past to clean really dirty dead wood,but dont blast the foliage !

good luck

Marcus

cheers everyone on the help on this matter

Learn something new every day! I did here.

I would guess that you would have to put the screws in through the live stock and make sure it isn't too long or it will go all the way through the dead stock. It might even be easier to either use a very small headed screw or leave it out like it is here and then nip the screw off close to the trunk. The smaller screw shaft would be easier the growing tree to encapsulate than the screw head.

Jay

Marine megastore (look on net) sells wood hardener in the UK, can't remember the name but it's probably similar to the one Billy R mentioned. You can buy it in small quantities if you're not going to use that much.

Cheers