Zelcova chop

This Zelcova is one tree in my collection I can never part with, it’s a second generation tree as my late father started it from seed in the late 90s. It’s first year was raising the seed, second year in the ground where it spent two years, then dug up and put into a washing up bowl. Year 5 it was cut down and hose pipe was used to form the broom. Yar 7 it had the roots layered to improve the nebari. Since then it has been grown on and repotted into the current smaller pot.

we are a few years later, with a problem. It’s too big for shohin and too small for a good chuhin, so I have made the drastic decision to chop it down and restart the process again.

So we have chopped it down with a staggered v cut and covered it in cut paste to keep in the moisture and keep about the weather. If we left it as is when the new shoots emerge they will swell outwards and get a bulge that will only get worse and not what we want to archive. The best way is to wrap it tight to prevent this. As it happened it was the same diameter as a section of pipe we had. The pipe we cut to length and slit down the middle to aid removal later and so we could put a cable tie around to keep it tight, i also taped it for good measure.

So that’s stage one done now we need to keep it under covers, and keep our fingers crossed we get the shoots we need.