I have been getting rather eager to start actually fusing my elms together so I have been reading as much as I can about grafting and this process and of course this led me to Fusionbonsai.com , where one of our esteemed judges (Greg) posts his progress and findings (very helpful). From this I have learned a lot that I was wondering as well as some things I would like to avoid. Waiting to start has been frustrating but it has given me the opportunity to think through things and make a plan. Here are some of the things I am planning on doing:
Timing:
Greg suggests doing all of this while the tree is dormant because we must bare root the seedlings. I might be waiting too long in my desire to see at least some buds swell but I was thinking that the more sap that is flowing the better the better the wounds will heal (more on why there are wounds to start with below).
The method:
Greg uses a wire frame to achieve a very dramatic taper which, though impressive and powerful in appearance, is not to my own tastes for this project. I will simply be bundling these together as tightly as I can. Since I am only using 10-13 seedlings, there wont be many are completely surrounded (most likely to die?). I might not get the massive 4-6 inch trunk with the dramatic taper, but my hope is that I will get decent taper and a 1-1.5 inch trunk.
Another thing I think I will change is the method of applying pressure. I don't like the scarring that the twist ties give to the trunk and if I can, I would like to avoid the sort of bumps that form, if I can. I know that these will fade with time, but I am going for a smaller tree overall and so these bumps might be more noticeable. Instead of using twist ties, I am going to bind all the trees together using Rafia, lots of it. In addition, I am going to treat these more like a traditional approach graft and wound the connecting points slightly by carefully scraping away the outermost layers until I reach the cambium. Keeping the wounds aligned without twist ties is going to be tricky but I have some ideas that I will show with pictures when I do it.
I know that wounding them like this may stress the plants too much or they may dry out so I am going to wrap the fusion points in parafilm to reduce water loss at the wound sites. Parafilm is like a combination between wax paper, saran wrap and grafting tape.
Hopefully my modifications give me something that is fused and looks good, while giving me a good potensai to work on in the future. any comments or criticisms are welcome.