However there are several changes I will make in future projects. I am fairly happy with the results of my first fusion project. Total assembly time was 12 hours, which includes building frame, bare rooting seedlings, root and branch pruning, attaching seedlings to frame and potting. Height – 31 inches Circumference at base- 25 inches Finally I placed the tree in a large pot.ģ7 seedlings attached to galvanized frame The seedlings were weaved at the top with the excess to be removed after fusion is complete. I anticipate that this tree should be ready for a bonsai training pot after just one or two growing seasons. I kept as many of the roots as possible to accelerate growth and shorten the fusion time. This is my little hollow tree viewed from the bottom. I randomly cut the thinner seedlings and covered them with larger seedlings as the frame gradually tapered to the top. I had originally planned to use the paper wrapped ties but I could not find enough to complete the whole project. I switched to paper wrapped wire ties half way through assembly because I found the thin copper wire ties to be too brittle. The roots were misted frequently to keep them from drying out. I learned from my experimental grafts that removing the wires could cause the graft to separate. The wires will be left in place and the excess will be cut off after fusion is complete. I tried to get the seedlings as close together as possible to shorten the fusion time by using thin copper wire to attach the seedlings to both the frame and adjacent seedlings. The next step involved attaching the seedlings to the frame. This is a 2-year-old seedling before cleaning and root trimming. The seedlings were bare rooted with all branches removed and roots trimmed. On Feb 20 the tree was assembled using 2-year-old seedlings. Notice how I flared the base to add character to the trunk. My solution was to use ½ inch galvanized screen ( hardware cloth) solving both problems. I saw two problems here, first the cost of heavy copper wire is prohibitive and second it created too few anchor points to tie the seedlings to the frame. Doug Philips had used heavy copper wire to essentially create an upside down tomato cage. The first step of this project was to build a frame. The tallest seedling is 55 inches and the shortest is 10 inches. There are 3 Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Ogon’ in front that I grafted onto seedling rootstock (the brilliant spring yellow color fades to lime green as summer progresses) and 2 possible dwarf Dawn Redwood grown from seed. Here I am standing in my 18 month old seedling forest. This technique will work with Dawn Redwood. In only four weeks the seedlings had all fused at the contact points where they were wired together. I already had seedlings, so I experimented by wiring 3 pairs of seedlings together. There is an article by Doug Philips in a book titled Bonsai Master Class that demonstrated an approach grafting technique (referred to as fusion) of multiple Trident Maple seedlings to create a large trunk perfectly tapered bonsai in a very short time and I thought this might work with Dawn Redwood. What to do with 100 trees? Planting 100 trees is quite a chore and disposing of a critically endangered species (IUCN Red List) like Metasequoia glyptostroboides was something I was not willing to do. 100 of those seedlings survived through the first winter. Having read how hard they were to grow I was surprised to find that 156 of the seeds germinated. When spring rolled around I shook the box and hundreds of seeds fell out. During the late summer and fall I gathered the cones and tossed them in a shoebox for the winter. Fast-forward 18 years and that broken stick had grown over 60 feet tall and produced several hundred seed cones. What arrived was a pathetic bare rooted broken stick, so I planted it in the corner of my yard and ignored it. In 1990 I purchased a Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood) through the mail. Metasequoia glyptostroboides ( Dawn Redwood) Fusion Bonsai