[HN Gopher] Daisugi, the 600-Year-Old Japanese Technique of Grow...
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       Daisugi, the 600-Year-Old Japanese Technique of Growing Trees Out
       of Other Trees
        
       Author : known
       Score  : 87 points
       Date   : 2021-04-26 12:06 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.openculture.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.openculture.com)
        
       | BugsJustFindMe wrote:
       | > _Done right, the technique can prevent deforestation and result
       | in perfectly round and straight timber_
       | 
       | It's annoying that this doesn't explain what the hell "done
       | right" means. What does one have to "do right" to get perfectly
       | round and straight timber out of it? Graft the right tree?
        
         | jeffbarr wrote:
         | There's more info in the Twitter thread
         | (https://twitter.com/wrathofgnon/status/1250287741247426565).
         | Patience and pruning every two years are key!
        
           | samatman wrote:
           | Also (this is easy to miss) the technique is performed only
           | on clones of one mutant Sugi tree (Japanese "cedar", actually
           | more closely related to redwoods but it's its own genus).
        
       | warent wrote:
       | It's fascinating!... But am I the only one who finds this
       | actually aesthetically unpleasant?
        
       | learn_more wrote:
       | I always thought some of the vertical branches growing on this
       | mossy Live Oak in Gainesville FL, were like small trees growing
       | out of the moss on the larger, horizontal branches. They look
       | atypical.
       | https://www.google.com/maps/@29.6527082,-82.3339247,3a,45.5y...
        
       | nabla9 wrote:
       | Handy template: <Japanese name for doing something>, ancient
       | Japanese technique/art of <doing something>.
       | 
       | For example:
       | 
       | Aruku, ancient Japanese technique of moving around. Written as Bu
       | ku and literally meaning 'walk' is movement of feet Japanese have
       | perfected over thousands of years.
        
         | vangelis wrote:
         | Nakadashi, the Japanese Art of Fulfilling Others.
        
       | hprotagonist wrote:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing the technique is widely
       | known.
       | 
       | not every coppiced tree can be convinced to grow straight,
       | though.
        
         | Isamu wrote:
         | I came here to mention coppicing as well. In medieval Europe
         | forests were highly managed or farmed, and this technique
         | produced a steady source of straight poles that were used in
         | various diameters.
        
           | ed25519FUUU wrote:
           | Once you see coppicing it's one of those things you'll notice
           | everywhere that was cultivated for a long period of time. I'm
           | surprised at how straight the shoots would grow, and farmers
           | were pretty good at managing and multiplying timber using
           | this method.
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | I just responded to a sibling pointed out that Rome records
             | pollarding for at least 2100 years, but pollard and coppice
             | are also critical to First Nations crafts in the new world
             | as well. I think the only reason it dates to 100 BC in Rome
             | is due to the limitations of recorded history, not a lack
             | of imagination.
             | 
             | I'd place reasonable odds that coppice/pollard are older
             | than the written word. I'
        
         | oasisbob wrote:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollarding is another similar
         | technique, probably most similar to this one.
         | 
         | It's an interesting one to discuss with arborists. In North
         | America, there isn't a long history of pollarded trees, so the
         | technique is generally frowned upon since it's essentially
         | "topping", a universally derided pruning method.
         | 
         | European arborists who maintain historical trees are more
         | familiar with pollarding, and commonly are asked to explain why
         | they believe their continuance of topping is defensible as a
         | modern or scientific technique in the care of trees.
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | Pollarding, according to Wikipedia, was first mentioned by a
           | Roman poet 2100 years ago.
           | 
           | You could claim sort of convergent evolution, but I find it
           | hard to believe that a 1500 year old Roman cultivation
           | technique was reinvented in Japan almost exactly at the apex
           | of China's naval power. This smells of corporate espionage.
        
         | OJFord wrote:
         | It's closer to pollarding isn't it? But even that's more 'let's
         | make the tree bushy at this height' than the 'let's have
         | normal-looking trees above this point as a starting platform'
         | that _daisugi_ seems to be.
        
       | Zababa wrote:
       | The twitter thread from which the images came is also worth a
       | read: https://twitter.com/wrathofgnon/status/1250287741247426565
        
         | fireattack wrote:
         | The technique is definitely cool, but can it really be called
         | "sustainable"?
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-28 23:00 UTC)