[HN Gopher] The art of niwaki (Japanese tree pruning) (2017)
___________________________________________________________________
The art of niwaki (Japanese tree pruning) (2017)
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 82 points
Date : 2024-09-12 13:49 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.fantasticgardenersmelbourne.com.au)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.fantasticgardenersmelbourne.com.au)
| delichon wrote:
| I'm pruning trees in my yard this month, mostly pinyon pine. I
| looked up whether it's ok to remove pinyon branches that have no
| needles or if maybe they're just dormant. The consensus is:
| remove.
|
| My motivation is fire suppression. But they look better and the
| yard feels more peaceful to me after the treatment. I don't know
| why. Maybe I could study with the Japanese to understand it, but
| I'm not sure it matters.
| Maciek416 wrote:
| Pines have a hard time pulling on the water chain due to their
| needle design (silhouette/waxy coating). To move water to a
| location on a pine branch, you usually need needles or a strong
| tip bud that was already emerging just as the needles were lost
| (i.e. the needles already drew a lot of sap to that location
| just before their demise). If at a given junction you can trace
| to a descendant shoot that is green / has needles, then the
| live vein traces through that junction. If no descendant shoot
| with needles, you're looking at dead wood and inspecting under
| the bark won't find any trace of green cambium, or only fading
| cambium.
| contingencies wrote:
| If you are aiming for your garden to provide habitat for birds
| and animals, human-aestheic-ifying all the things is not a good
| strategy. For instance, don't underestimate the habitat value
| of old limbs with hollows.
| delichon wrote:
| I don't have a garden, I have a yard that has only volunteers
| growing on it. I'm aiming to reduce the fire hazard. The
| human-aestheic-ifying is a side effect. I'm happy that
| removing an old limb not only reduces the fire danger but
| also makes it less pleasant for rodents, insects and rattle
| snakes to live near my house. They have caused many thousands
| of dollars in damage already.
|
| High wildfire risk here. When not if it arrives, it will
| destroy a lot more animal than human habitat.
| nabla9 wrote:
| The art of Baumschnitt (German tree pruning)
|
| The art of Trjaklipping (Iselanding tree pruning)
|
| Just go trough normal things people do in Japan and add title
| "Art of <activity in Japanese>" and it sounds exotic.
|
| For example: The Art of O shiri o kaku (oKao woSao ku)
| YeahThisIsMe wrote:
| Another good one is the famed "Zaratsu polishing" on watches,
| named simply for the manufacturer of the polishing machines
| (Sallaz).
| dbtc wrote:
| But there is something Japanese about making an art out of
| regular little mundane things. Or perhaps bringing an art to
| them.
| nabla9 wrote:
| The art of anal retentiveness :)
|
| ("Anal-retentive" is characterized by excessive concern with
| details, being obsessively tidy, punctual, and respectful of
| authority.)
| foreigner wrote:
| I know it's absurd but somehow I've always intuitively felt that
| this sort of gardening philosophy (and especially bonsai) is
| cruel to the plants. It's like we're forcing the plant to grow in
| an unnatural way by abusing it.
| surprisetalk wrote:
| You might enjoy the philosophy Masanobu Fukuoka, who advocates
| for "do-nothing farming".
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_farming
| istjohn wrote:
| I think of it like combing the tree's hair. A tree sends out
| branches in all directions, but many of those branches are
| growing towards branches that are already there where the sky
| is already shaded. Many of them will naturally die off when
| they can't find enough light.
|
| We're just expediting the natural process and opening the tree
| up to the air and light. Ultimately, we're saving the tree from
| investing energy into dead ends and guiding its energy into the
| branches that can most effectively reach more open sky, which
| is what the tree really "wants." We're just acting as the
| tree's eyes to guide it.
| eilefsen wrote:
| Pruning plants is very often good for them.
| istjohn wrote:
| Heron's Bonsai on YouTube has a few videos, e.g. [1], where he
| prunes garden trees and describes his thinking. There are just a
| few principles to learn: cut to discourage growth in a given
| direction and encourage growth in the other direction, remove
| growth that grows inwards and/or upwards, remove branches growing
| towards other branches, thin out growth to create visual
| separation between branches and to make the trunk and branch
| structure shine.
|
| After watching three or four videos, I felt confident enough to
| try my hand on some small trees. It's quite satisfying. The
| process is pleasantly engaging and relaxing once you push past
| the natural anxiety around cutting off a tree's limbs, and even a
| complete amateur can dramatically improve the appearance of a
| tree in a couple hours.
|
| 1. https://youtu.be/sIE882Lx1NQ
| vr46 wrote:
| The very cool Bonsai dealer(?) I once bought a tree from summed
| the bonsai pruning tips for my limited memory as, (1) no criss-
| crossing branches, (2) nothing pointing down, and so far, those
| have proved very useful to me, but I've enjoyed reading more and
| more styles.
| openrisk wrote:
| Never understood the human obsession with minutely controlling
| the shape of plants. There is enough we control already (with bad
| effect).
|
| Natural forms are just fine. Morphogenesis is one of the deepest
| unsolved mysteries, best enjoyed without poor derivative attempts
| at imposing additional symmetry etc.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-09-15 23:01 UTC)