Tourniquet Bonsai
The ring method involves cutting away a ring of bark at the point on the trunk branch where you would like new roots to grow.
Tourniquet bonsai. The ring method involves cutting away a ring of bark. In the same way that a ground layered trunk will begin to produce new roots above the wire tourniquet. With the ring method all three layers bark phloem and cambium are removed. The alternative method to ring barking is the tourniquet.
Tree species suitable for the tourniquet method include maples junipers pines azaleas and elms. A piece of wire is wrapped tightly around the branch below the proposed rooting site as the branch grows the tourniquet bites into the bark and then the cambium layer. When the trunk grows thicker the stream of nutrients will decrease more and more forcing it to grow new roots just above the wire. Apply a tourniquet during the spring.
As the trunk grows thicker the stream of nutrient is restricted further forcing it to grow roots just above the wire. You will get results quickly usually in one growing season. There is an old method that the japanese use where a wire tourniquet is placed around the base of a tree in order to induce a swelling. The idea of this technique is that as the trees grow and their trunks thicken and expand against the sides of the holes each tree begins to layer itself.
This is especially true if you apply this to fast growing material. As the name implies the tourniquet involves tightly wrapping the branch with copper wire to block the nutrient stream partially. The tourniquet method crushes and cuts into the bark phloem and cambium to sever this downward path. An alternative to using wire as a tourniquet is to plant the tree in the ground through a hole in a ceramic tile for more details on this technique please see part two of this article as the trunk slowly thickens the hole in the tile bites into the bark and cambium layers as a wire tourniquet does and as the trunk swells above the surface of the tile new roots are produced.
The tourniquet method is suitable for species that are unable to cope with removing a complete ring of bark. This video is about bonsai japanese maple tourniquet ground layer. The portion above the ring will have to grow roots immediately in order to survive.