bonzi

[redpowerd]

hey i took a little class on bending small trees around into different shapes and sizes, come to think of it, i spent a lot of money on this 'little'  class.

anyway, we bent and twisted junipers silly, those suckers would grow into whatever shape you wanted.

i had three plants and im left with one from that class, ny neice loves them for playin with (shes 4)

just wondrin ifn u folks mess with these fun little tiny trees

[Tom]

when I was younger, back before the turn of the century , we would find young pines and oaks and tie them together or in knots.  Later they built Port St. Lucie there.  I've often wondered if any of those trees made it and what the people who bought building lots thought.

[redpowerd]

i often thought how oaks would do as theyre so coarse., but a pine hybrid....hmmm

[etat]

Along about the late 60's I tied a knot into the trunk of a small red oak tree.  Tried to make a big loose knot that wouldn't choke it, and do it without breaking the bark. It was about 6 or 8 feet tall. Tried it with several trees about that size before I got one that suited me.  Seems like I had to use some strips of cloth to tie it to keep it from un-springing. Wanted to see what it would look like when it growed up.  It was about a 1/4 mile in the woods behind our house.  I marked some bigger trees close to it so's I could keep up with it.  Every so often I'd clear the vines and undergrowth from around it.  

For a couple of years it did pretty good. Then for some reason or another I didn't check on it for probably about a year.  The original stem wasn't doing good at all.  It had grew another sprout at the ground that was growing good.  Right after that the one I tied into a knot died.

[Minnesota_boy]

hey i took a little class on bending small trees around into different shapes and sizes

So that's how my customers get the wood so crooked?  

[redpowerd]

i read somewheres, and it may be myth, indian lads tested their strength by tying knots in saplings.

[Jeff]

Is it possible that a sapling tied in a knot would girdle its self?

[beenthere]

JeffB
I expect it is possible, depending on the tree species.
I had that 'choking' effect happen when I planted 800 walnut seedlings 35 years ago. On some, the roots were so long that I just twisted them to get them all packed into the slotted hole I made with a spade. I should have trimmed the long roots off. When several trees were not doing so well, I dug them up to transplant them, and found the roots grown tightly together and 'twisted' just as I had planted them. Whereas they didn't die, they sure didn't have a good root system.