[HN Gopher] Daisugi, the 600-Year-Old Japanese Technique of Grow... ___________________________________________________________________ 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"? ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-04-28 23:00 UTC)