Yes pretty easy to plan and execute something that takes decades.
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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To be fair, they said easy, not fast.
I guess my comment came across as sarcastic, I wasn’t. Most plans that take decades are much harder to accomplish than a little pruning and upkeep on a few trees.
Add the word "for" in between the words execute and something, to clear up the lack of sarcasm?
Good tip!
Imagine the complications the average person would face in their life over the course of several decades.
I wonder if I could do something similar with citrus.
Could probably give it a shot. I'd bet there's documentation out there of someones attempts or suggestions.
Is this how the folks in the ganges basin made those tree bridges?
Not exactly; I think that was done by training the aerial roots of ficus.
I’ve always wanted to try making one of those in North America. It should be possible in Florida and maybe even California.
They're considered invasive here in Florida. Sorry to disappoint.
Depends on the species maybe? There are a lot of species.
There is also a native FL Ficus so maybe that one is workable.
Neat! Thanks for teaching me that
I imagine you could find away to adapt it for less wet climates, although primarily for pedestrian bridges and bike path bridges.
Something I think would be nuts would be some sort of national place of ceremony made by growing redwoods together this way, like not just as an art piece, as a full blown gathering place carefully cultivated to be grown out of a network of intermingled plant tissues.
What kind of structure? Like the living bridges you mean?
Redwoods might to tough to work with because they are extremely gravitotropic—meaning they pretty much only grow up. The reason ficus are used is their aerial roots can be trained in any direction, including sideways. Redwoods also have very thick bark but if you get them to fuse young maybe you can work around that.
The technique described is also called "air layering" and is a great way to take large/mature cuttings from trees and other plants. You get roots to grow before you actually remove the branch.