Many, many, years ago, there was an imported, Japanese product on the market that was supposed to very quickly, - in a matter of months - thicken the trunks and branches of trees. It was called "FUTURO". and it came in a small, plastic bottle, ... maybe about an ounce ... also, very expensive! It was a reddish-brown powder, and, you mixed this stuff with some water until a thick paste was formed, ... almost looked like thin clay. This paste was then rubbed onto the section of trunk/branch that needed thickening. The "trick" to using this product was that bark of the trunk/branch was first pricked all over with a nail or pin until the bark/cambium layer was wounded. The more prick holes, the faster the trunk thickened, and callused over the holes, causing extra thickening in the area touched by the paste. The pricked/wounded sections were spiral-wrapped with a layer of gauze/cheese-cloth strips, and this was again, covered with sphagnum moss. You were instructed to keep this gauze/moss wrapping constantly damp. This product promised to "quickly thicken" a trunk, the equivalent to growing in the ground for a few years, within 6 months! The directions for using this product were written in Japanese. The bonsai nursery that sold this product also provided the translated instructions. I could swear that the bonsai nursery was located somewhere in Texas ... some, "bonsai farm", or, whatever.

Anyway, I've been asking modern-day, bonsai suppliers about this product, and no one seems to remember seeing it, selling it, or, hearing about it. This leads me to one conclusion: the claims were probably BS, the paste was probably lousy, and didn't do what it was supposed to do, i.e. fatten trunks fast!

Has anyone ever heard of this product, or ever used this paste? I'm curious, and would like to know if this paste still can be bought, and, from where. Most importantly, does it work?

I'd also like to know if there is a tried-and-proven method to rapidly thicken trunks and branches? I know about the wringing/twisting/bending of trunks/branches, ... tying wires to constrict sap flow, hitting the bark on trunks with a hammer, to bust up the cambium layers and force the cambium to regenerate, ... yadda, yadda, yadda, ... but is there a product/method that WILL actually work? Perhaps some kind of paste with growth-activating hormones/chemicals that would stimulate the cambuim layer to produce extra tissue/bark?

Please, feel free to post some information. Thanks, Frank DV

The best way is still to grow it on in the ground for a few years, let it get tall and it will thicken the trunk. I'm also not one for using a 'sacrificial branch' low on the trunk (unless it is in the rear), every tree I've seen that has used this trunk thickening method has an ugly bulge and scar that takes forever to go away.

Good looking trees and good Bonsai always have one element that can not be bought or poured from a bottle...time.

Bob

Thanks for your input. You're right about in ground planting. This IS the best way to get a thicker trunk PDQ.

Re: "FUTURO" ....... just thought I'd ask.

Thanks to all. Frank

I can tell you (after reading the thread) that it was sold for thickening trunks or branches. I don't remember that it was suggested that you use small pinpricks - but that could be my failing memory (I didn't remember what it was for until now). I don't recall that I had any real results.

I agree that damaging the cambium layer is probably as useful as any treatment - other than unrestrained growth in the ground.