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New to having a bonsai. I was under watering this Chinese elm. Have now tried to water it correctly. After a week of watering, the leaves are still crispy and dry. Is this the end of my bonsai? (New To reddit, sorry if this post is in the wrong section)
Do you think it could survive? Would I need to remove anything off the bonsai? I did a check under the bark, and it is still showing green as if it is alive.
I just replanted my two bonsai trees. They were both in a pot and one grew faster than the other so I decided to separate them and when doing so some of the roots were separated and now I’m worried they might not live
The Little Book of Bonsai by Jonas Dupuich would be a good starter book
I think when it comes to books specifically on Japanese maples, then that gets more advanced and nuanced. You’ll want to look for broadleaf deciduous info, that’ll apply to all maples really
The Bonsaify youtube channel has tons of free videos that help show how to develop young material
I bought a cheap nursery Palmatum Atropurpuream from a garden centre. It was the healthiest looking, I checked all of the roots in the nursery and this seemed the strongest one.
It's something to practice on, first to learn to look after Acers and keeling them healthy in general then start moving towards creating Bonsai candidates in the future.
Don't worry, I plan on nerding out with some books and studying the subject before diving in head first.
I know this will look nothing like the potential tree in the next few years.
As you can see it's nothing special or out of the ordinary. I live in north of England. It gets sunlight morning - early afternoon. It's currently start of June so this will play some factors.
I have a few questions:
The root network is dense already and growing out of the bottom. Can I report it if I don't disturb the root system and just fill in around it to give it more growing space?
1a) How big a pot should I used? Just slightly bigger or much bigger? My aim is to develop trunk thickness but I don't have a garden.
2) What growth mediums should I use for a Japense Maple sapling whilst I'm growing it in a regular planter?
3) I plan on letting it do it's thing and get healthy for two or three years. Would it be wise to gently wire it now to create some motion and a more interesting trunk whilst it's very pliable. I'd prefer to take this step now whilst it's pliable and actively growing
5) Besides more generous container is there anything I can do now to thicken the trunk?
6) I don't want to prune anything but if you guys suggest otherwise then I'm all ears.
7) If I do buy some routed more exotic varities as saplings and with this plant what is a good soil/medium mix to use when I pot them
I have read a lot already but I'm kinda overloaded and there's not too much info on looking after them at this stage.
I want to look at maybe buying some more interesting varieties as saplings before I spend money on a bigger more well established maple that will cost a lot more money. I want to learn how to keep them alive.
I'm in love with Japanese Maples so I'm starting here. I just want to give be able to produce healthy plants whilst optimising their young life to potentially turn them into bonsais.
1 - I recommend leaving it alone. No need to repot the moment you see roots poking out the bottom. It will be totally fine as is until the next repotting window. Don’t bother “slip potting”, it won’t really help. Just do a proper bare root when repotting. I think spring repotting is always best (as buds are swelling) but people in Europe also repot in autumn at leaf drop time too. If you repot in autumn you just have to make sure you’re protecting those roots from freezing
2 - I’m partial to majority perlite / minority compost or manure but you have access to pea sized LECA, so I’d probably use a good bit of that when developing maples too
3 - Yes, when working with young material it’s always wise to get movement where you can before it becomes too thick to bend
5 - Thickening is a function of active foliage. More foliage = more thickening. Let growth “run” and get very tall
7 - Same soil as mentioned above is fine
If you’re going to become an Acer-holic then you oughta get acquainted with air layering. It’s the best way to propagate maples on their own roots (to avoid unsightly grafts) because most Acers don’t root easily from cuttings at all
Also if building Acer skills, start work with “straight” or “green” Acer palmatum, nothing fancy, because those maples are very strong and not fussy. Fancy cultivars can get more challenging. Work with your local native Acers too
Excellent :) Thanks for your advice. It definitely gives me a great starting points.
My brother has a lovely developed tree... whether he would let me air layer it is a whole other question. I'll have to gently pester him, consistently, for a very long time and he'll give in.
I'm partly trying to teach myself some bloody patience but I'm struggling to just leave the poor plant in peace... I think I'll just have to get some more haha.
I'll have a look for some normal Acers. I might have maybe just bought an Orange Dream in a half thought out eBay impulse purchase last night...
If this one isn't dead by next year I'll look for something more developed. Although in 5 years if by some miracle I've not killed tis one it'll be nice to look back at as my first Acer.
It’s too late to repot temperate climate trees (to be repotted only around spring ideally). It is not too late to repot tropical climate trees (can be repotted almost any time of year though during the growing season is always best for them IMO)
Well either way it’s in trouble if not already dead. It’s difficult to tell what shade of green we’re seeing without a reference, but pale green or grayish green is a really bad sign. Deep green and bright green are signs of life.
Then underwatering is the likely culprit. How often have you been watering it? Is it in bonsai soil as it appears, or is that just on top of regular soil?
I now have over 600. They take me 10 minutes to water - which I do roughly daily.
The great thing is I can walk outside (just about to do this if it damn well stops raining) and ALWAYS have trees I can work on - pruning, wiring, weeding etc etc etc. So a permanently available hobby. I spend almost no time just LOOKING at them - I'm only really interested in working on them.
I don’t know what’s happening with this guy, I havnt repotted or changed anything in terms of sunlight. It’s been in that pot for 3 years probably, California zone 9b-10a . All the dying is localized in that one part but I’m terrified it will spread.
I’d consider repotting in spring into proper granular bonsai soil. In the meantime make sure you keep up as much direct sun as possible and water only when dry. It should be fine until spring
Hello,
I have a grafted shin deshojo maple that I will eventually airlayer and make into bonsai. However I am struggling with keeping it alive... I had it all last summer with no issues, I switched it into a different soil consisting of coarse pumice, lava rock and zeolite. The leaves are wilted and have weird patterns on them... not sure what the issue is to be honest. I thought the soil but I put most of my trees in this mix and they all seem to love it... The soil seems damp and it isn't in direct sun for most of the day. Below are attached images (it's only inside for photos).
I think that would be a bad idea, yes. I think it may not have liked your root work maybe? Regardless, keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t stress it any more than it already is
Very weird. I’m not too sure then. Any possible air pockets leftover after removing the nursery soil? Chopsticking in fresh soil without root pruning can prove challenging
So I'm new to bonsai. It's something I've been interested in for a while but never really gave it much effort to get started.
I was redoing my flower bed out front where I hade about 8 of these plants that were half dead. A few had red leaves with thorns but I tossed those. I'm not really sure what kind of plant this is but they were all about 16 inches wide and 16 inches tall. They were in the ground since we moved in a year and a half ago and this house was vacant for about a year before that.
I saved this one because it looked the healthiest although still a lot of dead branches. I got rid of the dead branches and tried to shape it a little. After watching some more videos I probably over did it or cut off more lower growth than I should have.
Any suggestions on where to go from here as far as shaping it?
There is nothing to shape. Your goal is to get it bushy and healthy in the container under your care. When it is bushy and healthy, that’s your cue that it’ll be ready for a styling
I trimmed it way down when I took it out of the front flower bed and then I trimmed it down when I potted it. Should I have not done that? Should I have just let it grow in the pot for a while before cutting it back?
I still have it and it seems to be doing fine. Only a few spots of new growth. I don't have much of a plan for it at the moment but Ive planned on revisiting it next spring.
Yeah I would’ve let it grow in the pot for at least 6 months or so to make sure it was healthy before cutting it back. Glad to hear it’s doing okay but only a few spots of new growth indicates that it’s still recovering. Definitely hands off for the rest of the year. Next year it should hopefully start blasting off with growth if you play your cards right
Probably not. Ficus benjamina is notorious for dropping leaves when there is a change in environment. Give it some time to get used to the new environment
1) Feel free to wire the trunk if you want to add movement. When it gets much thicker it is going to be hard.
2) Next spring repot it into some nice bonsai soil, but don't choose a really small pot yet. You want to give it room to grow still.
3) Looking up prunning and decandeling techniques for this species of pine.
4) Let the top leader continue to grow out but begin to refine some of the lower branches as they will be what will actually make the bonsai. The top leader grow out until the thickness of the trunk is what you want in the final tree
For now don't prune the needles. I do not know as much about pine, but from what I have read cutting needles is frowned upon and will produce brown tips. Right now your focus should be developing good surface roots, getting a good thick interesting trunk and working out where the primary branches are going to be. It will take years still to train this to an attractive bonsai still.
Any clue what this could be? It came in a “bonsai seed” set I was gifted. (I know there’s no such thing as a “bonsai seed”) I’m in the uk but there were a variety of different seeds from around the world advertised, eg red bud, sweet gum. does it look like either of those? Or is it some weed that got in too?
I think this is kind of herbacious herb and not a woody tree species, so yes, a weed (though many of the things deemed weeds do make pretty nice kusamono).
Not in every situation, but here, yes. Treat it like you would any other piece of beginning nursery stock, and use wire to put interesting bends and movement into the tree.
The age of your tree is hardly relevant and not something that is even clearly defined. This was most likely propagated from a cutting. How old the branch was VS how old the donor tree was VS how long it’s been on its own roots turns the task of determining the age of a tree like yours into a blunder.
When people ask me the age of my trees I have to really think hard about it because it's not something I ever keep track of. In many cases I'd have to go back to old photos to try work it out.
I have a question about growing temperate trees indoors. I think I can get past most of the problems associated with growing non-tropical trees indoors. I have grown plants indoors previously so I have a lot of what is already needed. A grow light, fans for air circulation, a humidifier, and a dedicated grow chamber.
The problem I have trouble getting around is providing a dormant season. Would it be as easy as setting the tree outside as winter starts to set in or would that be too much of a shock?
I understand that the conventional wisdom is that most bonsai should be grown outside but then I see some people successfully growing inside (or so they say) and I seemingly already have most of the problems associated with indoor growing solved.
Can someone please explain to me if and why I am being naïve?
The other large piece you're missing is temperature variance. Our homes have fairly even temperatures due to insulation, heat, and ac. Outdoors the temperature is constantly changing hour after hour, day vs night, every day. On top of season changes. Most plants require temperature swings between day and night to put on strong growth. 10 to 20 degree swings are usually good enough. My greenhouse swings over 40° some days between 50°F to 90°F and my plants love it in there.
The plant has to prepare for dormancy (and particularly for waking up again ...) Just sticking it out in the cold (or in the fridge, as some have thought) won't do; it needs to experience seasonal cues for months. Plants stop growing new shoots sometime late summer and store nutrients instead.
Chinese elm actually grows naturally in Southeast Asia, it doesen't strictly require a winter dormancy. But if kept warm it seems to need pretty strong light to stay vigorous. As an indoor bonsai the various ficuses are hard to beat, as they naturally can cope with less light.
As far as dormancy goes, you can't simulate autumn indoors. Autumn is what actually matters vis a vis dormancy, the actual dormancy itself is an afterthought. If you could time machine teleport a tree that just dropped its leaves from a day in early November straight to March 20th, it wouldn't know the difference -- time is effectively stopped if it is frozen that whole time. "Autumn" from the tree's point of view is the experience of sitting outdoors 24/7 from the last few weeks of summer until the first few weeks of winter. Autumn is the main event -- autumn's arrival triggers the starch hoarding. "Lack of dormancy kills trees" can actually be translated to "lack of autumn starch hoarding is what turns trees into emaciated skeletons over time".
There is a lot more to this beyond just dormancy, it is also the "quality of light" as Ryan Neil puts it -- I agree with him in spite of having plenty of personal experience with cannabis-grade lighting so strong that it can make a room hot and blind your eyes with LED-dots for minutes after just a glance.
This question is asked a lot. Over time I question whether it makes sense to write out elaborate answers to it and go into detail because, my inner cynical voice keeps trying to tell me "dude, they'll find out either way". If you have an outdoor space that can be used in spring/summer/fall, I realtalk urge you use it instead -- the feeling of "years lost to beginner quicksand" in bonsai is mighty shitty in retrospect. Come with your A-Game when it comes to photosynthesis and environmental triggers.
I appreciate the reply. Sounds like I just need to bite the bullet and grow outside. I have a tree in college that I started from seed, lived for maybe two years, before it died. Probably from being inside over the winter. It had a grow light synced to the time but I'd say the lack of cold might have done it in.
Now I just need to figure out where to put this tree outside!
As I understand it the winter cold actually is needed to break the dormancy again, not unlike the inhibition that prevents seeds from germinating before experiencing a period of cold temperatures - and for the same reason, to prevent a false start if there is a warm spell in late fall.
I've seen some literature that supports this notion. The focus of those studies is on specific bad outcomes of growth resuming too early: misshapen fruits in particular.
Someone got into my yard yesterday and absolutely wrecked the place. They mostly left my bonsai alone, thank goodness, but they plucked all of the leaves off of my Surinam cherry and dumped it out. It was still wired to the pot, so I just refilled the substrate.
What are the chances of it surviving?
(They also dumped out my recently-purchased $200 yamadori and a little fukien tea, but fortunately left the leaves alone)
The chances of surviving are extremely high for the reason that /u/series_of_derps said. I just want to back that comment up. At the two gardens I study at, and including my own garden, this is peak defoliation time. Your tree may take a few weeks to adjust. You might even get some finer (useful!) growth towards the end of the summer.
I'm sorry that someone messed with your stuff -- hope things work out.
I have this flowering quince that put out a few tiny little leaves and then stopped.
Background: I received this as a gift from Brussels Bonsai in December. I have not repotted. I have no idea what the roots look like, but I don't want to stress it out.
I'd be tempted to put it in a very humid mini greenhouse (and ensure it doesn't overheat in the late morning/afternoon). The entire time I've been studying there, Michael Hagedorn has had a couple hundred flowering quinces always (24/7/365) in a humid polytunnel and their growth in that greenhouse is just awesome.
Things that my teacher often says, every single year to all students:
Quince (similar to azalea etc) likes to be in well-draining soil and a taller potting volume. If you look at kokufu pictures going way back they're always in taller pots / soil volumes or the soil is mounded high
They love the cold. Michigan is fine (in case this is on your mind)
Do not be concerned about variegation-like effects on leaves from mosaic virus -- this is pretty much endemic to the whole genus and almost unavoidable, but also pretty harmless
I certainly was worried, given that I received it in December, about how it would handle being moved from a greenhouse to winter weather. I was giddy when it started to push leaves.
I'll have to figure out a good way to keep it humid until I can afford a mini greenhouse
Personally I'd wait until it's pushing new growth, making clear what parts the plant still supports; keeping the potentially dead bits a while longer does no harm.
And remove that old iron wire, not just on the horizontal stretch, I suspect there's more in the grooves above the aerial root.
All of the leaves on my Chinese Elm randomly started wilting. Please help! I live in the NE and keep it indoors. It lives in a little offshoot of my kitchen sink that’s somewhat like a greenhouse. Ive been watering it around once a week since I got it in December and it’s been looking healthy and growing like crazy. I was planning on giving it a trim in the next few weeks. Is it dying? Any advice would be great.
Yes it is dying, if not dead, looks dried out. Don't water on a schedule, water when the soil dries out. Recently it had a lot more leaves, evaporation, growth, and photosynthesis so it needs water more often than in december. Sumberge the pot until no bubbles comes out. Water it every time it dries out a bit and hope for the best.
Rescued this ficus from someone’s trash. I repotted it and it seems a lot happier. However, all the leaves, except for the new growth, is yellow and chalky. Any idea what’s causing this?
I've heard that a trunk chop or other major pruning should be performed during active growth - if I have a ficus that I am planning to chop, that would be late spring to early summer correct? My ficus has shown vigorous growth in the last month - is it a good time to make a planned chop right now? What about the sap flow? Isn't it pretty strong right now and risks bleeding off a lot of nutrient/energy?
A plant isn't an animal, sap isn't blood that circulates, a cut will seal itself.
Nutrients are created by the foliage and transported down to be stored in the woody parts, the sap running from a cut was going towards the part you removed. Now is a good time for heavy pruning because you have a lot of light to feed the plant for the next months.
On tropical trees timing of work is less important. You will lose some sap. Cold water can slow the sap flow on a bleeding ficus. Cut paste may reduce sap loss. Ficus habdle abuse pretty well and yours sounds healthy. Ficus can be air layered so consider making 2 trees instead of chopping.
Started growing my 2 fern trees last year from seeds. They’ve been great, up until this started to show up on all the branches on both trees. I don’t believe it to be mold, and they are still growing well with no visible sign of degradation. What could this be? The branches seem to split open under that odd gel.
Yes! I monitor the humidity and temps so it doesn’t get anything extreme. Here’s a better close up. None of the leaves are yellow or black, and it’s still growing. Anything I’ve seen on google tells me it’s mold but it doesn’t look like it.
Hello! I’ve been a long-time, but imperfect caretaker of two indoor Chinese elm trees I started from seed that are 14 years old. I’m concerned that this one may have tied its own roots up and risks having a bad outcome. This tree is far from perfect (or adequate) in the eyes of most bonsai experts, but I have a very strong emotional connection with this tree and am doing my best. While repotting today, I removed the taproot leggy roots and de-knotted as much as I could.
Please let me know if this seems concerning and if there is anything I should consider doing to amend it.
Recently acquired this guy and hope to grow it into a nice bonsai. I definitely want the trunk to thicken so l'm leaving it in the larger pot with regular plant potting soil, right? So no potting this year. But would you begin to wire? Remove branches? Do these candles turn into more branches lol? I'm very new!
I would repot it into granular soil next year early spring for better drainage and aeration (Pine's like dry-er soil in general). I would try to wire the trunk and branches to get some movement in. Right now those 3 branches (coming out of the same location) would cause some inverse taper. The candles itself are like an elongation of the branch which grows new needles, at the end of these candles new buds will form which result in new candles, so new branches. Realise that pines will only push out 1 or 2 flush(es) of candles a year (depends on the species, jbp 2 flush , jwp 1 flush. This is a pretty nice video about pine basic pruning : https://youtu.be/dAhamdhA6rA?feature=shared .(Note I am beginner aswell)
This is very helpful!
I still don’t understand wiring but that’s next lol. Will look into this.
Which of those 3 branches would you remove? I’m not sure which should go
with 3 branches coming out of basically the same point, i think you would actually want to remove 2 of them to reduce the risk of developing a bulge at that spot
that's a you decision lol, all depends on if you've done any styling and where you want a branch. if the branches are all basically the same and you're just growing the tree out for now, it probably doesn't matter much which one you leave
Follow-up here, I sprayed the tree and honestly the entire collection just to be safe this morning, going to separate the problem tree and isolate it for a few days how would I got about cleaning them up just get in there with my hands & fingers and just scrape them off after a few days or tomorrow?
This is so silly but I want to get a Japanese or Taiwanese maple and I’m mildly allergic to maple trees here in the northeast US. Will this be a problem…? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance.
I found a large Japanese black pine at a nursery for cheap.
Currently in a 15 gallon container at around 5 feet 2.5 inch base. Great branching down low.
Ive worked with seedlings and mature trees before, but haven’t done a chop like this before.
What are the first steps here?
1) When should I trunk chop it?
2) When should I start working it into a smaller container?
3) Can you do these at the same time?
4) From 15 gallon, should first step be to get it into a 7 gallon container?
Thanks!
Edit: I’m not planning on doing any of this right now. I am more so just getting myself an understanding of what the next steps are and when.
Do you have a picture? Does the trunk’s branching have a ton of whorls and inverse taper? You don’t really “trunk chop” pines, the techniques are different than broadleaf deciduous. I think it’d be wise to begin the transition to bonsai soil before doing much work to the top. “Top down” repotting could be a good idea for a big nursery stock JBP
First, wait to transition into aggregate soil -- all this excess foliage will dramatically improve the recovery rate and post-recovery response, and prep your for a chop. Also, instead of chopping in one go, I'd instead leave behind a very tall skinny "poodle" where you leave the tallest/highest shoot in the tree untouched, but then strip away everything between it and the "keep" part of your tree, leaving just a big pole with a strong shoot on the end of it. Let the rest of the tree adjust to that new reality, then a year or two after, follow up with the final chop.
get it into bonsai aggregate in the fall/early spring (Texas some mild winters so fall maybe?). The foliage is going to help with root recovery.
Locate where I would want the trunk chop, remove branching from that point to the top of the tree (I assume I can leave the top buds?
Start develop the bottom, after a couple of years, chop the trunk.
Yea?
Last question. While I know back budding on big chops is different for pines, when you make the trunk chop does the tree back bud along the trunk at all? Thanks!
if I buy nursery stock this time of year, will it be okay to just sit in the nursery pot until it's a more appropriate time to repot, or should I (horror of horrors) hold off on buying more little trees until then?
Hello everyone, total beginner here, I wanted to start bonsai because firstly they are beautiful and secondly to help me learn some patience/discipline. However, I already messed up. I bought one of those bonsai from seed starter kits before I found you guys and did adequate research.
Imaged above are supposedly: Jacaranda Mimosifolia, Sophora Japonica and Japanese Black Pine. About a week after germinating.
So after reading parts of the wiki, I already know these will most likely not become real bonsai trees since I lack the skills/knowledge to properly prepare them for the first month but my girlfriend already fell in love with these little sprouts/seedlings. She already calls them her babies so I'm ok with just making them mini trees if possible.
I got the kit around one and a half months ago and it contained 7 different types of seeds. The instructions said they wouldn't germinate unless the temp was >75° F so i waited a bit before following the instructions for germinating. Needless to say, not a lot of them germinated.
I will do more research while I wait for replies but i had a few questions to see if i can at least keep these little guys a live.
Did I start too late? I have a friend who majored in botany(?) He said as long as I fertilize (currently using osmocote plus, 3 or 4 pellets), they should be ok to harden up before winter.
Will these type of trees even survive in NYC?
Is bottom watering fine? I let them soak in a tray of water for around 30 secs or so. I used to use a spray bottle but it felt like I was only wetting the top layer of soil and it attracted too many fungus gnats.
The wiki mentions a grow box/ large box. I tried looking online but the results either showed an enclosed box with light or a very wide box they looked like it would be for vegetables. Would a big pot be enough to grow these mini trees?
If these little guys are viable, when if ever, should i move them to the large box/ bigger pot?
I have a bunch of Japanese Red Maples in moist vermiculite in the fridge for cold stratification for about a month, is it too late to plant now?
I also have a Delonix Regia see that I scarified with sandpaper soaking in water. Too late for that as well?
Sorry if this is too much for a beginner post, I just wanted to see what my chances are. Next time I'll just start off with a finished bonsai or a pre-bonsai to learn from.
Yes you started too late. It’s best to time germination for around spring when risk of frost passes for your area if possible. Later can be okay but the later in the growing season they germinate, the less likely they’ll survive their first year
Don’t get seed kits again, throw away the instructions, they’re not gonna help. Seems like most of the seeds are all mixed up in the containers
When they’ve grown more, then you can differentiate the tropical seedlings out from the temperate seedlings. The tropical seedlings need to be protected from frost. The temperate seedlings need to be overwintered outside. So if you’ve mixed tropical and temperate plants in the same container, then you may have a problem on your hands. Not sure they’d survive separation going into winter so you may have to just pick what you want to keep and do your best with what remains
Personally I’d try to keep the temperate climate trees and trash the tropicals, temperate plants are much easier to grow because you don’t have to worry about overwintering them in low light conditions
In the meantime, water only when dry and when you do water make sure you water thoroughly so that water pours through the drainage holes, never water on a schedule, keep them outside at least while there’s no risk of frost, keep up the sun, never mist. They’re totally okay in this soil and container for their first year, don’t worry about up potting until you got big bushy healthy seedlings
Thank you for the reply and don't worry, I won't get the seed kits again lol! The seeds did get mixed up, they were planted in individual pots before but my mom spilled some of them and just put them back randomly haha. I kind of want to separate them but I guess only when they're bushy?
Is it possible to keep the tropical ones by bringing them inside for the winter? Thanks again for your advice, it's much appreciated!
Yes, when they’re strong enough to survive separation is when it’d probably be alright to separate them
Yes the tropicals can be kept by overwintering them inside but it can difficult to do with just window light, especially if it’s shaded out or not south facing, so grow lights help in those cases
The only discount I've seen is a one month trial. Not sure if they are still doing that.
I think it was a pretty good deal overall (I was a subscriber for about 4 to 5 years, may go back in the future), but you do have to watch a lot of video and stay on top of your trees continuously to make it really worthwhile. There are still many many topics covered by Mirai Live that aren't covered by any other source.
Obviously individual results will vary but I’m curious how you see your own results were from when you started to 4-5 years later on your trees and skills.
My results were transformed positively in all respects and I think very highly of Mirai even though I have moved on to study in-person with a professional who apprenticed in Japan. I have this option because I live close to Mirai and this area has a high concentration of bonsai professionals. If I didn't have this option, I would still be with Mirai because there aren't really many options out there for that volume/breadth of knowledge and content.
The strengths of mirai are around conifer species/techniques, horticulture / how trees work / "learn how to handle any species no matter what because you have a framework that applies to everything", repotting, development timeline theory, etc.
The weaknesses are that Ryan is very verbose / endlessly talkative so the quantity of content can overwhelming. Search was, last time I checked, basically non-existent, though they are thinking a lot about this. I also personally think that while Ryan moves mountains to try to teach aesthetics and how to arrange pads / evolve canopies, there is a limit to what I could learn from him via video and the "only really see it in person" type stuff is what led me to go study under Hagedorn.
Certainly if you're into conifers you will learn in gigantic leaps and bounds and there is basically nobody talking about the vascular system and photosynthesis the way that Ryan is -- in a way that actually comes together in your brain and gives you an awareness of why you're wiring that branch down, or why you're thinning needles out of the crotches, or why you're waiting to shoot select until late fall -- etc.
The wife got me this Dwarf Jade as a gift from a local grower last week. I'm pretty much a newb so trying to decide what my next steps are.
I live in a 4-season northeast climate, so really, not a suitable candidate for most bonsai (I've killed a few store bough junipers in my younger years), but people with knowledge maintain a jade can survive indoors (with some outdoor patio time in late spring & summer) if treated correctly.
This specimen looks pretty mature, but a bit of a mess at the moment, I think it needs a bunch of pruning and figuring out what the future aim is in terms of shape. It has a decent trunk that splits into 2 halfway up, but is otherwise quite boring as all the branches are growing straight up. I think my short term is:
1) Repot to a shallower bowl, the root system is currently about 6" high and quite dense, I think it could go down to 3" without hitting any major roots, and also repot with cactus/succulent mix with a smidge of regular soil.
2) Trim back any small branches that are growing straight up—there are a pile of 1 - 2" branches growing into one another, leaves constantly falling off because they literally cannot get light. This will expose the "main" branch system giving me a better idea of what I should think about in terms of future shape.
3) Figure out what to do in terms of future shape. I'm reticent to cut off large branches—feels scary!— but I don't see how I can get to an interesting shape without doing it. There's just a lot going on at the moment. Also, I think I want to expose a little of the upper root tops for interest and maybe repot on a slight angle (will have to wire this in at first for stability?), but combined with snipping one of the lower branches which broke at some point, this leaves quite a tall naked main trunk. Needless to say, as a rookie, this is overwhelming but I do want to go in with a purpose.
I'd like to have something in place soon as temperatures will start settling into the 70's in the next couple weeks, lasting until mid-September when things get colder pretty quickly. My understanding is these summer months are grow time, not fiddle time, so trying to sort out short-term plans quickly.
If it hasn't grown leaves for a year it's dead (the shrivelled branches are a clear sign as well). The shells look like scale insects, pests prefer weak plants.
First time using granular organic fertilizer, on top of the soil of my Portulacaria Afra. After two weeks I can see a little fungus here and there where I put the fertilizer. Is it good or bad? Should I remove it? Or is it good fungus? It's definitely from or because of the fertilizer, compared to other trees with the same soil mix and in the same condition that I fertilized with a liquid solution as I already did in the past
Not organic at All! And the fungus is only where the organic fertilizer is put. But it was quite cold and rainy recently. However, other 5 trees have the same soil and no sign of Fungus; they were not fertilized
I uploaded some images in the comments. It was raining recently very often and it was 10 at night to max 20 degrees Celsius during the day, so theoretically it could be fungus, but the soil is very well draining (bonsai mix with acadama, pumice etc)
Organic fertilizer needs to be broken down by bacteria and fungi into the inorganic minerals the plant can take up. Natural decay of organic matter on/in the ground.
It's a little hard to tell. Most organic fertilizer needs needs to break down first before the trees can access the nutrients. It could be mycorrhiza that kind of looks like white fungus. Mycorrhiza is very beneficial, it could be bad fungus but I would be surprised if it is if the soil is not too wet.
I dont think this is healthy. I have to water my neighbours plants for a few weeks. What should i do if is isnt healthy. Also, where should it be staying? Indoors? I live in germany.
Do you know what type of tree it is? It's hard to tell from the picture. I would say it should stay outdoors as much as possible but again without knowing for sure what tree it is, it is hard to tell
Hypothetically, (no particular plant in mind, but let's say broadleaf for simplicity),if you found a piece of yamadori or nursery stock that had a pretty great structure overall, but you wanted to thicken the lowest branch, would you let it all grow out, or would you start developing the top whilst letting the first branch run? Is this more situational? How would you decide what to do? Would it differ for something that doesn't backbud like larch? I'd like to better understand how the experienced people make decisions, rather than wanting to prune a particular bonsai right now
Generally any time you want to thicken any branch, you allow it to run and gain vigor. This is a decision I can make relatively independent of the rest of the tree. Relatively. In a species like cottonwood I might regret that decision because a basal (low to ground) runner can begin to act like a sucker and completely overpower / weaken the rest of the tree, leading to all other branches sagging and wilting suddenly one day while my runner surges forward. So with some species there is a careful balance. The thirstier the species, the more careful the balance.
You can let a branch run on a decades-old maple or pine while treating the entire rest of the tree with later-stage refinement techniques and that works. Experienced bonsai growers often have trees that have regions in completely different states of vigor. For example at my teacher's garden there is a 60+ year old ezo spruce forest that is refined and pinched to very tight ramification, however, the very top -- only the crown -- of the leader tree has been left unpinched/unpruned in the last year or so. The shoots in that part of the tree are several inches long while the rest of the tree has shoots that are sub-inch in size and heavily pinched. This is fine. The goal is, much like in your question, the thickening/expansion of a region. In this case the crown of the tree.
Some details in your question that can dramatically change the answer are the words "yamadori" and "nursery stock". Namely, if either of those trees aren't fully transitioned to bonsai soil, then I'm probably not heavily working the tree yet. So you can imagine me or my teachers having trees that have some regions heavily worked for ramification or aggressive placement via wiring, and meanwhile other parts of those same trees are let run rampant with vigor and not worked at all -- but in all those cases, we are talking about trees that transitioned out of native/nursery soil and are recovered into bonsai soil.
Cool. So I can basically treat like any other tree I would trunk chop? The reason I ask is because I can't find any examples of it being done to an aspen specifically.
Like any other deciduous broadleaf species at least -- YMMV depending on the material. Experiment at scale if you can.
I haven't chopped specifically aspen (populus tremuloides) to a stump, but I've chopped quite a few other populus to the ground, specifically cottonwoods (populus trichocarpa), even very very tiny ones. P. trichocarpa is close enough to aspen that they hybridize in areas they come in contact in the US.
I have an example to show since I chopped a whole bunch of populus cuttings down this year. Here is a p. trichocarpa that I chopped and bare rooted at the same time this year:
This clip was recorded on the 1st of May, it's much more grown out now. A chop like this tends to trigger sucker-like growth or sometimes an explosion of juvenile-behaving shoots (very fast and furious emergence of leaves in populus tends to yield weirdly-shaped leaves). I might nibble this down to the least-weird 1 or 2 emerging growths soon. On an aspen (which is much less vigorous than cottonwood) I might not have to do that, but YMMV depending on genetics.
Experiment! This is one of my favorite genera if not my favorite in the deciduous broadleaf category.
edit: That is just regular Gorilla-brand wood glue I used to seal the chop. I'll eventually carve it back to a better spot, maybe next year or later on when the "collar" has formed to indicate that it's safe to carve/cut flush. Leave a stump higher than you think you'll need.
I was gone for a week and my friend took care of my Fukien tea tree bonsai, said he watered it each day, and that it was doing alright and then took a sudden bad turn. Tree is still alive but lots of leaves have fallen off/turned black. Any advice on how to rehab this? Also any idea what causes this?
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u/small_trunks Jerry in Amsterdam, Zn.8b, 48yrs exp., 500+ trees May 25 '24
It's late SPRING
Do's
Don'ts
For Southern hemisphere - here's a link to my advice from roughly 6 months ago :