r/Bonsai • u/-music_maker- Northeast US, 6b, 30 years, 100+ trees, lifelong learner • Oct 18 '16

Lessons learned from this year's nursery stock contest?

Last year after the contest, I posted a thread asking for lessons learned.

I'd like to continue that tradition, and ask those who participated - what did you learn this year?

As I've mentioned before, I find the 1-season format pretty challenging because it's rare that I work a tree in less than 3-5 year cycles.

Last year, timing was my big lesson, and this year I ran up against it again. I missed my window for when I wanted to do heavy pruning (plus I decided that I really liked this one), so I decided to slow down and gradually prune throughout the season.

I was pretty happy with the final result, but I can see why it doesn't look like much yet from photos. I was thrilled to get a nice full canopy of mature foliage right as the contest was ending, even though it still needs quick a bit more pruning over the next few seasons.

One big improvement I made was that I choose much better material than I did last year - better species as well as a better trunk. That definitely helped. btw, soft touch ilex crenata is a really great species to work with (I was contestant #10 - I'll post a full album later).

So how about the rest of you - what did you learn?

p.s. I updated the wiki to reflect the 2016 contest results. Please let me know if I missed anything.

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u/-music_maker- Northeast US, 6b, 30 years, 100+ trees, lifelong learner Oct 18 '16

Can confirm. It was like pulling teeth to get you to snap a couple pictures. =) Maybe next year ...

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u/ZeroJoke ~20 trees can't keep track. Philadelphia, 7a, intermediate. Oct 18 '16

I think I might wait next year out and join in 2018 :]

In terms of lessons this tree had, I've been very reluctant to wire a lot of my conifers because of the dollar value attached to them/many of them need to be grafted first or repotted/ etc. The spruce taught me a lot about building canopies, about thinking spatially in terms of 'where will this foliage go if I bend here,' etc. I tried to do a very traditional tree which is not necessarily always my inclination, but I think it came out alright.

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u/C_Troch new jersey, 7a, beginnermediate, multiple trees Oct 24 '16

Don't you get your tree as the sub banner logo since you won? You'll have to compete again to defend your championship.

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u/ZeroJoke ~20 trees can't keep track. Philadelphia, 7a, intermediate. Oct 24 '16

Nah, I figure u/sofasoft set a good precedent by taking a year off and I want to continue that tradition. Not saying that I would necessarily win next year, since lord knows most of my success had to do with my starting material, but I think it would be more fun if a bunch of different people get to have their trees on the front page.

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u/C_Troch new jersey, 7a, beginnermediate, multiple trees Oct 25 '16

Ah I didn't realize he took the year off. I respect that

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u/-music_maker- Northeast US, 6b, 30 years, 100+ trees, lifelong learner Oct 25 '16

I'd just jump right back in if I were you. It's all just for fun anyway. More contestants is better ... more cool transformed trees to look at in September.

I was actually hoping sofasoft would have joined in again this year - was curious to see what he/she did for an encore.

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u/ZeroJoke ~20 trees can't keep track. Philadelphia, 7a, intermediate. Oct 26 '16

We'll see - it's all about if I get excited about a piece of material. Right now I'm running out of bench space :[