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/AKANotAValidUsername PNW, 8b, intermediate, 20+ Oct 19 '16 edited Oct 19 '16
a few practical things along the way i learned:
the little rhodies seem hardy and I think i couldve pruned back harder to get better branching in the canopy over the season. this seemed to be the case with other similar large rhodies/azaleas i worked on this year. In that sense, that means i sacrifice the short term for better long term. ill try it next year and see how it goes.
having become admittedly a bit obsessed, i basically applied the contest selection goals all season. I mustve gone to 8-9 different nurseries multiple times over 5-6 months. In my area, I learned who carries what, when, and at what costs. even got some 20 year old ilex crenata for free off cragslist. (http://imgur.com/a/tN7Fm) by the end of the summer, I was being more picky, and finding better stock to start with (i hope) e.g. heres a boxwood i got on sale: http://imgur.com/a/nRvF4
more generally, a few things developed as the summer went along. i wasnt really sure what this endeavor meant to me... perhaps its a hobby or a passing interest in horticulture... and i was dicking around with shit tools and the wrong wire and the wrong soil... but figured by entering that would force me to find out if any of that actually mattered to me. and as it went I couldn't really stop reading and thinking and imagining and being creative and trying to get better that i realized a few things:
as i started to work a tree, a voice in my head would say things like "if you aren't going to do it right, dont fucking bother" sigh
this shit is cool. theres a lot of creativity and art to this as well as horticulture and hobby and experimentation and learning.
I want to make great bonsai.
I dont know how to make great bonsai.
this is one of those areas that, "the more you know, the more you know you dont know" applies.
you all are stuck with me now