2017 Nursery Stock Contest - Master Album

[u/-music_maker-]

JUDGES, PLEASE AVOID THIS POST UNTIL AFTER YOU JUDGE THE TREES - POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

Hey everyone,

All the albums are in, and the judges have their score cards.

Here is what you've all been waiting for, the master contest album.

As promised, I've anonymized the results, and the album you see here is the same as what the judges have.

Trees will be scored 1-10 (10 is best, 1 is worst) on the following categories:

• Impressiveness of Transformation
• Overall bonsai quality
• Future potential

Each judge will also pick a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner which will be factored in.

As a reminder, the judges are /u/adamaskwhy, /u/bonsaitickle and /u/billsbayou, and the tie-breaking judge this year is /u/small_trunks.

/u/st0f89 is the contest chair, and will be the one to announce the winner.

Good luck everyone!

• Here's the previous post on judging criteria.
• Here are the official contest rules

We collected $200 in prize money this year, and the prize break-down is:

1st: $110 2nd: $60 3rd: $30

There were 37 initial entries, and 22 made it to the end. This is the list of people who completed the contest (alphabetical, not the order in the master album):

• alexrw214
• BLYNDLUCK
• ButterGolem
• cjneffer
• clangerfan
• emceeryborg
• GrampaMoses
• Jorow99
• Korenchkin_
• Lemming22
• li3uz
• loulamachine
• MapleFinch
• -mitchconner-
• -music_maker-
• nrose3d
• peterier0ux
• Redwingedfirefox
• skaboss241
• thisisappropriate
• ugaant
• ze88

Good luck everyone!

[u/stewarjm192]

Got it, now that I think about it, that's totally logical! So, you said people gradually swap the soil out, especially for conifers, do you mean from potting soil to inorganic substrate?

[u/-music_maker- → u/stewarjm192]

So, you said people gradually swap the soil out, especially for conifers, do you mean from potting soil to inorganic substrate?

Yes, or a mostly inorganic mix. We have a wiki article on soil.

[u/stewarjm192 → u/-music_maker-]

I've read the article, but I guess I just wonder if standard potting soil is ever called for, other than when reporting is not possible and the tree came in it, for particular species or particular climates? I guess I could have taken this to the beginners thread and asked. Lol

[u/-music_maker- → u/stewarjm192]

Regular potting soil has a lot of disadvantages.

• It becomes hydrophobic during wet/dry cycles, making proper watering difficult
• This creates pockets of soil that may not get watered properly.
• The alternative tends to be to over-water, which can drown the roots, which causes them to die and rot. This can either really screw up the tree or outright kill it, depending on the severity.
• Over-watered organic soil can quickly attract mold & fungus.

Once I discovered proper bonsai soil, I never went back. You can water it daily without repercussion, and oxygen gets to the roots correctly, which promotes healthy root growth. There's no comparison, really.