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Dr Intergalactic posted:It means everything. It will dictate what trees will thrive in your climate and inform pretty much all your decisions related to the care of your trees. I'm hopping the Yoshino Cherry will grow well in my area. I'm pretty sure they're the species Japan gifted to the US that are planted in Washington DC, which is just north of me, so I would thinks they'll tolerate the winters. I suppose I could bring it inside over the winter, I have a plant grow light for my Hibiscus plant (which absolutely will not tolerate the winters here).
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May 25, 2023 19:34
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 00:48 |
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Overwintering, depending on your hardiness zone, could be up to 1/3 of the year for your trees. Most broadleaf deciduous trees want to spend the winter dormant, outside. Safe from the wind and hard freezes. Your cherry will want to go dormant and then bud in spring. (They will be very happy there. Cold winters and warm/hot summers) If I can offer any advice it would be not to fight your climate. Grow what is comfortable there. I'm in 8b so I don't try to grow Larches and other Alpine species that can't tolerate the heat and humidity of a southern summer. Likewise, a lot of popular pines, junipers, and maples just don't grow well (or at all) in zones 9+. Grow what you like but do the research before you waste time and money killing trees that may not like your climate.
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May 25, 2023 20:58
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So, I gotcha some great advice from that Bonsai forum. However, one thing nobody actually mentioned was how I should go about growing the cherry tree seeds I have. It was stressed that it'll take like 5+ years before they're ready to be, uh, bonsai'd(?), bit my question is, what do I do with them until then? What size pot should I put them in? A regular pot, or a Bonsai pot? Regular soil, or that bosai soil stuff that looks like crushed clay? I don't want to get 5 years down the road and find out I hosed up at the beginning and they grew too big (or didn't grow right, etc).
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May 30, 2023 14:08
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Regular normal soil, grow in pots proportionally to their size
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May 30, 2023 14:20
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TheMightyHandful posted:Regular normal soil, grow in pots proportionally to their size Yup this is accurate. Also, if you can get them in the ground they'll grow much faster.
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May 30, 2023 14:24
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Dr Intergalactic posted:Yup this is accurate. Also, if you can get them in the ground they'll grow much faster. I live in an apartment, unfortunately. My mom lives in the area, so I may be able to stick them in her yard. I have 10 seeds, so depending on how many germinate I was gonna give her one anyway.
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May 30, 2023 14:35
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I see a lot of people doing very silly things with seedlings, but yeah, all you really want to do is try and grow them like normal tree seedlings and get them as big as possible until they're a decent size to work with. Any kind of "bonsaiing" operation reduces the vigor of the tree and means it'll take longer to where you want it to be. The urge to do premature work is very real though. The only exception to that is if there's something at serious risk of ruining the overall shape of the future bonsai, like two thick branches growing at the same level causing inverse taper. In that case one of them gets the snip.
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May 30, 2023 16:14
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honestly you’re best off getting hold of a cherry (or flowering plum, they’re usually hardier and their flowers are 95% the same) and chopping it back/air layering it/etc to get a bonsai. Even something like a Home Depot tree (end of season sales coming soon, trees for 50% off/etc) will give you a more immediate and hardy pathway to a bonsai and learning bonsai techniques than growing a seedling up and waiting a decade
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May 30, 2023 16:31
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Ok Comboomer posted:honestly you’re best off getting hold of a cherry (or flowering plum, they’re usually hardier and their flowers are 95% the same) and chopping it back/air layering it/etc to get a bonsai. How does chopping back/air layering work? If the sapling is 4ft tall, I feel like that's a looot of trimming.
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May 30, 2023 16:38
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Annath posted:How does chopping back/air layering work? that’s what air layering is for, baybeee. And if you’re lucky you can hopefully make something out of the stump also 3-4ft tall isn’t as much of a limitation as you think if you spend a few years thickening the tree out, you can put some bends and curves in the trunk while it’s still pliable, or/and you think with a bit of a bunjin mindset a lot of really nice deciduous bonsai in the hobby started out as nursery stock/grafted trees meant for somebody’s lawn
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May 30, 2023 16:43
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To get a better idea of how it all works, check out this link. https://bonsai4me.com/developing-informal-upright-trunks-for-deciduous-bonsai/
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May 30, 2023 16:50
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I did a silly little project. I had a jade that needed repotting, and a mallsai pot too small for a real plant from back when I didn't know any better. This is the end result. Obviously not a real bonsai, but it's a neat little novelty to have indoors.
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Aug 1, 2023 17:56
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Bug Squash posted:I did a silly little project. I had a jade that needed repotting, and a mallsai pot too small for a real plant from back when I didn't know any better. This is the end result. what’s “unreal” about this bonsai?
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Aug 1, 2023 18:48
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Ok Comboomer posted:what’s “unreal” about this bonsai?
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Aug 1, 2023 18:59
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i had to give up all mine a while ago but im trying again.. in michigan... in near winter. go team
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Oct 17, 2023 21:49
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TehRedWheelbarrow posted:i had to give up all mine a while ago but im trying again.. in michigan... in near winter. go team Good luck! I'm in 8a so we have the opposite climate. I'm doing a fun experiment this year to see how much sun damage mine can take and still live. Trees are weird.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:12
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i used to live in zone 9 and most things did fine, nothing sexy worked unless it was indoors though. any of the subtropicals were just fine outdoors year round but anything deciduous got stuck in an old refrigerator for a few months out of the year and werent especially great.
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Oct 21, 2023 14:00
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Annath posted:So, I gotcha some great advice from that Bonsai forum. So I had these cold stratifying in the fridge and, uh, kinda forgot about them? I took them out today and stuck them in some little yogurt cups with some soil, hoping to sprout some before putting them in a pot. Is there any chance they sprout after months in the fridge, or are they pretty much hosed? They were only like $10 so it's not that big a deal.
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Oct 22, 2023 23:14
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So you had them in the refrigerator for five months? That’s not that weird. You stand a decent chance of getting germination. It’s a finicky species in general though.
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Oct 22, 2023 23:36
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Platystemon posted:So you had them in the refrigerator for five months? I have 10 seeds, hopefully 1 or 2 sprouts.
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Oct 23, 2023 00:05
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Annath posted:I have 10 seeds, hopefully 1 or 2 sprouts. None sprouted lmao. I ordered a sapling from the Arbor Day foundation - cheapest place I could find. They ship 3'-4', so if I can't gradually prune it down to size I'll just keep it in a pot as a pretty-but-small tree 
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Mar 15, 2024 21:26
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Annath posted:None sprouted lmao. Sorry you didn't have any success. I have never been able to get anything to sprout from packs, mind you I think they're a bit of a scam.
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Mar 15, 2024 21:56
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bessantj posted:Sorry you didn't have any success. Probably lol. But it was only $10 for 10 seeds, so not like I was out a lot of money.
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Mar 15, 2024 23:02
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Annath posted:Probably lol. But it was only $10 for 10 seeds, so not like I was out a lot of money. Yeah they're never heavy on the wallet it's just the crushing disappointment!
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Mar 15, 2024 23:33
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I have my eye on a big specimen bloodgood at a local garden liquidator that I think would make a rad omono-to-imperial (prolly closer to five and a half feet when refined) tree. Everybody seems to hate these for bonsai, the nodes are too long, they’re better as a yard tree, blablabla, but at that size it seems like the strain’s complaints aren’t that much of a problem, right? I know people poo poo on the idea of “ready made bonsai” but the shape is there, it just needs secondary and tertiary refinement. Worst case Ontario I might grab it anyway and plant it in the yard.
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Mar 17, 2024 22:30
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trilobite terror posted:I have my eye on a big specimen bloodgood at a local garden liquidator that I think would make a rad omono-to-imperial (prolly closer to five and a half feet when refined) tree. I had to Google "omono" and TIL bonsai don't necessarily have to be little tiny dudes in a pot small enough to sit on a desk.
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Mar 17, 2024 23:03
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Annath posted:I had to Google "omono" and TIL bonsai don't necessarily have to be little tiny dudes in a pot small enough to sit on a desk. oh yeah, and Imperial-size trees are every bit deserving of the name. Some trees really blend the lines between niwaki (a traditional style of heavily manicured garden tree) and bonsai and you should check out Vietnamese style bonsai if you want to be really impressed. They’re more influenced by Chinese penjing/bonsai and they’re potted in/on these massive platform trays, often integrating dioramas with scenery and fish ponds, etc
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Mar 18, 2024 00:07
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I think I killed an azalea I potted from the garden. Any tips for air pockets in the roots? Hard to keep soil in there.
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Mar 31, 2024 12:30
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What kind of soil did you use to pot it? The answer to your question is a chopstick or other small probe like tool. If you're using an organic mix it may not work as well but if you're using a more granulated/rocky mix you'll find it relatively easy to poke the mix down into all the nooks and crannies. You'll want to go slow and work the soil in a little at a time once you've got it positioned in the pot. You must be diligent otherwise you're bound to have air pockets. Many bonsai potting videos will demonstrate this technique. Hope this helps.
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Apr 2, 2024 14:20
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