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So, I think bonsai is neat but I never wanted to get into it, but a random question that a friend asked. Is it possible to graft similar trees together (or even dissimilar) or are the tiny trees so susceptible to damage that it would be impossible in all but rare circumstances?
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Nov 18, 2014 14:45
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It is very possible to have grafted bonsai! Your ability to succeed will vary widely depending on what species you're combining, and most grafting is done in replicate, as there is a failure rate. I'm forgetting which species just now, but many times a certain pine species will be selected because the root/trunk do well with bonsai, and all the limbs are grafted from another pine with more appealing foliage.
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Nov 18, 2014 20:33
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Vaginaface posted:It is very possible to have grafted bonsai! Your ability to succeed will vary widely depending on what species you're combining, and most grafting is done in replicate, as there is a failure rate. I'm forgetting which species just now, but many times a certain pine species will be selected because the root/trunk do well with bonsai, and all the limbs are grafted from another pine with more appealing foliage. This is true of many pines. Ponderosa pines are commonly used in the US, as they grow naturally here and create some impressive specimens. Unfortunately they have very large needles, so they are often grafted with black pine foliage. I think they can still work out as VERY large bonsai, but otherwise ehh. White pines are also traditionally grafted onto black pine rootstock. Here is my large white pine (can you spot the graft? Very easy to see. Will need to disguise that).  And my grafted japanese maple. Will be very fun to chop up this Winter.  You'd be surprised how resilient the little buggers are… 
Crocoduck fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Nov 18, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2014 21:02
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What is a good species for a second bonsai tree? I'm looking for something "better" than my ficus from the last page that everyone agreed would not become a good bonsai. My only limitation is that I need to bring it inside during the winter time because I don't have anywhere to safely store it outside.
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Nov 27, 2014 19:03
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Minenfeld! posted:What is a good species for a second bonsai tree? I'm looking for something "better" than my ficus from the last page that everyone agreed would not become a good bonsai. My only limitation is that I need to bring it inside during the winter time because I don't have anywhere to safely store it outside. More ficus. Nicer ficus. $200 can get you a specimen tree, if you're having success keeping a $20 tree alive, there's no reason you can't replicate your results.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:38
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There's no where for me to buy any trees locally, are there any good online places to buy from?
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Nov 29, 2014 01:58
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Minenfeld! posted:There's no where for me to buy any trees locally, are there any good online places to buy from? Quite a few, but it kind of depends on how much you want to spend. Wigert's bonsai nursery has a good selection of starter ficus, Brussel's bonsai has incredible imports (with incredible prices). My advice is shop around, email a few people. Most bonsai artists are not high tech enough to be listing every tree they have, but will give you a rundown of what they've got in stock if you tell them a price range and a style you're looking for.
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Dec 2, 2014 04:06
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Crocoduck posted:Quite a few, but it kind of depends on how much you want to spend. Wigert's bonsai nursery has a good selection of starter ficus, Brussel's bonsai has incredible imports (with incredible prices). My advice is shop around, email a few people. Most bonsai artists are not high tech enough to be listing every tree they have, but will give you a rundown of what they've got in stock if you tell them a price range and a style you're looking for. This holds very true. I'm in the Bay Area in Cali, the hub for bonsai activity in the state, and that's pretty much the norm even here when it comes to shopping for bonsai.
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Dec 22, 2014 00:50
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A question from a novice bonsai enthusiast. What's the best way to encourage my trident maple's trunk to thicken up? It's still a very young tree (maybe about two years) and doesn't have a whole lot of girth. I repotted it last spring and at the time it didn't have much of a root system going being so young. I've watched a few videos and read a some blogs where people have talked about letting trees grow in the ground with fairly aggressive pruning over the course of a few years, but I don't have this option as I live in an apartment with a small balcony. Would replanting it in a huge pot work? Or should I just leave it alone in its little bonsai pot for a few more years and see how it does? My goal is to have it look something like the image below in terms of thickness, it's already about that tall if not a little taller.  If I do end up putting it in a larger pot, should I just let it go hog wild for a few years before pruning, or should I make sure it doesn't get any taller than the max height I'm looking for?
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Dec 22, 2014 21:18
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kedo posted:A question from a novice bonsai enthusiast. In your situation, repotting it in a larger pot would indeed encourage thickening of the trunk. Just be sure it's not a dramatically large pot, as it will drown in it. Take into account the size of the tree and the root system when selecting a pot for it. For the most part, I say let it go hog wild with growth. The more branch growth you have, the faster it will bulk up. However, keeping upward growth in check more than other growth aspects will ensure that it's proportionate as time goes by.
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Dec 22, 2014 21:47
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Thanks much! I'll try stepping up in pot size slowly.
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Dec 22, 2014 23:47
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kedo posted:Thanks much! I'll try stepping up in pot size slowly. I'd recommend a shallow grow box or anderson flat. It keeps the roots spreading out and seems to dry out better while still giving the tree room to grow. That said I've heard people say it doesn't matter much what you grow it in ( https://bonsaial.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/ground-versus-box/ ). Does your patio get lots of sunlight?
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Dec 23, 2014 06:08
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Illudere posted:I'd recommend a shallow grow box or anderson flat. It keeps the roots spreading out and seems to dry out better while still giving the tree room to grow. That said I've heard people say it doesn't matter much what you grow it in ( https://bonsaial.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/ground-versus-box/ ). Does your patio get lots of sunlight? Cool, I'll look into those. I assume I can grab one at my nearby nursery? My balcony gets a good amount of direct sunlight about six to seven hours a day. So quite a bit, but not a full 12 hours or anything.
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Dec 24, 2014 18:53
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kedo posted:Cool, I'll look into those. I assume I can grab one at my nearby nursery? I'm not sure, but I think a lot of nurseries have them or have access to ordering them but don't necessarily have some out for sale. Here is an example of a maple worked hard and put in an anderson flat: http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?14475-35-Japanese-Maple-project . Likely you shouldn't be trimming yours at all though, because it has a lot of getting bigger to do. If it's still just a little seedling it would probably be better to keep growing it in a relatively small tub. While patience is an important virtue in bonsai, tridents don't grow that slowly! My trident in the ground grew 7 foot leaders over the summer and it wasn't in a super sunny spot.
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Dec 27, 2014 14:05
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kedo posted:A question from a novice bonsai enthusiast. Trees thicken to support more foliage and growth. Pruning will mostly be counterproductive - while you're growing out your tree you will get lots of 'strong-arm' branches that are far too thick to remain in scale and will need to be sawn off. Ground growing is best, but a big flat box would also be cool. One trick I've seen is planting the little fuckers on tiles or hard surfaces so that the roots will grow out laterally and produce a nice nebari. Bonsai pots are really only good for finishing trees off. Honestly, I'm not sure you'll get good results on a balcony, I might set your sights a little lower. Growing trunks like that can take 10 years in the ground, I'm not even sure how long it would take in a flat box. :[
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Dec 27, 2014 17:38
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The late Peter Adams wrote pretty much the bible on maple bonsai. I'd look for his book online somewhere - I think it's out of print at this point.
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Dec 27, 2014 17:40
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Crocoduck posted:The late Peter Adams wrote pretty much the bible on maple bonsai. I'd look for his book online somewhere - I think it's out of print at this point. I've seen that book around over the past few years, and yeah, it's really quite fantastic. I should assemble a book post for the OP. Does anyone have any suggestions for reading material? I'm more than happy to include them in a future update.
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Jan 23, 2015 01:02
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Thanks all for the replies. Hopefully I won't be in a place that only has a balcony for much longer (I need a yard!), but until then I'll look into an Anderson flat to see what I can manage.
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Jan 23, 2015 17:22
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I bought a small juniper from a roadside bonsai stand. There is a layer of lava rocks on top. It would be a good idea to get rid of the lava rocks, right?
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Jan 26, 2015 00:35
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Watermelon City posted:I bought a small juniper from a roadside bonsai stand. There is a layer of lava rocks on top. It would be a good idea to get rid of the lava rocks, right? Are they large lava rocks glued in? It's so close to spring repotting time that I would take care of it then.
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Jan 29, 2015 16:08
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Just a mulch layer of lava rocks, no glue. I got rid of it. The rocks made it difficult to determine the moisture level of the soil.
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Jan 30, 2015 06:05
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 I'm starting to bonsai, this is my first one. Chinese elm, has some wire marks around the bottom part of the trunk. Do these grooves disappear as the trunk thickens / ages? Also a few leaves have a small bit of yellow on the tips, is this indicative of a particular issue? I'm in Western Australia, in the end part of summer. It's around 35 degrees Celsius today and is around that temp frequently this week. I hear bonsai is supposed to get full sun, is that still the case for our high heat and intensity sun? Pretty much the only position available right now is under a patio, where it will get an hour or so of direct afternoon sunlight. There is indirect sunlight for the rest of the day though. I could put it out in the garden where the sun hits, with a built shelter to block the sun after like 10am, if that would work better for my climate. The rocks on top aren't glued in and seem to provide enough space for water flow. They've likely been on the tray for a while and it seems to be okay, only issue is it can be hard to see how moist the soil is without moving some aside. Are they likely to be okay to leave on until the first repotting? I can choose to put them back on or not when it's that time. E;  These are the wiring grooves,  This is the yellowing at the end of the leaves. Dude Sweet fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 05:27
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Others will likely know better, but yellow tips to leaves usually indicates overwatering. Brown crispy tips, underwatering. e: Based on my admittedly novice analysis of your tree's leaves, it looks like you might have under and then overwatered it. I'm guessing 35° in Australia is really hot and dry(?), so you might need to water a little more frequently with a little less water. I'm in Virginia in the US which is super hot and humid in the summer, but I still have to water daily to keep my little maple happy. kedo fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 22:13
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if you're in Australia you can't really over water, unless you're growing it in like pure clay or something. yellow tips could be mineral related - try fertilizing it more possibly.
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Feb 17, 2015 00:58
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Thank you both, I held off on watering until I could tell the soil was drier, then gave it a full soak. I think it might not be a bad idea to remove all the rocks, The top cm of soil seems to stay wet, are the rocks preventing it from drying out / blocking oxygen getting in to the soil? Would repotting into some inorganic soil / akadama be a good idea? Only one or two leaves have developed new browning/yellow since my first post , except the newly growing buds/small leaves are going a faint brown colour, spreading from the centre of the leaf.
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Feb 20, 2015 08:13
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Why isn't it loving spring yet? Why. I uh… I might have gotten a new tree. I really like it. Probably my favorite tree. Ever.  Old, old, old yamadori rocky mountain juniper. I have another old yamadori RMJ that I kept alive for a few years now, so I figured investing in a larger one isn't a mistake. I'm turning 30 and, well, this marks the occasion. 300-500 year old tree. Ridiculous. Also, started a blog recently. I don't want to be a whore and link it, but, just in terms of bonsai whoa-ness, Walter Pall reblogged two of the entries. Pretty much every bonsai professional in North America and Europe has been exposed to my lovely words. I'm kind of thinking of quitting my PhD and becoming an artist. Crocoduck fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Feb 21, 2015 |
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Feb 21, 2015 05:10
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How do you know it's that old?
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Feb 21, 2015 07:09
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Watermelon City posted:How do you know it's that old? Mostly experience. I've worked on a lot of RMJ's and you get to know how they grow. The deadwood on trees naturally exposes some tree rings and you can get an approximation of that, but uh, yeah. Could very well be 250 and then I have egg on my face. I don't really care. Here's my other RMJ. 
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Feb 21, 2015 07:35
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It's a striking tree whatever the precise age. Are there any challenges unique to such an old specimen?
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Feb 22, 2015 06:28
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Watermelon City posted:It's a striking tree whatever the precise age. Are there any challenges unique to such an old specimen? A few. They're slower to grow and slower to recover than say, a young trident maple. No big deal though, I just work slowly with them.
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Feb 22, 2015 14:07
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I have questions, many dumb questions but I will stick to one. The weather around here has been crap ( High 20's) I have been waiting till it at least gets the lows above freezing before I pull my bonsai out of their winter shelters is this smart? Dumb? Pointless?
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Mar 26, 2015 04:46
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A question: when trimming a bonsai's roots, how careful do I need to be with damaging the taproot? I have a couple of oak seedlings I germinated from acorns over the winter and was blown away at how massive their taproots were before they even started sprouting aboveground. Do I need to be extra careful with it or anything when I eventually trim the roots, or should it be trimmed just like all the rest? I ask because the root is way, way bigger than the roots from other trees I've worked with before and it kind of blew my mind.  Pictured above, one of my three acorns that refused to sprout in the fridge. Figuring it was a dud, I tossed it outside in a pot and forgot about it for about three weeks. Found it again when I was planting other things in pots and found it strange that I couldn't tug it out of the soil. Dug it up, saw this,  'd and put it in a new home.
kedo fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Apr 13, 2015 |
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Apr 13, 2015 16:49
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kedo posted:A question: when trimming a bonsai's roots, how careful do I need to be with damaging the taproot? You want to damage the tap root. You have two types of roots, fine feeder roots that you want and thick stabilizing roots that you don't want. Think about it. Why does your tree need stabilizing roots if you've wired it into a pot? With that said, these plants are too small, let them grow for a few more years. By a few I mean like… ten. Crocoduck fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Apr 22, 2015 |
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Apr 22, 2015 23:09
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I've recently inherited a bonsai and I've been struggling keeping it alive. It's of sentimental value so I'm hoping you can all give me some advice on how to get it thriving again.  It's currently covered in what I believe to be mealybug. I've used an anti-bug spray and gently washed the residue away but it keeps returning with a vengeance. Any tips? 
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Apr 26, 2015 11:11
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I know this is my go-to response, but I think it's honestly too much water. The spots don't seem like bug damage to me.
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Apr 26, 2015 23:21
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EagerSleeper posted:I know this is my go-to response, but I think it's honestly too much water. The spots don't seem like bug damage to me. Thanks, I'm very new to growing bonsais so I wouldn't know any better, I'll try to reduce the amount of water and see how it goes. What do you do to keep the bugs away if it is infected though?
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Apr 27, 2015 13:00
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It's a fukien tea, and it's in godawful soil. You're going to have real trouble keeping it alive, as the tree is already very weak. Where do you live? If the night temps are above 50F, it should be outside, and you are ready to transplant it. Clean off all that soil using a chopstick, gently, get all that rotten black poo poo out of there. Plant it in a nice bonsai soil, something primarily inorganic. Wire it into its new pot, you want something a bit larger, maybe a 1 gallon pot or something. Wire it tight, so that it is stable. Copper wire is best, as it has less give. Something thick, 3-5mm is great. Keep it in the shade until you start seeing active growth. Took a class with Mauro Stemberger this weekend. poo poo was pretty baller.
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Apr 28, 2015 01:50
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^^^This has pretty sound advice. Since the plant is so weak, I would recommend avoiding chemical sprays for keeping bugs away, and instead treat any bug problem by hand. If the soil is overly soaked, the good thing is that you can help your plant deal with that by getting a chopstick (idk why chopsticks are the best garden tool but they are) and gently poking a hole/little tunnel that reaches the bottom of the pot. This will help the tree's roots from drowning. You can make more holes depending on the amount of soil, and if the soil takes a long time to dry out or not.
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Apr 28, 2015 18:10
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I've noticed that weak trees are always the ones that get the bugs. Vigorous trees seem to keep up their defenses. Restyled my white pine with Walter Pall. Lookin good now. I need to wire it up this summer, but it'll be a 15-20 hour job.
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Apr 28, 2015 19:56
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Crocoduck posted:Restyled my white pine with Walter Pall. This dude??? http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/?m=1
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Apr 29, 2015 00:48
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