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I have a question about my little red maple seedlings I have growing. They're at about 3 months now and growing, but should I be doing anything to them besides watering? They're sprouting a lot of new leaves, should I clip some off or just let it keep growing and doing their thing? Some of them are getting pretty tall.
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Jun 17, 2012 05:01
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Sorry about a long reply time. I went on a family trip for a week and came back to no electricity in the house AND no internet...  But everything is fixed, so hooray!  @Authentic You: I don't know anything about Mountain Mahogany, but California Juniper and Manzanita are suitable choices for bonsai. @The Snoo: That's a pretty cool one. Can't tell exactly what it is, but if it's indoors all the time (guessing it is because the pics of it are indoors) it may be a verigated Serissa. @Sandwich Fight: I would say to let them grow for the time being. Resist the temptation to trim them, as when you do so you'll be weakening the little guys. (Remember as with any first year seedlings, your goal right now is to keep them alive first and foremost.) I'd say to wait just before spring of next year to transplant them into larger containers. Then you can start trimming and working on them, as they'll be bigger and healthier when they leaf out.
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Jun 26, 2012 01:12
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Good call on the Ginkgo being an outdoor tree. I put what I thought was a dead Ginkgo outdoors for a few days as a last ditch effort to revive it, and it's magically leafing back out again. Thanks for the advice!
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Jun 26, 2012 03:44
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Gingko are extremely primitive, so they're pretty hardy.
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Jun 26, 2012 16:39
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Indeed! Ginkgos are pretty much a living fossil. They're found in the fossil record around 270 million years ago, and have no close relatives with today's trees. In the bonsai world, they were pretty popular specimens until around the 1970's when they saturated the bonsai market completely and fell out of popular eye. They've come back into style over the past decade from what I understand though. They do grow extremely slow though...  Glad to hear that they're making a comeback though, nobody-! Just keep at it and I'm sure you'll have yourself a nice little tree or two a few years down the road. 
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Jun 28, 2012 19:34
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e- nevermind, no one answered anyway
Asstro Van fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Jul 23, 2012 |
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Jun 28, 2012 21:53
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Mr. Soop posted:Indeed! Ginkgos are pretty much a living fossil. They're found in the fossil record around 270 million years ago, and have no close relatives with today's trees. 
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Jun 28, 2012 22:11
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Indeed! Their roots are also extremely bizarre, as they don't have root hairs. They simply grow larger extensions of their roots, leading them to grow ones that look like a Mandrake as time goes on. Which makes repotting a Ginkgo one of the more fun/strange things to do. 
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Jun 30, 2012 15:07
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Okay, I want a beginner bonsai. I'm in Chicago, and I have never tried air layering although if I can find a local bonsai person to help, I'd love to see the process. Looking over the beginner bonsais, it doesn't list oak or walnut which are two I'd love to do, so I'll skip em. Requirements: my place has a porch, so I could keep a bonsai on the porch. Squirrels get on the porch looking for food, if that is a problem. Itd be really weird seeing a squirrel in a bonsai tree. Other than the porch, I'd have to keep it indoors. I keep it no hotter than 85 all day and my AC kicks on when I get home around 6, down to 80. Chicago is pretty brutal.. cold winters, hot summers. I assume local trees work best as they're accustomed to it. I also DON'T HAVE GOOD LIGHT. My light is enough to grow the plants I do, but there isn't any great all day light, my apartment's at a weird angle. Is it possible to grow Maple, Hawthorne or Cherry if I can find them? If anyone knows of midwest bonsai places to call/visit that'd be awesome too.
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Jun 30, 2012 16:43
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Have you tried google? Not intending to be a dick about it, but https://www.google.com/search?q=chicago+bonsai wasn't hard to find. Go try out a local event or workshop, and have fun!
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Jul 1, 2012 05:24
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Things like that can be very informative, but also can be very intimidating to newcomers. It's all dependent on the crowd that attends though. For example, I'm a member of three bonsai clubs at the moment. Something interesting I've noted is that one of them is extremely laid back and welcomes newcomers at all turns, and another is pretty snobby with a lot of members who are all old white guys with a good-old-boys mentality to who they're warm with. So if you're going to join a club right away, be prepared for the possibility of meeting few jerks. From what I've seen, a number lot of people (no matter the hobby) forget where they came from; that they once started out knowing nothing about bonsai. That's the reason why I started this thread. Bonsai is a very daunting art form, and if you don't know where to begin it's that much scarier... But if people can see that it isn't about instantly having a masterpiece tree and knowing that everyone begins with questions, it makes it that much more accessible.  Anyway, maybe look into getting some sort of indoor bonsai like a Ficus. Easy to grow, will tolerate low sunlight being an indoor plant and all, and so long as your residence maintains a pretty decent temperature all year round (think anywhere from 70 - 85 indoor temp range throughout the year) it'll grow just fine.
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Jul 4, 2012 05:33
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Oh god this is going to suck up so much of my time.
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Jul 5, 2012 23:08
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yayyy a bonsai thread. I'm just making my second try at having a bonsai. This time I read before starting so I got something that was doable for me in an appartment and would also be enjoyable since I could keep it indoors most of the year (I'll put the thing outside during the summer once it's in a new pot). Here's my Ficus Nerifolia    So I need to repot it since it's a home depot type of tree (glued rocks and and the under-pot is also glued!). I bought a fairly large terra cotta pot (7 inch diameter and 4-5 inches deep or so) so I can use it to let it grow in the coming years and slowly form it. I'm thinking of using 100% diatomite (diatomaceous earth) as soil. Did anyone ever try something similar? There's nothing I can buy fast except for that or may be cat litter (but that seems to be very hit or miss). Also, can I use regular 20-20-20 chemical fertilizer? If so, I should use it every two week or so right? I have literally 0 idea about what I should do as far as styling goes with this thing in the future.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:01
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Fantastic tree! My teacher has a Ficus Nerifolia, and it looks good as a larger bonsai with its large leaves. To answer some of your questions, that pot size sounds A-OK. Just make sure you don't damage the roots of the tree when you remove it from the pot. I imagine the glue might make it a bit of a pain in the rear, but I'm sure you'll manage. As for using diatomaceous earth, you bring up a little more of an advanced point. Theoretically, you'll want to use some form of diatomaceous earth in your bonsai soil mix. I'm lucky enough where I get what's called Akadama from my local bonsai club, along with crushed up lava rock. I mix them together with some basic soil amendment compound to create a mix of diatomaceous Akadama, porous lava rock to offset the decomposition of the Akadama which could potentially inhibit drainage, and amend to provide an organic compound that introduces nutrients into the soil that naturally compose over time. All of this is measured out as 1/3rd each for my bonsai soil. In terms of using cat litter (called Kittydama by those who use it), you're right about it being hit and miss. If you're going to try some, be VERY careful that you are buying diatomaceous earth with NO additives in it. Some people do indeed have luck with so called Kittydama, but from what I've heard from the people in my area, it should generally be avoided to do the risk of unlisted additives in it.  I'd say to search around online though. While a bonsai soil mix can be a little pricy ($10 to $20 for a 1 pound bag) it's not too bad of an investment if you have only one tree to repot. For fertilizer, 20-20-20 is going to be a bit too strong for a ficus, or most bonsai in general. Go for something with a much lower NPK rating, and something that isn't chemical but organic instead. The reason for this is that while large plants can take a fair amount of chemical build-up with repeated chemical fertilization, bonsai will accumulate such build-ups much faster and you could risk damaging the root system of the plant. If you go organic for bonsai, you'll be giving them an organic compound designed to completely be absorbed/decayed/washed out over time. What I use is a 5-1-5 'Herb Food' %100 organic fertilizer made by Grow More that I purchased at OSH for like, 5 bucks or so. I only fertilize once a month, but as I have a lot of plants to feed the 1 LB container of fertilizer lasts me about 4 months. But if you just have one or a few plants it could easily last a year or more. And as for styling, it has a nice formal upright shape to it, or it could also be a broom style with those nice full branches up top. I'll be posting a guide on traditional bonsai styles soon too (next few days probably), so stick around if you're interested! 
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Jul 10, 2012 08:47
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Great, thanks for the info. Repotting went well and after a week or so I didn't notice any loss of leaf or anything so that's great. The new soil has great drainage and will do for at least the next year. I'll try to find a better mix before I repot it next spring. I bought some slow release 4-4-4 organic fertilizer so I won't have to deal with it too much (I'm very good at forgetting stuff like that!) and my plants will hopefully be happy. I was going for a broom style originally, but I find it kind of boring so I'll probably try to aim toward one of these three style that I find look awesome with ficus: super large canopy with or without aerial roots like this (but obviously much less awesome):  Keep it as a broom style, but use it in a penjing project because I think I might find those even more awesome than bonsai, especially with smaller/less awesome trees. Or make it a root over rock thing on a tall rock I'll start by seeing how well it grows anyway!! Quick question about pinching. I think you're supposed to pinch back to 2 or 3 leaves from the last internode right? But how often do you do it. You let the tree grow a shoot of 10 leaves or so and then you pinch it back? It seems so simple that most things I've read on bonsai don't cover that but will let me have complete and precise informations on much more complicated thing.
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Jul 14, 2012 13:45
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I killed my bonsai. 
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Jul 15, 2012 00:26
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The Snoo posted:I killed my bonsai.  next time put it in a better soil mix if possible. That's the mistake I made the first time around and my bonsai died quick too . good soil with ridiculously good drainage is key
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Jul 15, 2012 00:45
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I forgot to water it for a few days... then again, I forgot to water my three other plants, as well. I have it in a mixture of compost and generic bonsai 'soil' that drains very well, it's basically small wood chips. Wouldn't I WANT it to hold water, though? Mine have always dried out very quickly and I'm... I'm probably too lazy to own a bonsai.
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Jul 15, 2012 00:56
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The Snoo posted:I forgot to water it for a few days... then again, I forgot to water my three other plants, as well. Stuff like diatomaceous earth (Nappa autoparts sells some as oil absorbants) will drain really, really well but retain a lot of water at the same time (think of it as little pieces of sponge). But yeah, watering is key in bonsai and well most pants really! You have to check the soil every day and water when necessary if you want to keep it growing. This is true of most plants though
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Jul 15, 2012 01:00
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I've got some yew cuttings that I've rooted, how long should I wait until I can start doing all the fun cutting?
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Jul 17, 2012 00:34
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This is a fascinating thread - I do ikebana but have been wanting to try my hand at bonsai for a while. I have a ginko tree near me, would you recommend starting a bonsai from a cutting (if ginkos lend themselves to cutting) or am I making things too complicated?
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Jul 17, 2012 22:32
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FloorCheese posted:This is a fascinating thread - I do ikebana but have been wanting to try my hand at bonsai for a while. I don't know much about Ginko's so I can't help, but could you post some pics of your ikebana? That always intrigued me
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Jul 17, 2012 23:25
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Ikebana are pretty cool as they traditionally go with bonsai displays as "accent plants". Wouldn't mind seeing some pics as well. Also, ginkgo plants do lend themselves to cuttings. However they should be taken in early spring and need about 6 months to a year to fully root as they are incredibly slow growers.
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Jul 18, 2012 16:12
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What would be best process be to go about finding a Trident Maple suitable for Bonsai, and taking care of it and cutting it to be planted in a pot? Everything I've read says that pruning a Maple is best done in early spring. Given that it is already summer, my thought would be to find a nice maple with a 3" or bigger trunk from a nursery, and just keep it in a pot and grow it until next spring, maybe keep the leaves pruned to encourage smaller leaf growth. The issue is, I live in an apartment so it isn't as if I can put this tree in the ground before I cut it to put in a pot. If I found an acceptable trident maple would I be okay leaving it in the pot on my patio for a season and cutting it down for a bonsai pot next year? I'm new to the bonsai hobby, I've got a Juniper I picked up locally that I'm trying to keep alive, and hopefully I can get in some classes at a local Bonsai garden when they become available so I can learn more about the shaping/training aspect of all this.
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Jul 23, 2012 17:59
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Korwen posted:What would be best process be to go about finding a Trident Maple suitable for Bonsai, and taking care of it and cutting it to be planted in a pot? Actually, unless it already has the trunk, roots and basic shape that you want, you should keep your tree in a regular pot and not a bonsai pot. Once put in a bonsai pot, your tree will grow only very slowly. it's 200% ok to put it in a big pot for a year or so until you can repot it next spring (or whenever repoting is supposed to be done for a trident maple)
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Jul 23, 2012 19:18
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KingColliwog posted:Actually, unless it already has the trunk, roots and basic shape that you want, you should keep your tree in a regular pot and not a bonsai pot. Once put in a bonsai pot, your tree will grow only very slowly. If you keep a tree in a big pot would it still be worthwhile to put it in a bonsai soil mix, or would a more "regular" soil be necessary?
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Jul 23, 2012 19:36
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Korwen posted:If you keep a tree in a big pot would it still be worthwhile to put it in a bonsai soil mix, or would a more "regular" soil be necessary? from what I've read you're better off putting it in some bonsai soil mix anyway. I have a pretty big lemon tree in regular soil that seems to be doing fine though so you're probably ok with regular soil too. If it's not the right time to repot when you buy the tree, keep the soil it came in and don't disturb the roots. Just add more soil around it so it fits in your pot.
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Jul 23, 2012 19:42
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Apparently I missed a chance to plant some bonsai and learn about trimming them yesterday. They had a little workshop at the local Obon festival, but it was over by the time I got there.  Right now I'm trying to get some seeds sprouted for varying fruit trees. I've got easy access to apple, almond, ornamental plum, loquats and some citrus fruits. I'm just going crazy trying to grow things, because I hate not having a yard.
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Jul 23, 2012 20:13
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Alright well, looks like this weekend I'll get to trounce around Austin garden centers looking for maple trees.
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Jul 23, 2012 23:21
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I know this is probably plant specific, but how crucial is "full sun"? I live in a condo complex where my "yard" is a balcony that is shaded half the day. The temps aren't extreme here either. Highs of about 80-85 in the summer and lows about 40-50.
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Jul 23, 2012 23:38
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jerkstore77 posted:I know this is probably plant specific, but how crucial is "full sun"? I live in a condo complex where my "yard" is a balcony that is shaded half the day. The temps aren't extreme here either. Highs of about 80-85 in the summer and lows about 40-50. I think this is very tree specific. All my plants are on my balcony too and they seem to do well. I always grow plenty of things (green onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots and whatever we feel like planting that year) and I live in the great white north (quebec, canada). Some trees will grow much better in "half-shade" spots while others will grow much more rapidly in full sun. If you type the latin name of the tree you want on google you'll probably find a bunch of bonsai info on that tree. I know there's a lot of ressources in french and there's probably a lot more in english.
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Jul 23, 2012 23:47
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Finally got off my lazy rear and put together something on bonsai styles. It'll be kind of short to read (although it wasn't exactly short to make), but should be pretty useful. I'll be posting it later tomorrow. Sorry for the delay as usual. 
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Jul 28, 2012 07:41
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Getting Started: Bonsai Styles Bonsai is an art form, perfected through the ages by the Chinese and Japanese. Over hundreds of years, bonsai masters have derived true styles by looking to nature for inspiration. Here are a number of various bonsai styles and their explanations, with silhouettes (scanned from the book Bonsai: The Complete Guide to Art and Technique by Paul Lesniewicz.) Individual Tree Styles      Trees with Several Trunks and Group Plantings    Styles that may be Planted Singly or in Groups     All of these styles are achieved from various pruning and wiring techniques. The main thing to keep in mind is that none of these styles will be achieved overnight. All of them will take years, potentially a decade or more to achieve ‘perfection’. There are also a few more styles than the ones listed here, but these are the primary styles that you see bonsai portrayed as in most photographs and paintings. There is also no true order of ‘difficulty’, although the windswept and rock grown styles can be notably harder to achieve than the others due the effort and time you have to put in. The key thing however is to look for one of the styles being a potential style for your tree. It’s going to be pretty hard and time consuming to modify a plant that may naturally cascade into something like a formal upright style for instance. So if your tree already resembles one of the above styles, just stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with a fantastic specimen of a bonsai.
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Jul 30, 2012 00:41
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Picked up a couple plants this weekend. The first is a juniper that is already in a bonsai pot. I got this from a local art festival from a booth run by a local bonsai nursery. Let's see if I can keep this thing alive. The second was a ficus that I intend to grow for bonsai. I currently have it in a gallon pot to grow but I have a question about the trunk. All of the ficus I saw had what looked like multiple trunks coming out. I picked the one that included the best looking, thickest trunk, but there's also three or four other smaller "trunks" coming out of the soil. If I just want a single trunk like I see lots of ficus have, am I supposed to prune the others off?
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Jul 30, 2012 21:29
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Pretty much. The only upside to still having the smaller shoots and not wanting a multi-trunk style tree is that they will help the tree grow and 'bulk up' faster while also aiding in the recovery from any pruning you do. Ficus are very resilient, so there probably won't be much harm in chopping them off in one go. If you're a little cautious about it though you can chop a couple off at a time in the span of two weeks; it will help keep from shocking the tree that way.
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Aug 1, 2012 19:48
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In a similar vein, I have a Ficus Microcarpa that I would like to grow for bonsai, but frankly I have no idea how to get started. Ideally I would like to go from this:  to this:  I realize that this would be a very slow process, but once I know what steps I have to take to push the tree in that direction I think I can handle it, it's just that I'm completely clueless right now.
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Aug 4, 2012 11:37
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The first thing you'll have to do is to put it in a larger container. Around double or even triple the size of the one that it's currently in. Don't worry about getting a fancy bonsai pot yet as you're just trying to get it to bulk up all around. Next would be to fertilize it (a lower N.P.K. rating would be best) and let it grow from there. As the plant grows and develops more leaves, selectively prune the leaves in order to help develop fine twigs and branches, along with strengthening the existing parts of the tree. (Doing this when the tree is well established with nice full foliage will force to tree to send nutrients elsewhere when you prune, thus aiding the process of growing faster so long as you don't clip off too much.) Ficus grow pretty fast, especially when they're allowed to grow freely without pruning. It'll take a few years, but eventually your tree will get bigger and be ready to become a true bonsai. 
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Aug 6, 2012 22:08
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I found a local bonsai nursery and bought a trident maple pre-bonsai pictured below. I moved it to a larger pot to let it grow for a while, but after reading some other sites, I think I used the wrong soil. A lot of places say to use free-draining soil that is 40% organic. I used basic potting soil. It does drain freely when I water it, but do I need to repot it again with a more appropriate soil mix?
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Aug 7, 2012 16:34
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Nah. If you're just growing it to be a bonsai and not actually doing it as a full-fledged bonsai, potting soil is going to be better for the growth and the health of the tree.
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Aug 9, 2012 06:37
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So, since fall is coming up I thought that I would put up a little guide on gathering cuttings. Hopefully it will answer a lot of questions people might have about collecting and growing them! Collecting and Growing Bonsai from Cuttings Cuttings are a fantastic way of acquiring new bonsai material. However, it is a tad bit of an art that can also require a small amount of luck. That being said, it’s always worth a shot as it will probably cost you a fairly small amount of money and effort. When should I collect cuttings? There are generally 3 times during the year that you should collect plant cuttings. The first would be in the Spring before the new buds on deciduous trees begin to open; the second time is the rainy season in very late spring/very early summer when the young shoots are turgid (swollen and distended) and becoming woody. The final time of year would be during the fall. Evergreen cuttings also should be collected during these times of the year as well. Awesome! Any plants in particular that might be good to take cuttings from? Any that aren’t? Good question. Off the top of my head, ones that do well when grown from cuttings would be Chinese Elm, Junipers, Ficus, Olives, and Fibrous Begonia. Japanese and Trident Maples can be done from cuttings, but you’ll probably have better luck with growing those from seed or purchasing them as pre-bonsai’d plants. However, most pines and firs will do very poorly when taken as cuttings. And although it is possible to grow them from cuttings, you’ll probably have better luck training a cat to do tricks than you will in getting the cuttings to grow. Alright. So what should I take into account when I gather cuttings? First of all, make sure that the parent tree is healthy enough to gather cuttings from. This isn’t so much a problem when collecting from large, full grown trees. However, many bonsai enthusiasts prefer to collect from smaller trees. Not necessarily bonsai sized ones, but smaller ones. In this sort of instance, the parent tree should be given extra fertilizer and potentially pesticides in order to give any cuttings a better chance for survival. Try and use apical or strong, long branches for your cutting material as they have a higher chance of survival. You will also have to have some sort of cutting bed ready for when you collect and plant the cuttings, as this should all be done in one sitting. A small container (think 4 to 6 inches high) that allows for easy drainage of water is ideal. An ideal soil mixture for your cutting bed will also be a mixture of 80% clay and 20% sand. This will allow for some water retention with less danger of drowning your cuttings. Also, make sure you have a rooting hormone/root catalyst handy. You can buy these at your local gardening shop, most likely in a powdered form. However if you want the really good stuff (Dyna-Gro Root Gel for instance) you may have to pay a bit more for it. Note that there is nothing wrong with buying the powdered form; the gel is worth it though if you feel very adamant about collecting from cuttings. So I’ve found a good tree to collect from. Any sort of fancy way that I should go about clipping off and prepping the cuttings to be rooted? Make sure that when you collect cuttings you are of course using a sharp pair of scissors or a knife. The ideal size for a cutting is about 1 in. to 2 in. of dominant shoots or 4 in. of the roots. The cutting may be a split-slanted cut, split cut, opposite cut, slanted cut, or straight cut. (See diagram directly below)  Once you’ve collected your cuttings, soak the lower end of the cutting in a diluted solution of your rooting hormone/root catalyst for 20 to 30 minutes in order for the cutting to absorb sufficient moisture. Then use a sharp knife to trim the cuts so that a smooth root base can be formed. Lastly, retain only 2 or 3 leaves on the cutting and prune the rest off. This will balance out the amount of nutrients your cutting has to supply to the leaves and will boost the chances of survival. When planting the cuttings, make sure that at the very least you plant them so that although their leaves might touch, they do not overlap. One-third to one-half of the cutting should be buried in the soil. If you desire, you can also plant them in a way to get them started as bonsai. (Plant it at a slanted angle if you want it to be a cascade or informal upright, ect. or upright for upright styles, of course.) Finally, water the cuttings with the same kind of diluted root hormone/root catalyst you used to soak them in. After that, water them two or even 3 times a day with normal water and fertilize them lightly. And of course, all cuttings need to be protected from direct sunlight and strong winds as well. Whew! That was a lot of work. So how long before these things sprout roots out? This is the part where luck comes in. It depends entirely upon the kind of tree you took the cutting from, the current season, how well they respond to their environment, and how well you care for them. For example, Junipers are very good at rooting…but it can sometimes take a year for them to. It’s all just a waiting game at this point, so all I have to say is good luck and hopefully you’ll get some roots sprouting a few months down the line! 
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Sep 1, 2012 08:15
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