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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Beautiful! How old? The azalea is probably 20-30, the sierra juniper 40-50. fuzzy logic posted:badass yew Hey, not a bad little tree to play around with. I'd repot it next year into some nice soil, then wire it the following year.
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May 8, 2018 11:30
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Crocoduck posted:The azalea is probably 20-30, the sierra juniper 40-50.  I've tried to be very gentle with it so far, just trying to keep it from rotting to death.
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May 9, 2018 03:20
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Catpain Slack posted:Thought I'd share my first little foray into bonsai growing. Yesssss, I'm starting some peppers this year to do exactly this (and sorry for the old quote) I set up a grow tent late last fall to have a good indoor grow area for the winter (zone 4b Minnesota) and have been having tons of fun growing all kinds of peppers. Oldest in this pic are from November 1st and are now outside, as are all the pepper starts for the growing season.  With room in the tent again, I have a pair of scotch bonnet, bahamian goat, and thai burapa starting now that will just be grown in the tent year round. They still can get pretty big in the 1 gal fabric pots they'll be in, so I'll be clipping and growing (probably not much wiring) to keep them relatively small. Also have an older Aji pineapple, and a really nice looking Goldfinger (apparently a baccatum?) that I'll be doing the same.
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May 29, 2018 15:45
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 My bonsai is giving me the middle finger. Still, feels real nice getting this in a pot. Crocoduck fucked around with this message at 17:18 on May 31, 2018 |
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May 31, 2018 17:13
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Are your standard hedge style azaleas pretty hardy? I have some fairly unruly ones in my yard that I would like to very aggressively cut back and start shaping. If I kill them, i'd be mildly sad but also not because like I said, unruly.
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Jul 7, 2018 15:09
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Depends. They like it moist and don't mind a cold winter. I've heard of a lot of trouble keeping them in the heat. Still, if they're growing there as hedges, they should be fine. Very ok with heavy pruning.
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Jul 10, 2018 07:50
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I live in the PNW. No worries about heat and moisture.
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Jul 11, 2018 01:10
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Both my azalea basically require me to get at them regularly or the branches die when they touch each other
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Jul 11, 2018 01:36
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I was recently given a maple grown from a seedling. It's probably three feet tall. It's in my yard now in a five gallon bucket with soil. It gets a lot of sun. I wanted to thicken up the trunk and then chop it. How do I avoid loving this up?
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Jul 11, 2018 09:22
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lemonslol posted:I was recently given a maple grown from a seedling. It's probably three feet tall. It's in my yard now in a five gallon bucket with soil. It gets a lot of sun. I wanted to thicken up the trunk and then chop it. How do I avoid loving this up? Water it deeply every few of days when the top inch or so of soil starts to dry out (don't let it dry out completely). Water it more frequently in really hot or dry weather. Make sure the bucket has holes in the bottom to allow it to drain. If you live somewhere with a cold winter, protect its roots as it sleeps – put it in an unheated garage or cover the bucket with mulch or dried leaves. Water sparingly during the winter, but still water it. Give it a shot of fertilizer every once in awhile, but not every time you water. Phosphorous heavy fertilizer in the fall, balanced fertilizer in the spring and summer. That's about it!
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Jul 11, 2018 13:11
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lemonslol posted:I was recently given a maple grown from a seedling. It's probably three feet tall. It's in my yard now in a five gallon bucket with soil. It gets a lot of sun. I wanted to thicken up the trunk and then chop it. How do I avoid loving this up? Put it in the ground for a few years
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Jul 11, 2018 16:34
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kedo posted:Water it deeply every few of days when the top inch or so of soil starts to dry out (don't let it dry out completely). Water it more frequently in really hot or dry weather. Make sure the bucket has holes in the bottom to allow it to drain. If you live somewhere with a cold winter, protect its roots as it sleeps – put it in an unheated garage or cover the bucket with mulch or dried leaves. Water sparingly during the winter, but still water it. Give it a shot of fertilizer every once in awhile, but not every time you water. Phosphorous heavy fertilizer in the fall, balanced fertilizer in the spring and summer. Thanks a ton. Should i consider putting it in non-organic soil after the summer?
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Jul 11, 2018 17:01
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Probably not if you're trying to thicken the trunk. You especially don't want to repot it after summer – you want to avoid messing with the roots between late summer and late winter because that's where all the tree's energy is stored during the cold months. Depending on how thick the trunk is and how thick you're shooting for, you probably won't need to repot it for several years. When you do, repot it in the early spring as it starts to bud.Harry Potter on Ice posted:Put it in the ground for a few years This is really the best advice.
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Jul 11, 2018 17:21
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Yeah I know. I just cant plant it in the ground. I'm in a city and my yard doesn't have dirt. Can I simulate ground with a wide mesh pot?
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Jul 11, 2018 17:24
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I'm actually trimming my azalea today and repotting it.
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Jul 11, 2018 18:12
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Crocoduck posted:I'm actually trimming my azalea today and repotting it. oh my... flowering pics please?! Beautiful and thick dayum
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Jul 12, 2018 00:03
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Decandled the little black pine awhile ago and it's already budding again - here in SF pines have 2 growing seasons and it may need another prune in October. Of course I overwatered it all of once and now it crawling with fungus gnats, barf. I know they're harmless and all but it's gross to pick up your little tree and just a cloud of bugs comes flying out.  This is why I deliberately cultivate spiders on you, you drat trees!
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Jul 12, 2018 02:55
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Crocoduck posted:I'm actually trimming my azalea today and repotting it. You make me want to bonsai. How could you do this to me?
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Jul 12, 2018 14:30
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silicone thrills posted:You make me want to bonsai. How could you do this to me? Because that tree is competition worthy. Grab some trees and try to keep them alive its fun!
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Jul 12, 2018 17:07
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Any place online to buy prebonsai stock? I don't havr access to nurseries in my area
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Jul 12, 2018 17:44
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Because that tree is competition worthy. Grab some trees and try to keep them alive its fun! It's a Japanese import azalea, I'm kind of its caretaker these days, but whatever aesthetic virtues it has I did not give it :]  Today's work:   And in bloom 
Crocoduck fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Jul 12, 2018 |
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Jul 12, 2018 22:39
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lemonslol posted:Any place online to buy prebonsai stock? I don't havr access to nurseries in my area How much are you looking to spend? Facebook has a group called bonsai auctions and 99c bonsai that are both really good. silicone thrills posted:You make me want to bonsai. How could you do this to me? It really gets in your blood, turn back.
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Jul 12, 2018 22:41
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lemonslol posted:Any place online to buy prebonsai stock? I don't havr access to nurseries in my area if you have even a home depot or similar nearby you'd be amazed what you can do with a stock juniper or other shrub. My yew came from Lowe's or something afaik. Just be prepared to look like a weirdo digging the trunk bases out on every single blue rug they have in stock and not buying anything. It can be faster to work with something in a 1-5 gallon pot than the tiny 4" pots some places sell as "prebonsai" but are really just regular seedlings that are effing tiny. Ed: speaking of being a weirdo I just got a mugo pine for 20 bucks in the clearance section. Seven inch circumference at the base and completely crawling with aphids. I'll take some pics tomorrow
fuzzy_logic fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jul 14, 2018 |
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Jul 13, 2018 01:04
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I love this mugo so much I had to take some crappy phone pics. Dug it out from the sale section, spent a few hours clearing out dead needles and a massive aphid infestation (I didn't even know aphids could eat pine sap!), it's looking better but still in rough shape, no work for it outside of water and love for awhile I think. Outer foliage is so dense it's hard to get good pictures of the trunk but THAT TRUNK. Also if you live near Monrovia, they know what's up, the crown was clearly decandled last year before it went to the garden center and went to poo poo. 
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Jul 14, 2018 04:08
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Last year I bought a small Juniper bonsai, intending to pursue it seriously as a hobby if I managed to keep it alive for the entire year. I kept it outside the whole time (even during winter, it looked very stately wearing a blanket of snow) and it was fine, but since the heat wave recently (I watered it more often during that period) it's been turning yellow. I can't tell if it was underwatered, overwatered, had some kind of shock from the heatwave, or what. Afraid of overwatering, I've been letting it dry out a bit lately but I'm worried. Can anyone recommend a bonsai person/organization/doctor in NYC? I know it's probably better to get an expert to look at this little guy in person but any quick tips (or anything I can do in the meantime) would be appreciated as well.
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Jul 15, 2018 16:12
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Marx Headroom posted:Last year I bought a small Juniper bonsai, intending to pursue it seriously as a hobby if I managed to keep it alive for the entire year. I kept it outside the whole time (even during winter, it looked very stately wearing a blanket of snow) and it was fine, but since the heat wave recently (I watered it more often during that period) it's been turning yellow. I can't tell if it was underwatered, overwatered, had some kind of shock from the heatwave, or what. Most of the time when you get them cheap junipers they're Juniperus procumbens nana, which grow decently in subtropical climates but struggle in our climate. Junipers like shimpaku, san jose, sierra, rocky mountain, etc. do better here. When you buy from a bonsai group, they're also generally on good soil, which makes a huge difference in survivability. If it's turning yellow, my guess is it's already dead. What's your ability to give winter protection like?
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Jul 15, 2018 19:56
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Almost everyone gets a mallsai to start at some point :/ I would guess it didn't like the direct sun combined with the heatwave
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Jul 15, 2018 20:01
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This is weird - I assumed the aphids on my mugo were a fluke from the garden center, like maybe they jumped off a tomato plant, but when I went out this morning the trunk was teeming with ants - I have a full blown aphid infestation in the new candles! How weird. I'm just going to keep crushing/blasting them with the hose and hope they don't come back, but I think these candles are toast, they're limp and floppy where the aphids have damaged them 
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Jul 23, 2018 23:07
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I've had a couple serious aphid infestations on a few plants of mine out of the blue. Not sure specifically about your mugo but I used an organic insecticidal soap after trying out a cayenne/water mixture that seemed to work pretty well. Good luck :/
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Jul 23, 2018 23:58
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:I've had a couple serious aphid infestations on a few plants of mine out of the blue. Not sure specifically about your mugo but I used an organic insecticidal soap after trying out a cayenne/water mixture that seemed to work pretty well. Good luck :/ Why is organic better than not-organic?
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Jul 24, 2018 01:34
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oh no idea on organic vs inorganic, I just bought the organic because I also needed to use it for peppers that I'm going to eat soon. I'd imagine the inorganic would be more serious so I'd be wary on using large amounts of it without being sure it wasn't going to hurt my plant in some way
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Jul 24, 2018 01:49
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 Nuke 'em. It's the only way to be sure.
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Jul 24, 2018 16:47
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Bought a bonsai from one of my teachers. Very happy with it. Definitely up there with the best of my trees. Needs some carving work, some fine wiring, but otherwise I expect to be able to show this guy off if I ever get the nerve up to submit to competitions.
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Jul 28, 2018 14:09
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Crocoduck posted:How much are you looking to spend? Facebook has a group called bonsai auctions and 99c bonsai that are both really good. There's a guy named Lui selling a set of 4 tools on 99c bonsai, current bid is $40. Worth it? I don't have any proper tools, just some regular garden trimmers, which have been fine for coarsely fooling around with ficuses but I'd kind of like to get into more traditional trees too. 
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Aug 2, 2018 17:27
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Pham Nuwen posted:There's a guy named Lui selling a set of 4 tools on 99c bonsai, current bid is $40. Worth it? I don't have any proper tools, just some regular garden trimmers, which have been fine for coarsely fooling around with ficuses but I'd kind of like to get into more traditional trees too. I'd say yes but with the caveat that actually shaping a tree with trimmers is like 5% of bonsai work, the rest is just growing and time. When I first started I bought a bunch of wire and tools thinking I was going to Get At It, nope
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Aug 2, 2018 17:35
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:I'd say yes but with the caveat that actually shaping a tree with trimmers is like 5% of bonsai work, the rest is just growing and time. When I first started I bought a bunch of wire and tools thinking I was going to Get At It, nope Yeah I've got several ficuses that I've had for like 3 years now and finally one of them is approaching sufficient trunk thickness that I'm actually considering doing something with it beyond basic "keep this houseplant alive". I'll probably just murder it
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Aug 2, 2018 18:12
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Pham Nuwen posted:I'll probably just murder it Then you’re bonsai-ing the right way
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Aug 2, 2018 22:16
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TheMightyHandful posted:Then you’re bonsai-ing the right way 100% shari
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Aug 2, 2018 22:28
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Pham Nuwen posted:Yeah I've got several ficuses that I've had for like 3 years now and finally one of them is approaching sufficient trunk thickness that I'm actually considering doing something with it beyond basic "keep this houseplant alive". Yea I saw those I'm excited to see the results. I forgot to add to my earlier post "make sure its the right time of year for the plant" because I let an experienced bonsai grower mess with a maple of mine a month or two ago and it is extremely unhappy if not dead now. 
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Aug 2, 2018 22:50
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:I'd say yes but with the caveat that actually shaping a tree with trimmers is like 5% of bonsai work, the rest is just growing and time. When I first started I bought a bunch of wire and tools thinking I was going to Get At It, nope Nah dude, don't be thinking that way. Bonsai is all tasks, learning how to work a tree at the right time, for the right reasons is insanely important. I would say that ideally every bonsai artist should have a giant set of tools, including non traditional ones like broken glass bottles, sharpened screwdrivers, children's hammers, aquarium tubing, etc. Learning how to grow a tree is important, but learning how to work a tree is what separates bonsai from houseplants. Trees gotta make it sexy or they don't get to stay in the garden  Harry Potter on Ice posted:Yea I saw those I'm excited to see the results. I forgot to add to my earlier post "make sure its the right time of year for the plant" because I let an experienced bonsai grower mess with a maple of mine a month or two ago and it is extremely unhappy if not dead now. After care is huge. I've definitely worked trees to death, every year for the past 6 years or so. It's hard, but learning how to read a tree, how to push a tree, and the nature of your garden are things that you can only do by taking risks.
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Aug 2, 2018 23:22
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