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If you want to actually do anything you probably need to get it in the ground to get some trunk size, otherwise you can just buy some cheap stock from your local garden center and mess around and kill those. No sarcasm, just the way it goes with most people starting out. Its more a serious time thing and less a do something now and see the end result any time soon thing
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# ¿ Mar 7, 2018 00:40 |
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# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 13:56 |
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Bacon Terrorist posted:I’ve been gifted a Mexican Heather bonsai, tell me how I don’t kill this thing post a pic!
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# ¿ Mar 11, 2018 23:38 |
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CodfishCartographer posted:Stumbled onto this thread recently, and have always wanted to try raising a bonsai. I think it would be cool to use air layering to make bonsai out of trees at various places I've lived that have been important in my life. Is this a dumb idea? Should I start with something more traditional for the first few years? I'm in zone 8b with a back yard, and there's a nursery right down the street so I have no worries about finding something local I can grow*. great idea, post pics when you start! I'm not being sarcastic either I really like the idea *kill. its a patience/time game
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# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 03:20 |
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CodfishCartographer posted:Thanks for the encouragement! Is this a good time of year to start something like that project, or should I wait for a better season? Spring is just getting going and I know that it's a good time for growing, but I'm not sure if it'd take too long to air layer a branch and then get it secured in a pot until it's healthy. collecting yamadori should be done before the tree starts to grow in the spring, I dunno about air layering sorry. I would bet it would be similar or depend on the species
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# ¿ Mar 15, 2018 03:29 |
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Crocoduck posted:Ice cube thing is a terrible myth. If I were you I would purchase supplemental lighting and get the tree on well draining bonsai soil. Did you lift the moss to see what was underneath? The moss will likely die indoors, so you might as well remove it. good stuff thanks!
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# ¿ Mar 17, 2018 04:09 |
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Oh lol I thought you were well informed about air layering already
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# ¿ Mar 17, 2018 05:07 |
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CodfishCartographer posted:I've read a few articles on it online but nothing beyond that. You should try and buy a few trees on sale somewhere and see if you can keep them alive before you try air layering or even wiring
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# ¿ Mar 18, 2018 19:33 |
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Crocoduck posted:I'm still failing at air layering every year. I'm working with a guy on air layering this Japanese maple this year. awesome, good luck. just imagine how it'll feel when you don't fail!
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# ¿ Mar 27, 2018 01:26 |
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SniperWoreConverse posted:I have these bullshit rhododendrons in front of my house that have been pissing me off for years. Is this a kind of plant that could be bonsai'd? Depends on the species as there are over 1,000 in the genus but azalea are pretty common and gorgeous when in bloom
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2018 03:18 |
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Beautiful! How old?
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# ¿ May 3, 2018 19:16 |
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Crocoduck posted: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. I don't disagree I was more pushing a minimalist approach. I don't think you need a giant set of tools to succeed at bonsai. I learned a lot about shaping a tree so its not a loss, just a bummer
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# ¿ Aug 2, 2018 23:30 |
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Oh my god look at that trunk!!! Did you collect that or inherit it? How much work are you going to do/are you going to show it? Ga drat I'm not worthy I think you need to get it in the ground and thicken it up
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# ¿ Sep 12, 2018 23:01 |
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Crocoduck posted:Bought it from Todd Schlafer out at https://www.firstbranchbonsai.com. First thing to do is graft it with kishu or itoigawa foliage - both do pretty well in my garden. That will take maybe 5 years before it's ready for its first styling. At that point I'm going to wire the bejeezus out of it and tilt it to the right. I might show it - I'm thinking of showing in the Mid Atlantic Bonsai show next year, I've got a few junipers to submit. After that nationals is up in 2020, but I'm not sure if my skills are up to snuff. We'll see. Wow I'd love to check out his garden, some seriously nice trees there. Do you run a blog or instagram or something? I'd love to soak up knowledge from you... like spam the heck out of this thread with pictures and info pleaseee. My only experience with junipers is firefighting in the southwest and they are little monstrous shrubs that were incredibly frustrating to cut so I have some stupid misguided hatred for them. They make pretty amazing bonsai though
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# ¿ Sep 13, 2018 00:27 |
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Are they normally ok inside?
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# ¿ Oct 12, 2018 16:14 |
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The most common way I've killed plants over the years is definitely overwatering #1 and then leaving them outside overnight when it's too cold. I'd say wait until spring to call it dead. This is the fun part of bonsai!
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# ¿ Oct 30, 2018 18:00 |
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ante posted:Cool, I better get started, then The bonsai is not you working on the tree; you have to have the tree work on you
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# ¿ Nov 22, 2018 02:00 |
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drat, nice tree and cool idea fuzzy_logic posted:I recommend getting super high and then just sitting down and attempting to communicate with the tree for like an hour. I do it like every other week and it works great. Same and it works.
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# ¿ Nov 22, 2018 22:17 |
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For sure, there are plenty of cool plants that can grow inside, try and keep those alive. Plant in a pot is the smoothest insult for someone's bonsai, I've heard that a few places now
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# ¿ Jan 3, 2019 15:40 |
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fuzzy_logic posted:The amur maple is mine! Gaze upon my thicc boy: rip the bandaid off on us all, sweet tree too. Crocoduck posted:Yes please, I'm curious. Nice little amur maple. You know about how to care for them? is it different than other maples? drop some knowledge!
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# ¿ Feb 17, 2019 17:46 |
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Crocoduck posted:drat guys I'm getting excited for spring. Despite the recent snow, Mauro Stemberger and I will be working not this Friday but next Friday on establishing structure for that big RMJ. Will Baddeley will be looping through and doing some carving work with me. Boon Manakitivipart is coming to our local club and I'm hoping to gain some knowledge from him. Every year I think is going to be a banner year, but I'm feeling it this year. Who else is getting serious? I mean... I'm super serious about trying to keep my little group alive! But I'm not doing it like you're doing it. I let someone who has been doing it a while hit one of my maples pretty hard at the wrong time so I'll be finding out soon enough if its bouncing back or not. It's a slow learning process but every year I get some more stock and keep having fun with it. I have some killer jades but those dont count haha. What I should really do is get in with a club
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# ¿ Mar 5, 2019 15:37 |
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Hey resident expert, nothing to do with this quoted post but I snagged a coral bark maple volunteer from a big one in my yard. Its the only one I've seen in years, I didn't grab it the first year because it was so tiny but I had to grab it this year before it got destroyed. Any tips for this specific species? Also, there is no reason I should keep it in a pot rather than getting it back into the ground for girth right? From my limited understanding there is no comparison for getting mass going. I'll post a pic later. Does yamadori cover all plants found in "the wild" including my yard?
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2019 17:08 |
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I appreciate the info sharing as well.. for instance seaweed extract? Never heard of it
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# ¿ May 24, 2019 14:54 |
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Crocoduck posted:Playing with a privet - hard to control rot on these guys, super important to minwax and lime sulphur. Is this a crocoduck joke or is it me or is the picture blurry for everyone
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# ¿ May 26, 2019 23:21 |
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Internet Explorer posted:That looks really nice. I had a bonsai once and I killed it because I suck. I am going to lurk this thread for a few years and maybe some knowledge will rub off. Buy stuff and keep it alive is a good second step, specifically not things being sold as bonsai. No need to go crazy with trimming or wiring or tools or pots.
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# ¿ May 27, 2019 18:13 |
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Crocoduck posted:Peter Chan is a good source. Nigel Saunders is not. Guy really annoys me on a personal level, lol. How do you feel about grafted bonsai? Is it totally acceptable as long as it heals well and you can't tell? I'm always curious about how people actually in the bonsai game feel about grafts
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# ¿ May 29, 2019 03:09 |
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Crocoduck posted:Really depends on the tree. A lot of the Japanese maple you see out there in garden centers are grafted with the root stock, and these hardly ever look passable. Cheap JWP are often grafted to JBP root stock and these can sometimes look good after a long period of time. Grafted 'ginseng' ficus always look awful. Oh my god my minds blown again for remembering the last time you explained grafting juniper foliage. That is so cool to me. That all makes sense to me, thanks. I've turned down buying some trees with lovely grafts that I figure would just get worse. Also cross posting from the weed thread
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# ¿ May 30, 2019 02:40 |
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I could sit and stare at those for a long time if they were in my backyard Crocoduck posted:Lol those are japanese maples. I wanted to believe
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# ¿ May 30, 2019 04:42 |
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How can I propagate my Azelea?
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# ¿ Jun 10, 2019 22:54 |
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Crocoduck posted:Cuttings? I dunno, I'm not good at propagation. I'm trying an air layer next week to remove the bottom section of a Japanese maple and I'm scared out of my fuckin mind. drat good luck! Share the pics. I like plants that you can pop off and put on soil and get more plants like succulents haha, cuttings were what I've read though
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# ¿ Jun 11, 2019 00:46 |
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I don't think you can keep a japanese maple indoors like that but I hope for your sake I'm wrong
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# ¿ Jun 25, 2019 16:40 |
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# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 13:56 |
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That deadwood is gorgeous. Great work
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# ¿ Jun 30, 2019 02:23 |