Thursday, November 20, 2008

Bonsai Winter Storage

This is the cold frame I use for storing my bonsai for the winter.  I staple heavy plastic sheeting to the top.  It’s located on the northern side of the house and is about 66″ x 30″ x 30″  (167cm x 76cm x 76cm) and the floor is 24″ (61cm) below ground level.  If it gets really cold, low teens F (-10C), I put a 25 watt bulb inside at night.  I stack the pots on one another and water once a week.   
Posted by Chuck at 17:49:35 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Siberian Elm - Training

Siberian Elm (Ulmus pumila), 11″ (30cm) tall

Siberian Elm (Ulmus pumila), 7.5″ (19cm) tall

When I first moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, thirteen years ago, I planted Siberian Elm seeds in flats. After the first year I put the seedlings in the ground where they have been until this spring. They were transplanted to raised beds about ten years ago. When I dug up the trees to put them in the raised beds, I trimed the roots and put 8″ x 8″ (20cm x 20cm) pieces of half inch thick Styrofoam insulation under the trees to force root growth laterally. This tactic worked very well, and the Styrofoam does not degrade over the years. Almost every year since then I have used a sharp shovel to cut the roots without digging the trees up. On even years I do the north half of the trees and on odd years I do the south half. That way I don’t loose a year of growth to the plants’ reestablishing all its roots.

The difficulty with this species grown from seeds, is the large callouses that grow where branches have been trimmed. The tree buds vigorously at the callouses, so the new shoots have to be controlled constantly. After thirteen years, I can say that the larger trees begin to grow into their callouses. The vigor of this species in this climate - 8 to 10 inches (20 - 25cm) rain per year, low humidity, high level of sunshine at 6000 feet (1829 m) and high summer temperatures - is astounding, especially when they are cared for as potential bonsai material. All the new leaves you see on these two trees budded within four days of my trimming and wiring them.

Posted by Chuck at 05:12:26 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Fertilizing Bonsai

I adapted the recipe I use for bonsai fertilizer cakes from a recipe in issue #47 of Bonsai Today.

Mix the following dry ingredients in a two-gallon pail
9 cups [2.13 liters] cottonseed meal (a 3 lb [1.36 kg] bag is about 9 cups) (6-1-1)
3 cups [.71 liters] blood meal (12-0-0)
3 cups [.71 liters] bone meal (6-12-0)


In a separate container
1 gal water
3 T    [44 ml] Superthrive (B-1 vitamin)
10 T [148 ml] fish emulsion liquid fertilizer
1 T    [15 ml] Pro-TeKt, (0-0-3)
1 T    [15 ml] Peter’s Professional (20-20-20)


Fish emulsion liquid fertilizer, Peter’s Professional, cottonseed, blood and bone meal are available at garden centers.  Superthrive is a solution of B1 vitamin and other unidentified stuff, which is available in the United States.  Pro-teKt is a silicon solution of potassium.  The additional potassium improves heat and drought tolerance.

After mixing the liquid ingredients in the gallon of water, pour the water into the container of mixed dry ingredients. 

Stir the mixture with a trowel.  Let it set about 5 minutes to thicken. 


Lay a piece of 2 mil [.5 mm] thick polypropylene plastic sheeting an 18″ x 24″ [46 cm x 61 cm] tray with 1″ [2.5 cm] high sides. Pour the mixture into the tray.

Trowel the mixture evenly over the tray.

After letting it stand several hours or overnight, with a dull knife or spatula cut the drying mixture into cakes about 1 1/2” [3.8 cm] square.

(The roundish white dots are Siberian Elm seeds.  There are drifts of them everywhere.  I don’t know how the ants will be able to carry them all away.)


Place the tray in the sun until the mixture dries, about two days.

Place the cakes in the corners of the bonsai pots or around the perimeter of the pots.  My guess is that the cakes will deliver a decreasing amount of fertilizer and nutrients for three or four weeks with twice daily watering.

Every time I make fertilizer cakes, I ask myself why am I not making a liquid fertilizer concentrate a few cc’s of which I can add to my daily watering?  Maybe I need to call my New Mexico agricultural extension service.

Posted by Chuck at 05:13:07 | Permalink | No Comments »

Monday, March 17, 2008

Japanese Maple Bonsai

Japanese Maple

Twelve or thirteen years ago another Albuquerque bonsai enthusiast gave me about 50 Japanese Maple seedlings. Over the years, that number has dwindled to about twelve. Knowing what I now know about Japanese Maples in Albuquerque, I probably would have declined the offer. Now that I have all these years invested in them, I’ll continue to work with them. The climate is too dry and hot for these plants, although they can be grown above 8,000 feet if they are protected from winter cold. In the summer, I keep them on the shady side of a fence to protect them from the afternoon sun. Still, by August the leaves are ragged. They do not like being in the ground here because of the high pH of the soil. I’ve tried amending the soil, but the pH climbs back up in a few months. Keeping them in large (9″ - 10″, 23cm), diameter training pots with a soil mix of decomposed granite and pine bark mulch and watering with rain water when I can is the only way they will thrive here. This tree has a trunk thickness of about 1 1/4″ (3cm.) The roots are healthy and spread evenly about the trunk. I have repotted these maples every two to three years, trimming and redirecting the roots each time.

Root Mass after Rinsing away Soil

Here it easy to see the distribution of the roots. The soil mix is easy to remove from the roots by sloshing it in a bucket of water. The bucket of water has a 1/4 teaspoon (1ml) of Superthrive per gallon of rainwater in which I soak the roots for several minutes.

The Bottom of the Tree with the Downward Growing Roots Removed

Root Distribution after Triming

I have trimmed the larger roots heavily, but have left the thinner ones. All the Japanese bonsai masters say, “Prune the roots fearlessly.” First, I wonder what the Japanese word for “fearlessly” is. Two, is that word really being translated correctly? My fearless trimming in Albuquerque has resulted in many bonsai fatalities.

In the Pot

I have a hard time finding pots in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area. I buy them when I see them. Where possible I choose deeper bots because the of the dry summer heat. This one is too large for the tree, so I will be on the lookout for smaller one. I have spread a thin layer of decomposed granite sieved to 1/8″ (3mm) on the top of the coarser soil mix for appearance. The other problem I have is getting moss to grow on the soil. There is a moss that thrives on the boulders in my neighborhood during winter, but I can’t get that to flourish during the summer.


Posted by Chuck at 04:23:27 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Saturday, March 15, 2008

San Jose Juniper

Last Sunday, 3/9/2008, I started work on the San Jose Juniper I wrote about two months ago, 1/16/2008. Before taking it out of its pot, I trimmed back the branches to get a better idea of the material.

San Jose Juniper with Some of Branches Trimmed Away, about 3ft (1m) diameter

Root Mass

Cutting off Bottom Third of Root Mass

Root Mass Trimmed Back

After a couple of hours’ work I’ve cleaned out the root ball. There was no main tap root to the plant. In addition, the condition of the branching leads me to think that at one time, perhaps, someone had intended this plant to be a bonsai.

Juniper Replanted

I replant the tree in a 5 gallon container, which I’ve cut down. The planting mix, 50% decomposed granite and 50″ pine bark sieved to about 1/8″ (.3cm), is about 6″ (15cm) deep. I tilt up what will become the main trunk. This year I’ll let the plant rest. Next year I’ll begin aerial rooting some of the large branches to make some other bonsai.
Posted by Chuck at 04:31:05 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

San Jose Juniper

As every bonsai enthusiast knows, late autumn and winter is the time to prowl nurseries for cheap bonsai material.  Cathy and I stopped at a new nursery last Tuesday.  There wasn’t much there that looked like it had any bonsai potential.  I was heading out, when Cathy called me to come look at this juniper she had spotted.  It was in a five gallon container.  Its neighbors were not interesting, and in this part of the country a five gallon nursery plant is expensive.  Well, when I looked closely it was different from all its neighbors.  The trunk was 4″ (11cm) in diameter.  It was labelled a San Jose juniper, a plant native to the U.S. west coast and very popular bonsai material.  There was no price on the tree.  A nurseryman looked it over and went inside to look on his computer for a five gallon San Jose juniper.  Their computer only showed junipers in 2 gallon containers.  Computers speak with such authority, even when they are wrong.  He shrugged his shoulders, and said I could have it for the 2 gallon price, about US$60.  Sold!  The tree is worth two or three times that much.

San Jose juniper, about 3′ (1 meter) diameter

San Jose juniper, 4″ (11cm) diameter trunk

San Jose juniper showing three branches

The plant is very root bound.  The bottom of the plastic bucket is bulging out.  I’ll work on it at the end of February.  The roots will be Gordian knot.  I’ll put it in the ground so new roots closer to the surface can develop.  It will take a three or four years to bring some order to them.  The one branch that crosses under another will have to go.  The remaining branches will have to be trimmed back when I work on the roots.  I’ll have a few years to consider what to do with styling.  By the time I’m seventy five, I’ll have a real beauty.
Posted by Chuck at 05:59:45 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday, November 10, 2006

Gamble Oak

 
Gambel Oak, Quercus gambelii,  9 1/2″ tall
 
This is one of my favorite bonsai.  Gambel Oak is indigenous to this area.  I collected this specimen ten years ago in the Monzano Mountains.  It took several years of repotting to shorten the root enough to fit into a bonsai pot.  Oaks are not often made into bonsai, but this tree has small leaves to start with that can be made smaller in a pot. The heavily fissured bark makes the tree look very old
 
Posted by Chuck at 05:43:56 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Lace Bark Elm

 
Lace Bark Elm, 15″ (36 cm) high
 
The fall color of this tree, for the first time since I air layered it seven or eight years ago, is attractive. 
Posted by Chuck at 18:08:23 | Permalink | No Comments »