hey frog, i found a couple of japanese maple seedlings that popped up in my garden. i was wondering if you think its possible to leave them in the parent soil and treat them as a bonsai or should i dig them up and do them in pots? i wasn't sure how they may react with not being able to prune the root system.
If they are in a spot ware they can grow for a few years leve em in the ground (if not put em in a large pot)You can start styling them now right in the ground.keep triming it to thickin the trunk (doesnt take long for a maple in the ground)get it going in the style you want.in 4 or 5 years you can start trimning roots and put it in a bonsai pot. field grown bonsai is the easyest fastest way to get your tree the way you whant it.follow the field collection procedure by traning the roots befor you put it in a bonsai pot.a bonsai pot is the last step.by the time you get it in a pot it will be close to the style you want.then refine it after its in the pot. ive started a few like this ,it works really well,(sugestion)put a tag or flag neer it stating what your doin with it and your time frame and other notes.ive got little flags next to the trees im workin on in the woods. great ? man i like this one,go ahead and try it it works and its fun to do.keep us updated. frog
dude you're awesome! thanks for the suggestions....do you have some resources on where i can read up some more on how to do this? i dont want to screw these up because they have such a vigor about them already. and its cool because they have seemed to have hybridized amongst each other...they are no where near the characteristics of the parent plants (i have several differnet species of jap maples). thanks again bro!
This is the best bonsai forrum out there,these folks are the best in the world.Its allso a verry inspiering place to get ideas. enjoy http://internetbonsaiclub.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=52
That site is pretty good. I just need to get mine a little more healthy, i think it's getting better, there are tiny hairs at the end of some of the branches, I'm hoping these are new foliage,please correct me if I'm wrong, I'll try n get a piccy
Hey Frog Ive jsu noticed some shoot comming up from the soil my bonsai is in, coud these be baby bonsai ???
I've been doing as recommended for a couple of months but have not seen any new growth on the juniper. What is most frustrating is that though I don't see as many symptoms of mites anymore, I'm not sure if the plant just keeled over. I've moved it from North facing to West facing. I also realized that it was near another bush earlier that had tons of little spiders itself (the other bush is very mature and healthy however).
Here is a good place to get your bonsai trees!! http://4bonsai.com I just wanted to write and say how pleased I am with the service provided to me when I started purchasing from this site: http://4bonsai.com with a wide variety of Bonsai trees. My order arrived as promised today and they are absolutely perfect. I have seen bonsai directly for sale at nurseries that have not been near the quality of those that I purchased on line. What's more amazing is that they offer various Bonsai Trees, Lucky Bamboo, Lucky Bamboo pots, Lucky Bamboo kits, Bonsai humidity trays, Bonsai Trees under $30.00, Juniper Plants, Japanese Juniper, Juniper Bonsai, Japanese Juniper Bonsai, Authentic Bonsai, Imported Bonsai, Authentic Bonsai Trees and Imported Bonsai Trees. I recommed this site http://4bonsai.com for Bonsai lovers, starters and those who are professionals in Bonsai Trees. This site has lots of information and products regarding Bonsai plants.
Hey hannah! Get your Bonsai products at http://4bonsai.com They package everything well. And they are willing to give you every help youll ever need to make your tree last. You can get all Bonsai kits, all the Bonsai accesories, Bonsai pots, Bonsai specimens, mostly are imported Bonsais. You can even get Bonsai humidity tray there. I am telling you hannah that http://4bonsai.com is fantastic and can really help you. Contact them now! All the luck on your trees there!!
I don't want anymore bonsai and I don't need any accessories. I want to fix my PRESENT bonsai. Please stop posting in this thread. Thank you.
Hi Hanna.Hows your tree doin?.Im glad your not listing to that spammer.If you wer to get more trees i doint suggest a place like that selling trained trees,better to start from nercery stock or a collected tree. I allso found some spider mites on one of my junipers,gave it the soap treatment ,i think it worked. peace woodenfrog
Hi Woodenfrog! Kind of you to stop by. I'm sorry to hear about the spidermites though. Keep us updated on the junipers there. Mine is doing okay though there has been little to no new growth at all this summer. I wonder if the roots are perishing and I can't tell because it's an evergreen. It seems I'll have to take it to an expert (a guy I showed at a bonsai shop a few months ago) and have him look at it again. There's no leaf drop or anything. Perhaps it's just incredibly slow. I recently came by a young ficus also. And I know you're a ficus lover. I was wondering if you (and anyone else!) have any tips or answers to my questions. I'll post pictures of it as it is right now (I've not done anything to it yet) in the next post. I was wondering: 1) About potting. I'd like to allow the tree to develop a greater trunk mass and more extensive root system. So far, I have read some articles which say that it's a good idea to put it in a larger pot to develop further. Others have said that I should put it in a shallow pot. I'm very confused but my gut is telling me that this tree is not ready/mature enough for any shallow bonsai pot, and it needs to be given space to grow first. I've also read that it's not necessary to repot from its original pot but I feel that this pot is restricting its growth... and I'd like it to grow! What do you think? 2) Pruning. I know this must be done before any repotting because the tree is weakened after repotting and it's too traumatic. I was wondering about your opinion on how to further develop and shape the branches of my ficus. I understand that this may not even be done for a couple more years since it's quite little, and also that it's up to the artist's or plantlover's taste how their tree should look. Basically, what are the important tips you would give to anyone who is growing and maintaining a ficus bonsai? 3) Just wanted to confirm - is this a ficus retusa? 4) How old (or young I should say) is it?
Here's my ficus, with a pencil for scale. Any tips, suggestions from ficus experts are most welcome. I've read many articles of bonsai lovers trying to generalize how to take care of bonsai and it frustrates me to no end because each plant has very different needs, ways of growing. Please no generalizations. I need specific care on how to train and develop a ficus.. and since there are so many subspecies of ficus, I hope I can get all the help I can get to make sure I do this little guy justice. Thanks!
hi hanna,thats a ficus retussa or a serissa.ill try to answer your ??s 1) its tropacal so bring it in durring cold months. 2)genral rule with ficus is to pinch then feed (repete) 3)to develop a a bigger older looking trunk it needs to be in a bigger pot so roots have room to grow,then keep the leves down.try not to let the leaves and branchs get to big.if the tree dosent have to feed too manny leaves then the trunk gets bigger.ficus are fast growers and recover well.so you could prune it and repot in the same month. 4) they like full sun 5)When you snip off the twiggy branches put then in a jar of watter ,a mirror underneth helps,put that in the sun,a month or so youll have a pretty good root system.then you got more trees.(ficus are fun like that,i started with one and now have sevral) 6) styling,,you can start styling once its in a bigger pot.you will notice when plukin leaves that they gro back lower on the branch.once you see how that works you can grow leaves and branches ware you want them. soft wire is used to shape or bend branches,wrap the wire arround the branch and move it ware needed. cutting some of the bigger leaves in half will make new ones smaller,get it used to haveing smaller leaves. allso when repoting check out the roots at the base of the trunk and dont be afrade to keep them exsposed (looks cool) 7)in looking at the pic agian allot of those leaves should go,just clip the twigs down about a inch or so from the trunk. 8) age,,,looks like its ben trunk chopped then new brances grown from that.maybe 5-8 years old 9) have fun im exsited for you.cool to see your intrest in bonsai increse its kinda scarry to cut off a large amount at first,no worrys ficus are fast FAST growers. ill try to get some pics of some of my trees posted so you can see what im talkin about.. p.s. my junipers (my elms had em too)are doin well.i think i brout the spider mites home with another tree,all is well now. oh oh did you know spider mites jump,like 2 or 3 feet its pretty amazeing to try and get em to jump. hope this helps and that little ficus looks like a good one it will make a great bonsai woodenfrog
ok heres some pics of a few 1 shohin juniper 2 a mame ficus 3 ficus cuttings 2 years old 4 windswept juiper notice the wire training 5 another juiper 6 ficus b(parent of all my ficus trees)its a little nakid right now i defoliated it last week,the bendy branches and trunk were done by wier 7 chinese elm in a gallon size training pot some maples and more junipers in the back ground 8 is my silver maple large bonsai i collected from the woods,notice the hollow trunk.me for scale ,never mind my cat she needs allot of attention. hope this gives you some ideas woodenfrog
Hi Woodenfrog. You pretty much answered all my questions and thank you! Those are lovely picture also, thanks for sharing them. Where did you get your Chinese Elm? I went ahead and took your advice for the potting, cuttings and pruning. I didn't cut off as many twigs as I wanted because I'm probably expecting leaves to fall in the next 1-2 weeks, and don't want to traumatize it too much. When I repotted yesterday, I didn't upset the root ball and left it intact for the most part. Usually I'd undo the clump of dirt but thought against it this time. While playing around in the soil, I noticed the stuff it came in was a bit gritty so mixed normal well-draining soil with some sand. It's done well with my jade plant bonsai. Do you think there'll be a problem? Some of the lower leaves are half yellow but am told that it's natural for the older leaves to yellow a little and shed. I did as you said - to cut the larger leaves in half. I gave it about 4 hours inbetween that bit of pruning and then putting it in a new pot. Here are pictures. The cuttings here have a bit of diluted rooting hormone in the glass of water. They're in bright filtered light.
And while I'm at it... here's the juniper. It's about the 3/4 the size of your Juniper with the blue lighter beside it. Don't worry, the silly wire isn't on it anymore - took it off a week afterward.
