| Author |
Message |
    
Greth
| | Posted on Sunday, January 21, 2007 - 05:10 pm EST : |   
 |
DH really likes the idea of bonsai, I have considered it in the past, but never really done much.
I just came across some feral elms, so took a bunch of em about 1 foot high, and have put them in a seed tray for now, until they are well rooted, and hopefully with shallow roots.
Although it is despicably hot sometimes in our summer, these will live in the shadehouse and get watered daily, so should have a good chance.
Haven't trimmed them or anything as yet, just waiting to see which ones survive first.
We do have some excellent bonsai books, but does it seem I am on the right track here?
Also have some wisteria seedlings, courtesy of Mimi, who posted me some seed. They are about 5-6 inches high now, should I start making a few of them think bonsai from the start, or leave them to get a bit bigger first?
Greth
- South Australia,
Zone "?"
|
Treelover
My Favorite Photo
My Garden
| | Posted on Monday, January 22, 2007 - 10:47 am EST : |
|
Trimming is the last thing you do to a youing tree thats to be a bonsai. Best thing you could do is plant them out in good soil for a couple of years and let them just grow away to get a good thick trunk and healthy root system. Later you could prune hard back each spring and let them grow again.
Putting them in a pot now and pruning them will just stunt them and they'll always be thin weedy saplings with no character.
(Bonsai isnt about stunting, its about growing a strong, healthy tree with a good thick trunk and healthy roots)
Treelover
- County Durham,
Zone "8/9"
|
Fbonsailady
My Favorite Photo
My Garden Journal
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Monday, January 22, 2007 - 10:55 am EST : |
|
Hi Margaret,
In the beginning,the main objective is to get the trunk to thicken as quick as possible.
The best way to achieve this is to plant saplings (if possible) into open ground, the less root restriction the quicker a trunk will thicken.
If your temperatures are too hot out in the open, can you plant them in the ground in the shade house, or failing that, make a large wooden box, with drainage holes, and plant into this - Kath
Kath Zone 8b UK |
Greth
| | Posted on Monday, January 22, 2007 - 03:19 pm EST : |
|
Some of the elms are quite sturdy already, they were in open ground (and threatened with a lawnmower at some time last year!I'm a bit worried that if they get much thicker they are gonna be difficult to train. One has two trunks which are twisted downwards, and is begging to be a cascade bonsai I think. Sound like weeds, don't they? Well, they were, but now are headed for a better life. Stems over 1/2" thick roughly. I have some boxes used for packaging broccoli - the large polystyrene ones - which could double as a temporary planter, and some large planter tubs. I have this cunning plan that if DH wants us to have bonsai, he will have to build me more shadehouse space! Actually I want to build up to having a nursery at home, rather than selling at markets, and I am gonna need looots of shade space in a few years. Won't hurt to have some bonsai quietly growing in a corner, who knows, if they turn out well they might sell too! Though I suspect after all that work its a bit like selling your firstborn..
I will be planting out some of the wisterias anyway, think they might like to grow over the chicken house! Good shade for the chooks, and of course the soil around there is just lovely. So I will put out a few extras once the weather is back to perfect, and reclaim them in a year or two. Elms won't survive outside here without irrigation, they are a weed species in wetter parts of the hills especially next to creeks, but not in our kinda country.
Greth
- South Australia,
Zone "?"
|
|
