Gonna make an oak forest

[Sno]

My mate down the road is growing oak trees to produce truffles . I gave her a hand when she was first starting out . She had a few trees left over after she had finished and she kindly gave them to me . Well I am more interested in bonsai than truffles so I have decided to start a forest . The trees I got from her were only tube stock so they have a way to go so I have been looking for some larger trees to start .
So today I started . This is going to be a long term project a so this will be a progression .
The dominant tree .

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The rock is decomposed granite

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I carved a bowl out of it inspired by Josh ,drilled a 20mm core hole through it and made some wire tye down things inspired by Graham .

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Leveled the base just in case I want to show it on its own .

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I made some muck using some clumping cat litter (which is a type of clay called bentonite) and some goat poo to level the sides .

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[Isitangus]

Looking forward to seeing this progress-who knows maybe you might end up with truffles under your bonsai!!! Lol

[bodhidharma]

That is a really good start. Good luck with the Oaks as they can be a challenge.

[Elmar]

Hahaha maybe he'll get some Bonsai truffles!!!
They may be worth more than the normal truffles...


Cheers
EZ
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sno]

So I hit a few snags on this project . It's all in the timing , my mate who is giving me all the trees lives in Jindabyne which is a little bit lower in altitude than me . She gave me some last year which I had started to train . When I went to pick up the last lot a week ago they had already leafed out . The ones I have at home meanwhile have just started to leaf out . so I am not game to play with them till next spring . All these trees are over 7 years old (even though they look like seedlings) so another year growing on will do them good .
I picked up another tree from a bonsai nursery in Melbourne last autumn , I was looking for some bigger stock to balance the forest . This tree had fairly ordinary roots for a bonsai starter, they had not had any work done to them so I will train them this year in a garden sieve with some of the stock I got last year.
I have three more granite slabs which will come together in a tiered jigsaw type thing . So this is to be one of those to be continued stories .
Hi Bohdi when you say challenge , any tips ? Cheers Sno
A few photos

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The next two photos are inspiration images .

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The difference in altitude Jindabyne 1000m where I live 1200m close to 3 weeks growth .

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Tree from Melbourne bonsai nursery .

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Titled

[bodhidharma]

Hi Bohdi when you say challenge , any tips ? Cheers Sno

Yep, patience as your project will be slow. These take a lot of time and patience and are unpredictable. i have defoliated and have had the leaves come back smaller and then next time larger. They respond to strong pruning and FEED well.