Lack of Sun

[Rory]

Lack of Sun

This post is directed mainly at a select area of bonsai enthusiasts - those with little sun, but lots of enthusiasm,.. and perhaps a somewhat die-hard persistency. To all those poor souls, lost by the way of the shade... this tribute goes out to you.
Apparently some fool decided many years ago that a lack of sun would mean swamp species would do well. ... Yes, that fool was me. This is not the case, and in fact, usually wrong. Yes, some swampy varieties do well without normal levels of sun, but generally it means they do well with often poor drainage or frequent watering, but without periods of strong sun they perish. So, there I was, realizing the large number of swampy products I bought were inevitably a constant reminder of my ill-informed enthusiasm. It is this long, often painful process that has lead me to try and help our fellow enthusiasts with a few very important points which are often overlooked when purchasing bonsai stock. Obviously, make sure you understand what it means when it says it is naturally swampy, or prefers part shade or full sun, etc, etc. Full sun, means..... full sun. The next time you look at the label on that awesome stock you are about to buy, get your friend to hit you on the head with a giant rubber mallet. Part shade, does not mean you can have it in shade most of the day. This means, it can tolerate a canopy above it, but still will get filtered light throughout the day and periods of full sun. Even swamp varieties generally still need frequent sun. Do not over water anything! If you live on a balcony, try to get stock that are obviously going to be without sun for greater periods. I compiled a list below that should help and will give you beautiful displays.

Now, lack of sun, apart from the obvious, can present other obstacles. Apart from late spring, it is strongly advised not to heavily prune any of your species, especially those that are not generally a thriving species. Often the lack of sun and the heavy prune, which just further aggravates the tree, as it is not able to get enough energy from photosynthesis, and sometimes is even enough to take it out. This is probably obvious, but still needs to be mentioned. Do not crowd your bonsai. Space them apart, to maximise the area of sun getting in. If you can't space them apart then you own too many.

For those who suffer from areas of little sunlight, I would certainly say, avoid all conifers and anything that says requires full sun, or 1/2 day sun. If it says primarily part shade or shade, go for gold.
However, I am still surprised I have one Juniperus Chinensis that is very healthy and still thriving, but it does own the sunniest spot on the back deck....time will tell.

Therefore, I can offer the following advice. Extra care must be taken to never over-water:

Attempt:

Casuarina Cunninghamiana - The king of the Australian bush. This is the greatest native to work with. They tolerate occasional over-watering, lack of sun, too much sun, harsh swear words, children, and dog bites. It is the only species I have ever worked with in large numbers, that I have never lost a single tree.
Allocasuarina Torulosa / Cas Distyla / Cas Glauca - All excellent material to work with. AVOID Littoralis
Bougainvillea are generally bulletproof
Moreton Bay Fig does well. Port Jackson Fig also worth trying. Ficus Benjamina 'Shorty' is great to use. Ficus Retusa also a great stock. But do not overwater, you can leave these guys almost dead dry before watering.
Melaleuca Quinquenervia, Nodosa, Ericifolia, Bracteata, Armillaris, Nesophila and Lateritia would be my top recommendations for Mels.
Eucalyptus Crebra, Cinerea, Saligna and Robusta do very well. Corymbia Citriodora does well too, (lovely tree).
Angophora Bakeri does very well. Great stock to work with. Tolerates anything.
Kunzea Baxteri - Is very hardy, and strongly recommended.
Acacia Howittii does amazingly well.
Pandorea pandorana - Does very well, no matter how bad you treat it. Its like the domestic equivalent of a stray cat.
Grewia do very well.
Crepe Myrtle do quite well.
Chinese Pistachio does well.
Gingko Biloba does very well.
Prunus do very well.
Manchurian Pear is a lovely tree which tolerates little sun.

Do not attempt:

Any conifers or pines. No matter how beautiful they look, and how much you keep telling yourself, but... but... it will be different this time. I'll be a better tree husband, I'll move it into sunnier positions each time, I'll fertilize it more often. Just... give it the frozen treatment... ie. Let it go
Any leptospermum!.... except Petersonii (mainly lemon-frost hybrid), which will do well and is a beautiful looking and smelling tree.
Japanese maples. Stick to Acer Ginala or Trident Maple.
Allocasuarina Littoralis. Shade is not this gals friend. In fact, this girl will impress you with her lovely bark and awesome curves, then sh@& herself at the first sign of a 6 month cloud and leave you without any hint or reason. Hmmph!
As a rule, probably best to just avoid most Callistemon, but Callistemon Linearis does well. Even though they are basically Mels, I never have had much luck for some reason with anything starting with Callistemon.
I would strongly avoid Melaleuca Linarifolia and Equistifolia.
Eucalyptus Gunnii. Do not attempt this. It will give up the ghost quite soon too. If you like the lovely look of the foliage, then use Eucalyptus Cinerea
Eucalyptus Scoparia - Not advised.
Quince - Give them the flick. If you are like me, and you love seeing them in flower, go to google images and get your fix there.
Loropetalum - Throughout your life, someone will come along and tantalize your senses with this beautiful stock, but even after you repeatedly try and try and try to purchase more and keep them alive, you will soon realize that you just have to let them go. They really like sun. Take the hint. They will hurt you. Move on.

I have recently discovered that when Allocasuarina Littoralis is stated as preferring Full Sun, this is strongly encouraged. Unfortunately over the last 6 months we have had very little sun and a lot of cloud and rain. Most of our Littoralis have not made it. However, all the other species of casuarina are all happy and thriving. The only drawback is they grow a little slower due to the absence of sun. I guess evolution is making its statement on our humble property. I have also noticed that Taxodium Distichum fair much better than Metasequoia glyptostroboides with lack of sun. I wasn't going to bother with pines, but Radiata pine seems to be the exception to this, and they are also going very well. I am down to only one Blackpine left of 3, but I never had much faith in their ability to withstand the lack of sun. Besides, I find Radiata pine a beautiful stock to try. Many years ago, a nurseryman that I went to, to trial a multitude of different stock, pointed out the ones that he thought would do best without sun are the ones that have survived, and thus this priceless advice has worked well thus far.

[Naimul]

Fantastic list you have there. ive lost 3 of my favourite trees because of lack of sun together with over eager pruning.

[Scott Roxburgh]

Is your lack of Sun because of shade? I'm surprised Acer Palmatum wont grow, must be a lot of shade.

[Rory]

Is your lack of Sun because of shade? I'm surprised Acer Palmatum wont grow, must be a lot of shade.

Yes, precisely. There are 32 actual trees in our backyard which gives a lot of shade, and most of them are native, so the council says no to felling them. Also trees on the guys property above us, which clearly creates another problem. Yes, we get a lot of shade. We started with I think about 20 Japanese maples 3 years ago. I think I'm down to about 3 or 4.

[GavinG]

Excellent summary of a subject I haven't seen treated here before. Well done, thanks for posting.
Interesting differences between the Cas. species...

Gavin

[Boics]

Sounds like you need to move house.
Priorities my friend.

[Djs19992]

No! not my quinces i move mine a few times each day when im home. We just follow what little sun there is around the back yard. How do pomegranate go with low sun?


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[shibui]

That is a fine list of suggested species and a good staring point for those with, and possibly even those without, shade to think about - Is the corollary of a tree hating shade that it necessarily thrives in full sun

How is it that you are so certain that shade is the only factor in your success or lack of it? Is it possible that another aspect of culture mix, watering, repotting schedule, etc or maybe other aspects of your local climate may have some part in the demise of some or all of the trees you have listed? There are so many variables in growing plants, and bonsai in particular, that I would hesitate to put all the blame on only 1 factor like shade or lack of it. Just my

[Rory]

No! not my quinces i move mine a few times each day when im home. We just follow what little sun there is around the back yard. How do pomegranate go with low sun?


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I would certainly not give up on any stock. Remember even though a species is genetically similar, there are always going to be variances and some stock which is more susceptible and/or fitter than other stock to any number of problems. We have never tried pomegranate so I wouldn't know what to say about that, other than google might be your friend. We only have a few quince left from the large numbers of them we started with, but we have moved them to the relatively more sunnier position of the property so time will tell.

[Rory]

That is a fine list of suggested species and a good staring point for those with, and possibly even those without, shade to think about - Is the corollary of a tree hating shade that it necessarily thrives in full sun

How is it that you are so certain that shade is the only factor in your success or lack of it? Is it possible that another aspect of culture mix, watering, repotting schedule, etc or maybe other aspects of your local climate may have some part in the demise of some or all of the trees you have listed? There are so many variables in growing plants, and bonsai in particular, that I would hesitate to put all the blame on only 1 factor like shade or lack of it. Just my

Those are wise words spoken indeed. If I didn't know the lengths I had myself gone to to deduce this, then I would agree with you. Of course, I do understand your hesitation at labeling a lack of sun as the primary culprit. However, the facts I shall present to you, and you can deduce whatever theory you see fit.

I have spoken at length to Ray Nesci and Megumi over many years about this, from about 2000 onwards, and ever since moving into the current house we live in about 7 years ago, they explained a similar story to me about what lack of sun does, and the effects and outcomes which are identical. Basically, in short I have purchased many, many different varities from different seedling nurseries to test. What I would do, is for example, purchase 20 of one variety, and grow 5 in the sunniest position of the house, and another 5 in the less sunnier, and so on and so on. Now, of the species that were tested on mass and proven to be intolerant, the 5 that were in the highest sun, would grow fairly well, and obviously the 5 in the least sun, would inevitably begin to lose their vigour. The experts have explained what happens, for instance with Japanese Maples is that the lack of sun is a hindrance to the development of the tree. What happens next is that for this species it creates a secondary more serious problem, in that the soil doesn't dry out quick enough, and thus the roots remain wet for longer. Therefore the soil does eventually begin to dry and the roots can feed the tree, but not as often as is needed. This poses a significant problem for Japanese Maples, because in their case, having roots exposed to a somewhat induced inundation will rot the roots and thus it becomes a vicious cycle which kills the tree once the rot sets in. Once this starts, it's game over. Other species can sometimes recover from the prolonged lack of sun, such as allocasuarina litoralis, huon pine and many others, but they need to be given a strong dose of sun for a month or more, otherwise they generally start to wither and die. It is this reason that I did not include varieties that initially cannot tolerate long periods of shade in the first instance.

On other attempts of the 20 seedlings, once the lack of vigour would happen, I moved the worst 5 to the front of the house which would get a lot of sun, and they would start to come good again. However, the remaining stock at the back of our house, where the majority of our land is, would start to die. if the stock is moved back to a shadier position, the cycle begins again. Now, before some smarty pants suggests moving the remaining stock to the front of the house....I am sure you husbands can understand that to keep the wife happy, that is simply not an option. And as the house is mortgaged with little equity, moving is also not an option.

I attempted all this without even potting a different mix, and only using the mix that came from the nursery itself. All stock is monitored the same. Now, this was evident in every single variety that we listed in our post. The ones that I am not sure of whether they suffered this same fate due to lack of sun I have not included here for just that reason, as we didn't test it with enough stock. But I spent well over $1000 on testing this theory. Every time they were moved into the sunnier positions, they would start to recover, and thankfully, some of the better stock have still managed to survive for this reason. I even took some of the stock that was in really bad shape to a house in Sydney that gets all day sun, and within a few months they were all back to good health. Vice-versa, when stock was taken from the same house in the sunny Sydney house, they would eventually start to wither again. Before we bought this house, I lived on a balcony which had slightly more sun and they performed better, but there were definitely similarities in stock that would lose its lust for life from lack of sun.

There is not a doubt in my mind that for those species I included, that a lack of sun is the only factor. I guess am suggesting to those that have minimal sun, to heed my advice. If you have not experienced growing bonsai in such an environment, then to you I would say, count your blessings.

The initial reasoning was to purchase many seedlings of stock that I was hopeful would grow, and thus in doing so, derived the list above from the results I achieved. It is from these results of the testing over a few years that we compiled the list above to try and help people who have minimal sun exposure for their bonsai.

[Bebbas]

What a great post BBM. I too have similar issues with sun as I have a Balcony. I will be saving this list as a good reference for the future. We should stick it on the wiki for eternal future reference.
Japanese Maple = tick
Juniper = tick
Quince = tick
all dead most likely due the sun (lack of it that is)
I have others that have died for no apparent reason that may be in your list but I am not up to speed with the botanical names.
Again.....Thanks for the post

[raewynk]

bonsaibuddyman,

thanks for posting. The list is so informative.
for a newbie like me.
I am learning slowly mostly through trial and error, my err is on the other side, sun burn mostly.

Regards
Rae

[shibui]

Again, great info with such a lot of trialling done to check... but you refer in your response to

What happens next is that for this species it creates a secondary more serious problem, in that the soil doesn't dry out quick enough, and thus the roots remain wet for longer. Therefore the soil does eventually begin to dry and the roots can feed the tree, but not as often as is needed. This poses a significant problem for Japanese Maples, because in their case, having roots exposed to a somewhat induced inundation will rot the roots and thus it becomes a vicious cycle which kills the tree once the rot sets in. Once this starts, it's game over.

So is this a shade problem, a watering problem, a potting mix problem or a combination of all these and possibly others?

and then

I attempted all this without even potting a different mix, and only using the mix that came from the nursery itself.

Would a different potting mix that is formulated to provide better drainage provide a different result? Would a different watering regime provide a different result? I know that I have problems with quite a few species in my full sun environment if I do not use a mix that is adapted to my watering regime.

Hoping you will not be offended by my questioning your theory . Just trying to look at possible other sides to this.

[Rory]

Again, great info with such a lot of trialling done to check... but you refer in your response to

What happens next is that for this species it creates a secondary more serious problem, in that the soil doesn't dry out quick enough, and thus the roots remain wet for longer. Therefore the soil does eventually begin to dry and the roots can feed the tree, but not as often as is needed. This poses a significant problem for Japanese Maples, because in their case, having roots exposed to a somewhat induced inundation will rot the roots and thus it becomes a vicious cycle which kills the tree once the rot sets in. Once this starts, it's game over.

So is this a shade problem, a watering problem, a potting mix problem or a combination of all these and possibly others?

and then

I attempted all this without even potting a different mix, and only using the mix that came from the nursery itself.

Would a different potting mix that is formulated to provide better drainage provide a different result? Would a different watering regime provide a different result? I know that I have problems with quite a few species in my full sun environment if I do not use a mix that is adapted to my watering regime.

Hoping you will not be offended by my questioning your theory . Just trying to look at possible other sides to this.

Of course not shibui, the best form of discussion is one where your methods are questioned, otherwise how is one to learn.

Yes, without boring people too much to detail the extent I have gone through, Megumi suggested first off to avoid using some of the varieties, or moving house, haha, but if this was not possible, she suggested the same : using a much better draining mix, and in fact, the standard mix you get from Ray Nesci is terrible for this type of environment, you are dead right. So, initially around the year 2000, I realized this when I lived on a balcony, as a secondary problem. Thus, I moved onto Megumis (bonsai nursery) standard mix and on her advice, added more sand to trial. This improved the length of life of the Japanese Maples, and some of the other varieties, but still I would lose them eventually. I probably should mention, that the japanese maples I purchased from Ray Nesci would die sooner than those that I purchased from Megumi, and Megumi's bonsai mix was designed with better drainage. Whereas Ray's mix is designed to hold moisture longer because of the assumption that you have a normal amount of sun I would presume.

The trees are on my covered back deck, and do not get natural water, and are given watering when almost dry, otherwise if it was natural rain water, they would be dead from over watering due to this problem. The sun comes from an angle all day from up at the top of a hill, as we live in a pole home and the sun has to cut through an endless canopy to reach them. As the only species that live freely in our area, for example, are Allocasuarina Torulosa, Gum trees, Lantana, wattle and occasionally banksia, growing naturally. The banksia integrifolia that grow naturally I assume is because the roots go so far down that they are exposed to naturally better conditions than that of a potted tree with minimal sun. Actually, that may not be true, because the integrifolia only survives at the front of the house and they occasionally pop up naturally there in the front yard. Any attempt to put them in the ground at the back of the house kills them in a few months. (That sounds confusing...I mean, I have planted nursery stock in the front and back, because we love the birds they bring, but they only survive at the front of the house). Our house is a pole home, on the wrong side of a hill, so we just always seem to lose the sun. In winter, we get mould growing in the house, and thus we have to use fans a lot and must continually air the house out, otherwise you will end up with health problems.

About 5 years ago, I was not going to let my spirits dampen (pun intended), so I kept trialling more and more, and even with the much better drainage, I would still lose Allo. Littoralis, and all the species on my 'do not attempt' list. Yes, you are right, that the sandier drainage would help the tree live longer, but I still would eventually lose them, unless I moved them to the very sunnier front of the house. I have probably spent over 3 or 4 thousand dollars in stock over the last 15 years in continual attempts. At wits end, I decided to trial a clever test, (well, I thought it was clever at the time), and I trialled again groups of 20 seedlings from different stock, but instead, this time I used the much sandier drainage mix, and put the seedlings in very shallow soil, thereby theoretically thinking that the less soil would be easier to dry quicker, and that natural wind would help in evaporation. This initially got me very excited, when I realized that they lived longer, even the maples, but eventually they would suffer the same outcome. Though, having said this, I do still have 2 maples growing from this method that appears to be working, but from the number of seedlings I started with, I still wouldn't say it was a success, and thus I added them to the 'do not attempt' list. My affliction is, that I love all the species on the 'do not attempt' list, and I am an eternal optimist at heart... which is presumably why I was buying shares during the GFC and others were selling... but because of this love, I will continually try new methods if suggested, but at present, my wife is not working, and I have other financial responsibilities, such as a family, that stop me from pursuing more trials.

[shibui]

Thanks mate for the clarification. You have convinced me to add this data at very least to the 'plausible' category and I'll certainly have it in the back of my mind as a possible cause when future fatalities occur.