Walnut

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Jan
Aussie Bonsai Fan
Aussie Bonsai Fan
Posts: 767
Joined: April 23rd, 2009, 1:13 pm
Favorite Species: natives, wisterias
Bonsai Age: 12
Bonsai Club: AusBonsai, Goulburn Bonsai
Location: Goulburn, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Has thanked: 204 times
Been thanked: 80 times

Re: Walnut

Post by Jan »

This walnut is producing a generous number of shoots, but not all of them are going to be of use in my design for this tree; I’m hopeful that this indicates that it is also producing a host of new feeder roots after its rather severe root pruning. (My previous experience with this species indicates that they are very forgiving of severe root and top pruning)
2010-11-08_WalnutShoots.jpg
My next job will be to remove shoots on the trunk and at the junction of trunk and upper branches. I will tip prune the shoots that I am keeping and hope that tip pruning them at this early stage will result in a shorter internode length and promote branch ramification. I had been hoping that I would have shoots advanced enough to have defoliated before the end of the competition to promote a second, smaller lot of leaves, but with this run of cooler weather delaying shoot development, defoliation will not be possible until possibly late December/January, this season.
2010-11-08__Walnut_Shoot.jpg
The season has been very cool this year hence the late shoot emergence; they budded at much the same time as last year but development of the shoots has been very slow. We have had over night temperatures down to 3 degrees C, with significant wind chill factor, and days down as low as 9 C, again with wind chill. Last year daytime temperatures in this same week were in the low 30 degrees C range.

The sphagnum mulch on this plant will also be removed and I will at last begin to dress the soil surface in keeping with the Ballerina / Woods Fairy image that I see as the character of this tree. I plan to use a fine moss closer to the trunk of the tree, to hint at the fine spring growth of mountain grasses, and smooth, water worn gravel and the graduated blue pot to represent the pool in a mountain stream that she (the tree) leans over.
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User avatar
Jan
Aussie Bonsai Fan
Aussie Bonsai Fan
Posts: 767
Joined: April 23rd, 2009, 1:13 pm
Favorite Species: natives, wisterias
Bonsai Age: 12
Bonsai Club: AusBonsai, Goulburn Bonsai
Location: Goulburn, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Has thanked: 204 times
Been thanked: 80 times

Re: Walnut

Post by Jan »

I’ve removed the sphagnum from the pot and dressed the surface with a combination of pale, sharp sand and water worn pebbles from a stream. I’ve nestled a small puddle rock into the fine moss tucked up against the roots (an area where I would suspect that a little silt and grass might accumulate, and survive the rigors of the season, on a full size streamside tree). Combined with the soft blue of the pot I feel that it captures the aura of a tree growing by a mountain stream that I was trying to present.
2010-12-21_09.42.31_Walnut1a.jpg
2010-12-21_09.42.51_Walnut1b.jpg
2010-12-21_09.43.06_Walnut1c.jpg
2010-12-21_09.43.27_Walnut1d.jpg
2010-12-21_13.06.30_Walnut1PuddleRock.jpg
I have placed a larger, matching puddle rock (of the same local charcoal basalt as the one in the walnut pot) resting in pale, sharp sand, and set in a dark blue suiban, as an accent to reinforce the impression of a “streamside” location for the tree.
2010-12-21_12.43.31_PuddleRockAccent.jpg
The walnut tree and accent rock are displayed on a base of silver, weathered timber slabs; the walnut tree sits on a “stand” of weathered local granite. I have used the rural landscape and distant mountains as a background in the place of the traditional scroll in a bonsai display.

I am a little disappointed that the tree has lost some of the bend that I tried to introduce but, while the competition ends, the work on this tree and my plans for it will continue. This walnut takes defoliation well, shooting back with smaller leaves with successive defoliation. I was reluctant to defoliate earlier as it had been heavily root pruned before repotting, and growing a second set of roots so soon would have put considerable demands on the plant.

We have had a very unseasonal Spring this year, in fact we are now onto our third attempt at “Spring”, as the weather starts to warm up for a couple of weeks, only to be followed by a week or two of days with temperatures in single figures, and with heavily overcast skies. With plants starting to grow, only to have the growth stall with the cold weather, then start to grow again, I was concerned that defoliating would overtax the plant at the early stage.

This walnut will be defoliated in the near future as the weather seems to be moving towards summer, and reintroduced to its bending frame in Autumn 2011, when the roots have established. I thought that the full bend, as seen when first removed from the bending frame, was an improvement and would like to see that bend fixed into the plant permanently.

This last twelve months has really gone quickly! The competition has been the catalyst that I had hoped. There is so much to learn but I’ve made a start. Trunk bending was something that I had put off for quite a while, but the competition gave me the push I had needed to get on with research in books, on AusBonsai and other sites, and finally put what I had learned into action.

It has prompted me to take my “potensai” (I’m having fun learning with my plants but they have quite a way to go before I would name them “bonsai”) and their training more seriously. My record keeping is now more detailed and regular; I hope this helps me to learn from both my mistakes and successes. Feeding, trimming and other regular maintenance are less random but still have to fit in with “life” when it gets hectic. Regularly reading, learning and taking notes (another aspect of my record keeping) from various sources, but AusBonsai in particular, have brought Australian natives to the forefront for me. I have collected and experimented with a range of local species with various results; where collection failed I am not giving up, just researching, changing my methods and trying again. Collecting natives has become an engaging quest for me and I get a real buzz out of those first new shoots that herald a success.

Thank you to all those contributors who have so generously shared information, and to those who run and maintain AusBonsai for providing such a terrific resource.

Jan.
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