Japanese Maple rebuild

[TimS]

My other ones have taken a bit of a battering in the heat, but nothing like this one has.

Noticed the pest attack has returned, sprayed again and have now reached out for professional guidance as it's beyond my ability at this point seemingly.

[Trimmy]

I recall a comment from the Pacific Bonsai Museum that every few years they give their trees a holiday from being a bonsai. They put them into a large grow box and leave them to do their thing. Obviously you wouldn't want it to grow too out of shape, but it might help to let the roots have free reign for a year?

[TimS]

I recall a comment from the Pacific Bonsai Museum that every few years they give their trees a holiday from being a bonsai. They put them into a large grow box and leave them to do their thing. Obviously you wouldn't want it to grow too out of shape, but it might help to let the roots have free reign for a year?

Yep, that was the plan this year to transfer it into a grow box and put it in a better soil mix. If it survives that will still happen, but my enthusiasm for bonsai is at an all-time low right now with this.

[TimS]

I took the tree to Scott Martin (Bonsai Matsu) last evening. I can't speak highly enough of him and how much he cares about his clients' trees. If you are anywhere in or able to travel to Melbourne, don't hesitate to reach out to him whether for sick trees like this, styling, wiring, repotting or anything else.

I'm not a paid advertisement for him, but i was blown away by how much we covered in an hour together; from back history of the health of the tree, what my regimens are for it, my experiences over years growing it, everything I've done leading up to this and measures i have taken and the timing of them etc.

I walked in ready to sell up everything i own and move on from Bonsai to some kind of hobby involving something i can't kill, and I walked out nervous but motivated to try. I'll still sell off a bunch of stuff so i can focus on my better trees more closely though.

The short and the long of it is it's bad, touch and go bad, and if it does survive it may not be the tree it once was. A plan of attack has been formulated for me to follow from now until July, when he will completely bare root it from the old soil that is potentially contaminated with fungus (if it survives that long) and into clean potting mix.

At this point i don't have plans to provide updates on this tree until it either dies or makes it to repotting season.

[AndreasM]

Sorry to hear that: All the best - both for this tree, and for your decisions on what trees to keep. and (from my point of view) I hope you can stick with it all, as I have already learnt a lot from your posts, and the ausbonsaui community would be the lesser for it!

[Bonsai Ben]

Thanks for sharing the rough with the smooth, Tim. Best of luck for that tree

[TimS]

Sorry to hear that: All the best - both for this tree, and for your decisions on what trees to keep. and (from my point of view) I hope you can stick with it all, as I have already learnt a lot from your posts, and the ausbonsaui community would be the lesser for it!

Thanks very much, and very kind of you to say that you've been able to learn a bit from my posts I'm very keen to watch how you develop your Chinese Elm, i wish more people treated them as genuinely good bonsai material than simply 'beginner' species. With some time, fair share of mistakes and a bit of learning from them, just as we all do, you'll have a lovely tree for the future

Ultimately this tree was at the brink of death when i acquired it, so I've given it about 6 more years than it was going to have, but I can't just give up on it as i was tempted to there when this all kicked off. Even if it comes out the other side as a shadow of what it once was i need to be happy with that, but all bridges I'm not yet standing at to cross. For now, it's as simple as keep it on the drier side, follow the plans laid out by Scott and cross fingers.

I've started by throwing out some young/ cr*p material already, just stuff there's no point putting in time and effort to and also made a list/ made sale threads on here of what i definitely want to sell.

There's 3 trees (4 including tihs one) that I'm too attached to to sell, so they are staying for sure. Beyond that i don't want to rush big decisions while i'm feeling a bit flat with Bonsai generally.

[AndreasM]

Beyond that i don't want to rush big decisions while i'm feeling a bit flat with Bonsai generally.

That’s sounds like a very good approach!


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[Ryceman3]

I know all will go well, look forward to reading about the rebuild from this point on. Bonsai is for the “stayers” Tim… you know that, primarily because you’re one of them. Keep at it!

[TimS]

I know all will go well, look forward to reading about the rebuild from this point on. Bonsai is for the “stayers” Tim… you know that, primarily because you’re one of them. Keep at it!

Thanks mate, not sure all will go well haha but hopefully if it survives there’s an opportunity to do something for a better future tree at the other end

[TimS]

The update i hoped i wasn't going to make is the one i am making. Sadly it was too much for the tree to overcome, despite my best efforts and all the assistance Scott could offer the tree did not recover and has entirely died.

It won't be that hard to put this tree in the green bin, i accepted this possibility long ago, it will be putting the handwritten notes in the bin that gets to me i think.

Given how many sales posts I've made recently you can probably also guess I'm starting to move out of bonsai after this. I will keep, for some time at least, a handful of my special trees (chinese elm, the ume, a few ginkgos to name a few) but essentially I'm going to cut back drastically to just those few special trees now.

Thanks for following along this thread, hopefully something was learned by it. Certainly i have learned not to buy sick trees again, as it's entirely possible this tree would never have recovered and i just gave it a few extra years.

[Trimmy]

Sorry to hear that. Japanese maples are fairly tough, but its not unheard of for them to die from fungal infections.

[Dark_Forest]

Sorry to hear it!

Bonsai are definitely like that, I've considered throwing in the towel more than once after large setbacks with loved trees. Currently I'm on the verge of field planting some of my favourite trees for a couple of seasons just to give myself a mental break from the highs and lows - yet I still can't give up on them!

Hopefully moving forward you'll have a smooth run for a while to help rebuild your enjoyment in this obsession that we all here share.

[AndreasM]

Sorry to hear this, too. Have definitely learnt from everything you have postet, about this tree and others.

For my part I am hoping you find your ‘bonsai-joy’ again with your special trees.