stripping down nursery stock

[Greth]

Craig, I started with internet research before I started with my first tree. Got a lot of really good advice from lots of helpful people like you, and although 3 years later (soon to be updated to 4) I only have two actual bonsai, they are both trees I am really happy with, and both were free starters - an important point for me. Im sure you wouldn't buy either one in a commercial nursery for less than $80. I don't think that even one of you experts would find them an embarrassing mistake, tho they will still take time to develop of course. Theres a pile of other potentsai, Im playing with some different techniques and styles, and always learning learning learning. Propagating trees is an artform in itself, and as I also have lots of bare acres, I have plenty of uses for that skill too.
Now waiting for the cooler seasons to collect another round of potentsai, and hoping my husband will finish the big shadehouse so I can be growing them all on.

[Jamie]

Craig, I started with internet research before I started with my first tree. Got a lot of really good advice from lots of helpful people like you, and although 3 years later (soon to be updated to 4) I only have two actual bonsai, they are both trees I am really happy with, and both were free starters - an important point for me. Im sure you wouldn't buy either one in a commercial nursery for less than $80. I don't think that even one of you experts would find them an embarrassing mistake, tho they will still take time to develop of course. Theres a pile of other potentsai, Im playing with some different techniques and styles, and always learning learning learning. Propagating trees is an artform in itself, and as I also have lots of bare acres, I have plenty of uses for that skill too.
Now waiting for the cooler seasons to collect another round of potentsai, and hoping my husband will finish the big shadehouse so I can be growing them all on.

wheres the posts with the progressions for the ones in pots greth???

[anttal63]

Hi Ant,
You are welcome any time. When field or fast growing trunks the growth tend to rather heavy and strong it takes quite a few years in a bonsai pot to soften that look. I have been formulating a post on techniques for field growing (in my head ) and will put it up when I have the pics and ideas sorted out.

Yes under stood mate, all good things take time some where in the process. I am at present training trees from seed and putting them in boxes in the third year of their life. With the intention of around the 5th year planting the boxes into beds and allow the roots to run out. for 2-3 years. The slower growth in the boxes allows me to wire and soften trunk lines in their beginning, then put them into go mode.

[Glenda]

What I want to know is what to do with the stock while you are fattening the girth etc. Do you just leave it to its own devices to grow how it pleases, just watering and fertilizing it without any actual training? Do you wire trunks to get movement and let the rest grow? I guess this might depend on the species, but some info for a relative newbie would be helpful so I can learn this lesson properly at an early (bonsai) age

Glenda

[Greth]

Myrtle is somewhere on the forum Jamie, hasnt been updated lately, but Im reducing the branches, removing a few which were crossing, and its looking better day by day. olive #1 has not been posted here yet, but I have all progression pics from the day it was collected. It got a bit of rot on the base, which has left me with a patch of deadwood and some rolling bark starting to cover it.

Glenda, although you wont do hard training, you can start shaping the tree, picking out which branches to lose and which to keep, in the training stages, in fact it is probably easier now than it will be when the plant has thickened up, and will leave less noticeable scars. Look and think a lot about where it is going to go before you make any changes.If you want to wire for some later 'interesting trunk movement' do it early. But dont do things like leaf reduction, they will slow up the growth too much, that sort of thing only comes after it is ready for potting.

[craigw60]

Hi Jamie,
I would guess in bonsai everything is species relevant but nothing improves any tree like age. After a bonsai has been growing in a pot for many years and has been wired often, they develop a lovely stable appearance. Something which is just not possible with new trees.
As I said in an earlier post I am formulating some ideas for a post on field growing techniques its just a matter of being able to transfer thoughts to writing, Will require a few pics to..
Craig

[Jamie]

i figured that would be your answer mate, i have actually bought a couple of nursery stock trees, just standard 200mm plastic pot landscape nursery stock.
1 x banksia (unsure of which cultivar i am about to do an ID thread)
1 x calliandra, pink flowers.

i will be testing some of the theorys about cutting back and growing out, it will be either a larger nursery pot or a grow box i cant put it in the ground as i could be moving soon.

i was hoping not to have to root prune at all as such but on inspection of the roots the calliandra was good, the banksia not so good, i think it had wooly aphid and/or a form of root rot, leaves were showing this as well, not badly i just thought it might have been a deficiency, obviously not. so it got bare rooted and repotted back into the nursery pot after it got cleaned out throughly into a diatomite, bonsai soil mix. diatomite two thirds, to one third bonsai soil.
so hopefully this will bounce back for me with some good after care, it has always been a problem for me and natives, i have always thought i treat them to hard, time will tell i guess, so with the root prune it also got a prune on top to get rid of damaged leaves.

jamie