What to do when this is all you have to grow your plants / Bonsai?

[BonsaiBobbie]

I am about to move. The "rental crisis" being what it is, I'm moving so this is:

Balcony.jpg

That balcony is facing directly south. At first I thought there wasn't an overhang or ends, so it would at least get summer sun / morning / afternoon sun, but it doesn't look like it (I haven't moved yet).

It will get morning sun and afternoon sun in summer, just because the sun rises and sets further south.

This is my current selection of plants / pre bonsai / bonsai / seedlings / cuttings / herbs / etc.

Plants.jpg

All getting heaps of sun. They get a lot of north facing sun, and I can move to manage the intensity of the sun. I've not really needed to. Just good watering as kept them growing gang busters since I started this hobby 1.5 years ago.

Ideally I wouldn't have moved into an apartment with such an aspect. Ideally I wouldn't even move into an apartment, but life is what it is.

I'm not sure how long I will be there, but likely through until next summer.

The apartment will get morning sun (inside).

Thoughts?

Just hope?

I mainly want to keep the bigger ones going (ie where I have invested time / effort), the seedlings etc, I can write off if they don't survive.

[shibui]

Conifers generally like more sun than most other species.
More sun will usually give better results, especially shorter internodes = closer ramification but most plants will adapt to less sun and still grow.
I would give them all a go in the new location and see what happens. You may need to adjust your watering habits to allow for less evaporation and transpiration so keep a close eye on how damp the mix stays for a few weeks until you get used to the new conditions to avoid keeping the pots saturated and possible root problems.
For an apartment it looks pretty nice.
Good luck with the new spot.

[BonsaiBobbie]

Thanks Shibui.

No conifers. But junipers. Quite a few natives and maples.

Most of my plants are pretty early on in their development. So ramification isn’t a huge issue. In fact, and unrelated to the move I decided to pull two of my three trees in bonsai pots back into training posts for another few years in the pursuit of growth.

Good point about the watering. Thanks for the heads up. On that I have been wondering about the soil mix and whether a more organic mix (in terms of nutrients and recognising the stage most of my trees are at) would be a better approach?

ie the best chance of nutrients assuming root rot isn’t an issue.

[melbrackstone]

You could supplement the light if you feel the plants are getting too leggy, also add as much reflective material as you can along the windows to throw light back into the rear of the trees. As long as it's not causing problems for anyone being blinded by the reflections, that might at least help to give your plants enough light until you can find somewhere with a better aspect. I use different materials to throw the light, white coolite or even alfoil stuck to the windows at a pinch. Aquariums usually supply thick polystyrene...

Good luck.

[BonsaiBobbie]

Thanks Mel.

When I get there I will try and work it out. Some plants might need to come inside every so often just to get the “morning” sun seeing as that will probably get better light. Not keen on moving them though!

[TimIAm]

Just a bunch of ideas that may not be useful:

- See if you can get a work bench on wheels. Just thinking you could use it to wheel plants inside and out without having to lift each time.
- Not sure if you could do something with the available sun and a mirror. In Sydney I've been able to pick up a large mirror from council clean-up in the past. Some way to direct the light coming through the northern windows.
- I don't know anything about the science, but I've heard you can do something with fluoro lights. I'm guessing you would also need to consider economics.
- Is there a secure common area hopefully with security cameras? Maybe you could put a couple of plants out of the way.
- Similar to the suggestion above; attend a management meeting and ask someone if there is a place you could put a couple of plants. Understand both of these options come with risk of theft / damage.
- High effort but maybe bigger reward: Find a cafe, library etc. that has secure space and ask them if they would be interested in a couple of display bonsai. Tell them you will come to water. Keep in mind your average person can't tell the difference between a 'ginseng' ficus and a $10,000 juniper, so no need to feel concerned about the display quality of your trees.
- Speak to the local council about a suitable place. I'm also thinking about shared garden spaces / community gardens. Several of the community gardens in my area have fences and cameras now. Even something like a men's shed.
- Join the local bonsai club and ask there. They may have relevant and more suitable suggestions for the area. There might even be someone who would be willing to host a few plants. Sounds like a big ask, but there are plenty of very generous people in the bonsai community.

Good luck!

[BonsaiBobbie]

Thanks Tim.

All great ideas.

There are a number of common areas with gardens, but having not moved in yet, and it being a body corporate, I'm not too sure how difficult it would be to put some there or not. But some of the larger maples might be ok given they are JM and I'm just trying to grow as part of the next phase. In fact that would work really well if I could get on a tile!

Already a member of my local Bonsai Club, but don't get to go that often thanks to life! But I think I can go to the next meeting.

I was thinking of one of my sons friends parents who apparently is in to Bonsai (I think she has just started), but their dog "Rocky" is almost bigger than me!!!

Thanks again. Whilst I'm not too far into the bonsai journey (ie not too much development will be lost if it goes all wrong), it would be a shame to lose these trees. I've enjoyed the process of taking some from seed and I like the concept of saying "this three looks like this because of me" even if never becomes a $10,000 juniper!

[TimS]

I have grown in a very shaded and sheltered back yard, sunk down with a 20m linden and a similar jacaranda overshadowing virtually the entire garden, and for a brief time I had conifers growing with about 4 hours of direct sunlight a day. Then I got bored of pines and sold them all off. All my deciduous especially maples thrived in it.

I don’t think all is lost by any stretch of the imagination, just a period of adjustment to how the microclimate on the balcony alters your watering and to what degree growth rate is altered

[BonsaiBobbie]

That is great to know Tim. Reassuring

[ShawnK]

Conifers generally like more sun than most other species.
More sun will usually give better results, especially shorter internodes = closer ramification but most plants will adapt to less sun and still grow.
I would give them all a go in the new location and see what happens. You may need to adjust your watering habits to allow for less evaporation and transpiration so keep a close eye on how damp the mix stays for a few weeks until you get used to the new conditions to avoid keeping the pots saturated and possible root problems.
For an apartment it looks pretty nice.
Good luck with the new spot.

Do you think the lack of sun will affect the size of the plant? I mean, it might grow even smaller than with more light.
Or will the lack of sun only affect the intensity of growth?

[shibui]

Lack of light makes plants grow long and skinny. That's not what we want from bonsai.
Even less light leads to dead branches and possibly an entirely dead plant. I guess that's about as small as you can get?

[Rory]

That balcony is facing directly south. At first I thought there wasn't an overhang or ends, so it would at least get summer sun / morning / afternoon sun, but it doesn't look like it (I haven't moved yet).

When I lived in Sydney, I had a unit that faced south too and the unit opposite me was a little taller.
In winter I got basically no sun at all. They eventually all would have died, so I had to move them all to my mothers house.

I would suggest trying to source out someone close by that is happy to have them sitting at the back of their house for you, on the presumption that winter is bad.

I didn’t water them much at all during winter, except for when it got really windy.

It’s the worst problem to have.

[BonsaiBobbie]

That balcony is facing directly south. At first I thought there wasn't an overhang or ends, so it would at least get summer sun / morning / afternoon sun, but it doesn't look like it (I haven't moved yet).

When I lived in Sydney, I had a unit that faced south too and the unit opposite me was a little taller.
In winter I got basically no sun at all. They eventually all would have died, so I had to move them all to my mothers house.

I would suggest trying to source out someone close by that is happy to have them sitting at the back of their house for you, on the presumption that winter is bad.

I didn’t water them much at all during winter, except for when it got really windy.

It’s the worst problem to have.

Having now been to the apartment after getting the keys, this looks to be the problem.

I probably have until Feb in terms of getting enough directlight for part of the day.

It will probably get a lot of reflected light off the lower roof.

Thanks Rory

[Rory]

Also, I don’t know how advanced your material is, but if you aren’t keen to have them babysat, and the trees eventually decline, …. Then I suggest sourcing material that is heavy-shade tolerant… to which I have a lot of experience.

You can probably forget about conifers, junipers, banksia, most casuarina, most Melaleuca etc.

The best material for essentially no sun in winter, or at least material that will survive the duration (but won’t be in great health but will still survive would be:

Phebalium squamalosum
Leionema 'Green Screen' (amazing flower display and the trunk thickens well with trunk chopping)
Figs should be okay, but not in good health. Port Jackson would be the most tolerant.
Baeckea is another interesting one that will survive. Again, not in great health, but there are varieties that will survive very long periods of only reflective sun. Baeckea Clarence River would be the best baeckea to try.
If you want to trial Leptospermum, my recommendation would be brachyandrum. It is the most tolerant of shade from my trials.
And Melalueca hueglii or Melalueca linarifolia would be the best Mels I’ve had that have outlived other species with basically no sun.

But of that list, Phebalium squamallosum and Leionema 'Green Screen' would be your main winner. They will survive a nuclear winter. But be careful, only go with Phebalium squamallosum which is now becoming a popular variant among native growers… presumably becasue it’s the most hardy of the pheablium range. I can vouch for this. Other Phebalium species i trialled didn’t survive low sun and didn’t survive heavy root prunes.

Oh, actually, call me a liar. There is one conifer that should be okay with that: Prumnopytus ladei (Beautiful Australian species). I’d forgotten I’d placed a bunch of these under sun-blocked heavy shrub for over a year, and when I pulled them out, they were perfectly healthy. Slow growers, but tolerant of very heavy shade.

(But you MUST be conscious of the medium. It probably won’t even be dry between natural rain, so I would suggest making sure everything is under-potted. In other words, the roots should be taking up pretty much all the container. Don’t have excess space for the roots to sit in damp conditions.

[BonsaiBobbie]

Thanks Rory (and indeed all).

I had debated whether this merited a post, but there has been some excellent advice that I hadn't thought of.

The underpotting in particular. I hadn't really thought of that. In fact, I had gone the other way to a degree. More because many of my seedlings / cuttings were at the stage where they needed to be repotted now, and because I was looking at some of my earlier bonsai purchases that I decided to put back into training pots and some organic material to push a bit more growth.

So I'll review the pot size issue come February / March. Certainly I've been focusing a bit on overall plant health this past while. I'm really pleased to see many of the trees going in with strong root systems. Hope it lasts.

As to what trees. Thanks to the advice. I have a lot of young material, so that is ok if that dies. I'll just have to focus on other species if they don't survive and look to more mature stuff given it will take ages to grow otherwise. It will be sad if some of my more developed stuff doesn't make it.

I may be able to find a home for one or two of the trees which need more light, but can also survive with less reliable watering over winter (eg my favourite juniper that I've created).