AusBonsai

A lot of false information here. You can rapid grow any pine, cedar, maple and fig as long as you water twice a day to stop fertilizer burn on the roots. The guy that was a pioneer in rapid growth bonsai growing techniques 30 to 40 years ago was the late Jack Tripovitch of Melbourne whom I admire and respect his technique and memory. Some elder statesmen of bonsai on this forum know what I'm on about.

Thanks Brian, I have been trying to remember who it was that used this method for some time now. And yes it was Jack, although it wasn't him that taught it to me. I got it second hand from a Bonsai enthusiast in Adelaide, who had been shown by Jack. The man had quite a few techniques and methods which, although 'different' certainly worked and some bloody nice trees as well.

Hi Brian, I think it is mentioned in the thread that this technique originally came from a guy in Melbourne, Greame made that clear to me that was the case at least. It is great to get a name put with that now, he seems like a guy that did alot of interesting work.
Could you elaborate a little more on how this can be used on other trees such as pines and Maples. I would love to try it with something that liked my climate
Thanks
Brett

shibui wrote:Maybe not exactly the same Bretts but members of Albury Wodonga bonsai society have been using very heavy doses of pelletised chook poo to increase growth of figs for nearly 20 years. It was not uncommon to see 5cm of pellets on top of the potting mix, more added every few months to keep the fert levels up. Never saw problems, just lots of growth.

Yes I find I am doing that with most my figs but haven't had imput from anyone else that has done it the Tripovitch way
Thanks though

Ok i think this method is working pretty good for me

This is from about 8 months of growth

At the start (~15cm tall) And from today (~180cm tall) Think all year round 30deg sunny days and lots of DL and water might help

Haven't visited this thread for some time, but thanks to Brett's influence I ended up visiting today.

As some may know, this thread caused a bit of contaversy on another web site forum a while ago. During discussions on that site, the question was asked as to what the benefit, if any was to growing a tree using this method, when growing the tree out in the ground would give either the same or faster better results. Well, yep, you probably would get a tree of bigger girth over the same time span, but using this technique a "finished" Bonsai is obtained in a very much shorter time span. Brian might add to this and I hope he will, but from my observations I would like to offer the following for your consideration. A tree grown in the ground has no restriction to root growth and as we all know Ficus has a very rampid root growth habit. Over a year a well grown Ficus can (and does) grow many thick course roots. While this is great for putting on trunk girth, it's not the most desired value in a Bonsai. So, grown in a foam box the root system is better controlled, as long as we don't allow the roots to escape the box and grow into the ground. The trees are gross feeders so most of the fertiliser we supply is taken up by the tree and used to increase cell growth, meaning greater trunk and branch growth than witnessed in normal pot culture. I have no proof, but I do believe the massive amounts of fertiliser does result in some burning of the fine feeder roots as they spread through the box, gathering food for the tree. This minor burning acts in like to rootprunning, resulting in constant regrowth of the feeder roots, same as seen after each annual root prune, but on a daily or weekly basis. I have done no actual measuring, but feel the root system of a Fig grown this way is much heavier than Figs grown in similar styrene boxes without the same levels of fertiliser application. So, after a year we have a tree that has put on nearly as much growth as a ground grown tree, but with a much finer root system.
Now, as we know, the top growth of a tree often mimicks the portion below the ground, so a finer root system will normally, although not always, result in finer branching, so yet another shortcut to getting our Potensai into a Bonsai pot. The other thing I have found, unless you are really very disiplined, a tree growing in the ground tends to be "a tree growing in the ground" and so may be a little short on hands on work. Whereas a tree sitting in a box on a bench is really a tree that you are actually "working on", so gets a bit more attention. Because you are fertilising it on a weekly basis, hand watering it daily, you notice the strong parts of the tree, the weak parts, the crossed branches etc and the miriade of other features that go into making a fine Bonsai and are correcting those features on a daily basis.
So, our tree in the ground after a year is lifted, if it is big enough for our purposes, it is root pruned, restyled (or all the branches removed) and then the tree is potted up into a large pot and styling then commences on the tree. If we are lucky the tree is then potted up into it's Bonsai pot for final refinement and display after the second year. The other tree we have been growing on for the same year, in the Dynamic Lifter, is removed from the box at the same time and is placed straight into a Bonsai pot. Final refinment is done on the tree at that time and it is now ready for display as soon as it has settled into the pot. 12 months saved in time straight up. And that is the real benifit of using this method. Sure, the tree might not be quite as big and "ballsy", but it sure is a much more refined tree, that isn't all that much smaller either.

Hi.

Graeme, i am only new but your statment makes sence to me, but i dont know mutch. So more for me.

Regards.
Irish.

Thank you Irish, please dont jump in with yours eyes closed. As you said, first you should , then you should some more and then maybe you should and have a try. By the way, I consider myself a fairly newbie, after 32 odd years, I don't think any of us know it all - yet.

Here here Graeme, the attitude of those that seem to think they need to censor the information/techniques available because they don't believe that is what bonsai is about. To me that is absolutely ludicrous. I have learnt so much from this and also have a fig that has developed much faster than any other in my collection.
I will post a pic of me fig now potted in a bonsai pot ASAP maybe tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing your progress mate, it is a pity the pic couldn't be posted elsewhere, but I reckon enough people will see it still to enable an opinion to be made on the worth of the method. Although I said once before that I wasn't interested in supplying an example myself, I have actually got one on the go at present and am more than happy with its progress since repotting it recently. I am not sure, but I think the D.L. I was using was defective in some way. Might even take a couple of pic's myself in the next few days. Unfortunate part is, that as a photographer I make a great pastry chef.

Hi Graeme/Bretts,
i read the whole 9 page tread and whew, awesome informations. have read a lot of your other informative posts and i know you guys don't just write but unselfishly intend to share knowledge.
i am very keen to try this method on my old swampy (will post pics tommorrow) but not only for trunk build-up, also want to thicken the nebari. anybody have tried this method on a swampy?
regards
bki

Hi BKI It is always nice to have fresh meat that I have not offended in some way and they are smart enough to see what we are talking about.
LOL there is some interesting info here but as always it will take some thought to decipher

Bretts wrote:Hi BKI It is always nice to have fresh meat that I have not offended in some way

Give it time Brett, you'll get around to it soon enough.

BK, you have a PM.

(And stop mucking around Brett, this Bonsai is serious business, not something we are supposed to have any fun with )

Graeme wrote:

Bretts wrote:Hi BKI It is always nice to have fresh meat that I have not offended in some way

Give it time Brett, you'll get around to it soon enough.

BK, you have a PM.

(And stop mucking around Brett, this Bonsai is serious business, not something we are supposed to have any fun with )

Shame on you Graeme, and Brett for enjoying your Bonsai, it is supposed to be a serious business.

I have read that generally the quicker the plant grows the shorter the lifespan-possibly something to do with size and configuration of cells-if so would this be species specific or for all plants----------just wondering if forcing fast growth early could affect the "solidity" of the basic structure of the tree--------any thoughts?