AusBonsai

This was a Quick conversion from a store purchased pot plant to a bonsai trainer in less than 2 hours . I purchased the plant for $6.99 and the pot for $ 4.00 , you cant purchase a bonsai starter for under $20 so this is great for the novice . A basic trim of the unwanted branches and the wire was attached . Then it was simply slip potted it into a bonsai pot with minimal root disturbance {out of season } and onto the next trainer .Cheers Alpineart

That looks awesome man, great find. Really like your branch selection and wiring!!!

thats a great looking start. i like the downward movement of the branches and the movement in the trunk. keep it up

Ben

Hi Mate , when selecting a plant it must have something to work with .Plenty of foliage give plenty of scope so to speak . Dont be too keen to cut it all off, that will come down the track , no doubt 30% of the foliage or branches here will be removed over time as the trainer progresses .Cheers Alpineart

Hi Ben , its only a trainer so there's plenty of time to refine it , the trunk has natural movement . It does need some major movement place on the trunk but that can wait for another time , too much to do with other plants .Cheers Alpine

I seem to be getting trees that will look good in years, they are really like sticks in a pot, i should get some that are a couple years old rather than a couple months

thats sounds like a good idea. you can pick up a plant of a fair size at bunnings from $10-$15. just take your time chosing one with lots of potential.

Regards,
Ben

Yeah i saw some nice lilly pilly's and figs at big w and bunnings, the 'bonsai' section was double the price and half the growth

nice advice for the beginners alpineart.
But.... and this is only my opinion
i just wish that when people potted plants in a round pot that they look at where the feet are of the pot , to where the front of the tree is, its just that when you see a single foot at the front of the pot it draws you eye to it and makes it look unbalanced. It makes the pot look like it is going to fall over, specially when the tree is planted to one side.
as i said this is my opinion and what i have be taught.
and i do like the idea of the thread that you started, its just the potting of the tree that annoys the p 1 double 5 out of me

Hi Ozmad , its a trainer in a training pot , and it an oval pot which has feet at the ends and sides .Yes if it was round i would definately position it differently .As a trainer outside of the root pruning season i fitted it to the pot with minimal root disturbance , the roots weren't raked out merely trimmed to fit then teased .I do a lot of trimming and slip potting when necessary well out of general care times . These pots are from the reject shop and i used dozens of them as training pots even for pines .Glazed pots for pines you say , yes its either what i have at the time or leave it in the plastic pot . I literally have 100's of trainers in all sorts of pots , the tree is the exercise not the pot .Good point but thats why i expressed the trainer not Bonsai .Cheers Alpineart

Hi alpineart,

I like this demo a lot Concise and succinct.

I saw that the plastic pot is much taller than the ceramic pot. Would you be able to explain how you were
able to "bury" the entire (tall) root ball into a much shallower pot, please?

Best regards.

rch003 wrote:I seem to be getting trees that will look good in years, they are really like sticks in a pot, i should get some that are a couple years old rather than a couple months

003 type in the search up on the right,( what can be achieved quick time ) and you will get a tutorial on what to pick to start with. Look at the dates of when this was started and what the tree looks like now.
As I have said it is here you just have to look for it, and this is what you need to look for.

Pup

Hi Daiviet , i have just posted a topic "simple slip potting" Hope this helps . Cheers Alpine

hi alpineart
i understand it was just a quick slip potting for people to see. I do the same, i get a lot of reject pots as well, as my son-in-law imports pots from many places around the world. they look so much better in pots than plastic tub's or polystyrene. keeps the wife of my back about things not looking tidy.
For me i only made the point about the feet of the pot because its just a bad habit people do.

but as i said i do like what you are doing

Sorry for digging up an old thread. First of all, good job on this one, it looks great (to my unexperienced eye anyway)!

I would like to know one thing, in the newly purchased plant it appears this trunk is brown and to me it looks somewhat unappealing, the second image however shows a nice light grey trunk. How does one achieve this appearance of the trunk