April 2010

FLOWERS

Now is the time to start watering your flowering and fruiting trees with Liquid potash. It is also available in a granular form but a friend told me about the liquid as it is much easier to use. This can be both watered and sprayed onto your trees. Do it every 2 weeks until flowering next spring. It is very high in potassium which is the goodies you need for fruit and flowers.

It Is N 0%, P 4%, K 20%.

It is available at most Bunnings or nurseries.

FERTILISING

Don’t forget to keep up the fertilizing at the moment. Even though the trees may seem to have stopped growing, they are still hard at work storing all their nutrients for spring. If you fail to keep this up at the moment, you will pay the price at spring time with less than efficient growth, and dieback of much of the small branchlets that take so long to develop. Remember that growth must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is nutrients stored in the trunk and large roots. This is especially important if you are trying to increase branch ramification on trees as well as fruit and flowers.

DECIDUOUS TREES

This is a good time for exploring your trees as they defoliate, it’s a great time to consider if the tree needs restyling. Often over the growing months, the tree will send shoots out all over the place. Whilst the tree might look good in full foliage, its not until you see it with out its leaves you realize that the tree is really messy. Now don’t be lazy and just leave it as it is thinking it will look good again when its got all its leaves in spring! Take the time to go through all the branches and cut of all the branches that have grown to long, have grown to far upwards, shot downward under the branch, and grown outside the overall shape of the tree. Now wire any branches into their correct position. Remember that refinement is an ongoing work on your trees. Being deciduous it just makes it easier to get to.

This will pay dividends over the years with great ramification, which is just as important as your summer look.

There is nothing more stunning than a elm or maple that has hundreds or even thousands of tiny little branchlets in winter. Believe me this wont happen naturally, it takes time, pruning, fertilizing and vision. By vision I mean seeing the future shape of the tree, by starting at each individual branch.

Most people are a little timid when it comes to pruning their deciduous trees. It is really important to be quite hard in cutting them back. Especially with trees such as elms, you need to be fairly savage. Remember to cut to the bud that you want the branch/branchlets to grow in.

By doing this you will create shorter internodes (the distance between the buds) which will give you better ramification. If this is not trimmed or pruned each year, you will gain a mass/mess of little twiglets that will not produce the fine even growth you are trying to achieve.

Pines also can be pruned quite hard now also. Remember to take out the larger candles at the top, and the smaller candles lower down as they are dominant in their apex. If this is not done then the tops will grow at the expense of the lower and inner branches.

By cutting back this way smaller buds will form at the base of the cut which will produce next seasons branchlets, which in turn will need to be thinned. This will help produce those elusive smaller needles and compact growth.

CLEANING CONIFERS

As your conifers begin to slow down in growth, you will notice that as the weather cools that you will get “die back” inside your tree. The reason for this is that sun is no longer penetrating this area so the tree stops producing new growth underneath. This leads to lots of small brown needles which if allowed to stay, will produce the ideal living place for lots of bugs (if it already hasn’t.) Much of insect infestation can be avoided by keeping your trees well groomed and clean.

The best way to remove these old needles is to use something like a chopstick to loosen all the old matter. After you have done this is then worth going over the tree and shortening all the smaller branchlets that have grown over 25mm in height above the branch. By doing this you will allow light to penetrate inside the tree which is imperative for health, good growth, and short compact ramification. This is how these lovely compact clouds are developed.

Bonsai March 2010

WIRE

Just remember that because the growing season seems to be over not to neglect your trees especially when it comes to wire. During this time of the year, often your trunk and branches will continue to thicken up. One reason is the optimal temperatures (they are very much like spring) the other is that the tree is starting to store all its goodies before winter in preparation for next spring. For this reason wire can start to cut in quite easily and leave nasty scars. Just check all your trees and have a close look to make sure wire doesn’t need to come of. Keep this in mind if you are currently wiring your tree, it will need to be checked in a month or so.

Another thing to remember at the moment is to not do anymore trimming on your azaleas. All your new flower buds will have formed, and if you cut them you wont have any flowers!


In regard to flowers and fruit, don’t forget to start using liquid potash once a fortnight to produce an abundance of beautiful fruit and flowers come spring.

Its also time to move your deciduous trees into more sun. This will give greater colour as autumn approaches.


PESTS

I have never had so many enquiries regarding pests since we have been here at the nursery. The most frequent species have been elms and junipers. Most of them arrive either very brown, or having dropped most of their leaves. The problem seems to been prompted by the high humidity (I think) and we saw a mass of infestation of white louse scale, spider mite, and some other nasties. Most trees had the tell tale signs of very fine spider webs. The worst affected trees were those trees that had been neglected, and or had been over watered, under watered and not given enough sun. Problems will always occur when a tree is neglected. Nature will just do its job and remove the weakest tree.

The best all round treatment is either “Folimat” or “Confidor”. These come in aerosol cans and will effectively treat the pests mentioned. What is important is to follow the directions on the can and reapply again in 7 to 10 days. This will ensure that any hatching “critters” will also be dealt with. Hold the can at least 25cm’s from the tree as the aerosol can burn foliage.


THINNING OUT JUNIPERS


At this time of the year it is worth checking your junipers for old needles under heavy growth that have died of from not getting enough light. This is only natural as the needles cannot work economically if they are receiving no sun because of the new growth that has formed on top of it. The growth on a juniper should not be much longer than 25 – 30 mm’s, any longer and it will get leggy. The reason for cleaning out this old dead growth is to keep the tree clean and not supply or encourage pests to take up residence using the old needles for their home!


Using a chopstick or similar object get in underneath and stir around until you see the old needles falling. You want to be able to see the branches and branchlets, free from any collecting debris. You may even notice small cocoons with little grey worms in them, these guys will really mess your tree up. Hold your tree up and look underneath, you may be surprised what you can see!!


Another thing to do is when you are watering, aim a strong jet of water up under the foliage pads as this will also blast a lot of the dead foliage out. Doing this will keep your tree healthy as the more air you can get moving around and through the tree will keep it much healthier.


REPOTTING

As we move into the cooler months you are able to repot any trees that may have been missed in spring.

The thing that needs to be remembered is not to take to much of the root system as it may not have sufficient time to fully redevelop before winter sets in.

Autumn temperatures are very similar to spring, that is why we are able to repot at this time of the year. Always remove some foliage to lessen the demands on the reduced root system. Keep the tree in some shade for a week to give it a chance to recuperate.

There are some trees that are best left until spring to repot though. Unless you are very confident to do so leave your black pines, azaleas, cedars, etc.


These trees may not respond with new roots before winter and thus not have the ability to sustain the tree.


WATERING


I know we have had lots of rain but as I have warned in the past, be diligent to keep the water up even after the rain. The reason being is that most trees have been in greater water take up since all this heavy rain. This is all right if the trees are in the ground but trees in pots will quickly run out of water. You need to help them reduce back to the normal uptake, so just keep your eyes on them when the sun comes out again.


I’ll leave you with a couple of photos form the exhibition in China.


These are done as landscapes on marble trays. (we carry these)


Happy bonsai-ing


Chris

January 2010

Maintenance.

I cannot stress enough the importance of vigilance with looking after your trees.
Now is a good time to take a different type of approach to your trees and their setting. We are probably in the midst of our summer dormancy at the moment.

In summer without the rain we just have hot days, and this leads to dormancy in many of your trees. They just stop growing! The reason for this is that the tree stops producing new soft growth

As it would just get burnt of with the heat. This means whilst we have steady hot periods without extended it is not worth fertilizing most trees. (Trees such as junipers and pines are an exception). You are just wasting fertilizer as it just sits in the pot. What can be dangerous is by keeping up the fertilizing, you push your trees to produce new growth, (as most fertilizer is high in nitrogen which produces leaf growth) and this new growth will badly burn, making the tree look ordinary or worse killing it all together. You are making your tree work hard to produce new growth without the necessary corresponding root growth. Therefore the new leaves have nothing to sustain them! You should keep up the liquid fertilizer especially if you are using organic types such as healthy earth, which we stock here.

Take the time to inspect your trees carefully. Things like weeds in the pots, bugs or other problems such as disease, are more easily spotted when you are looking for them! Don’t let a withering branch be the first indication of problems!

Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so keep your pots and surrounding areas clean and free from old leaves and needles and any other rubbish that may affect your trees.

I see so many trees with problems that could have been avoided with a little maintenance. Bugs and disease will always attack weak and unkempt trees. Nature has its way of dealing with things that are weak, destroy them!

Patience
One of the hardest aspects with bonsai is waiting for the development of trees. One of the ways around this is not to start with very immature trees. This can actually work against you so that you eventually are no longer interested in bonsai.

I have included a picture of an old maple of mine. This is about 38 years old but the branching has only been growing for 2 seasons. Using mature material will get you much quicker results. Now you don’t have to go out and spend $5-6000 on a trunk! Smaller material material will develop just as quickly but it’s a matter of spending $50-$100 and cutting the trunk right back. Give it a couple of growing seasons and hey presto something that looks really nice.

I always tell people if they want to take this approach I am more than willing to choose stock that will produce good trees. Its about looking down lower in the trees.

I have also included a picture of an old Chinese elm that I have spent 2 years on. This was about 1 meter tall, and I just cut it back to nothing, a bit of carving and look at the result. It measures about 60cm tall with a 28cm trunk! This is great fun and gives a real sense of achievement.

Bending
With bending, don’t think it all has to be done at the one go. You can bend a branch over an entire season. The best way to do this is, once having rapia’d the branch and wired it, connect a loop of wire past the point that you want bent, and fix it to a opposite side of the tree, something to gain leverage from. You are then able to twist the wire slowly, maybe a turn every second day, until you have the desired bend. Leave this for a full growing season. For older trees, you may need to leave them for 2 – 3 years.

Whilst talking about bending, I saw an interesting article the other day on it. Instead of just bending the branch with both hands, twist the branch first with both hands until you crack the cambium. Often a crack can be heard. (This is before applying raphia) What this does is instead of putting the pressure across the cambium, it puts it along the branch instead. It is like hundreds of strands slightly separating, but not actually breaking as a branch does straight across.

Pots, Pots Pots!
We are just unloading 15 tonnes of new pots! We really do pride ourselves in some of the stock we are getting. We are doing this by actually visiting the factories and carefully choosing pots that we think are unique and affordable. Also by doing this we are able to keep the prices to minimum by dealing directly with the various potters. We have been importing for 4 years now and I think we are getting the hang of it!
I have included a few pics to wet your appetite!

Anyway hope some of this helps!!
See you all soon,
Happy bonsai-ing!
Chris