RE: Ideas for a Citrus Bonsai Tree | challenge from @creativetruth
My goodness! I just want to cry out "We're not worthy!" after reading all of this. Thank you so much @daniellozada. You were the first bonsai grower I was greeted with here on steemit, and I'm embarrassed to say I had forgotten about your bonsai wisdom, and had no idea about your obvious breadth of years of knowledge and experience until now.
Thank you for describing the elements of Sokan style bonsai. I never knew there was a double tree style. Often I hear it mentioned that planting an even number of trees is not ideal for bonsai. The dreaded four trees in one pot seems to be a cardinal sin for some reason. Design aesthetics is about appealing to the most people, whereas ultimately a home grower can enjoy any design style they want on their trees.
The colander method is very bizarre for me to see for the first time. I assume, you are using normal bonsai soil mix? Is the main purpose of the colander to speed up growth development of bonsai tree and roots, by providing perfect drainage and space for roots to grow healthy? I would have to fasten down the tree tightly so it does not tip over, or alternatively I could put a screen over the soil surface around tree. I get squirrels that dig and pull anything in loose soil.
You have a lot more resources you have equipped yourself with over the years, whereas I feel more like a hobo collector in comparison. I probably won't be able to apply the fully recommended cultivation and fertilizer treatment recommended, but I'll use the materials and fertilizers I have to attempt to keep the three growing strong.
Questions/Clarifications:
7: How would I fix the U shape? slowly open out the left branch away from the trunk over time? If it is flexible, probably the earlier the better.
8: Why is this branch considered useful for depth, but not labeled as the first branch? Is the first branch defined by the largest branch that reaches this level of the design? I noticed your final design blended the foliage from the first branch with the depth branches. The labeling of which is truly the first branch on this tree is what confuses me.
This post was just marvelous, and I am glad you shared with me. I'm going to keep this photo you made. I don't know how to paint digitally that well.
hehehe thanks @creativetruth I'm glad you liked it! It was very fun to work this Sunday in this publication, I really enjoy it! The issue of the even numbers is only with the number four, that for the Japanese tradition, saying four equals saying death, in the case of double trunk trees and group plantings it is allowed to use the two, but it is not use the four, the six, the eight, but from the nine if the even numbers are allowed because the human eye can not decipher it.
As a substrate I use the most similar to the akadama and kiriu, since these two are not available in my country. I use gravel and the size of the particle will be according to the taste of the plant species and I also use a product that is used for the construction of houses called Aliven, which are cooked clay pellets, this makes the effect and the Plants develop a perfect root system. It is necessary to fix the plants at the time of transplant, because a minimal movement breaks the newer rootlets and can stress the tree to death. For the squirrels you can use plastic meshes on the substrate, but if they are a problem, in my farm they are a big headache with the cocoa fruits.
Before in my country (Venezuela) many things were obtained for the bonsai, even the aluminum wire imported from Japan was obtained and the osmocote fertilizer is very, very good and what to say of the Chinese or Japanese pots ... Currently with the bad socialist government that we have seen in the need to adapt daily materials to bonsai, to be able to continue practicing this art, although to me as an agroecologist I like this. For example for the wire issue, we get old copper wires and remove the plastic wrap. In the case of pots, we are currently making our artisan sherds using the paper-concret technique that is nothing more than using recycled wet paper and then mixing it with cement ... and good as well as that many things, but not limits for the materials.
The theme of the U is solved by wiring and doubling progressively, but I recommend protecting the branch with raffia, if you do not have raffia you can use strips of old cloth moistened, I will try this week to upload a publication with examples.
The case of the branch of depth and the first branch is a subject that has caused much controversy and debates in the bonsai school. The ideal is that when we look at the trunk from the bottom to the top we find first a first branch, then a branch of depth that goes backwards and gives the 3D effect, followed by a second branch to the opposite side of the first branch and so on . But those are ideal or theoretical rules, in practice we can find everything. There are many cases where there is no branch of depth between first and second branch, then we must locate from any point a branch to cover that space, and this is where we play with the optical effect.
In this design, the main branch was first the branch of depth and then the first branch to the left. What I did was to lower the first branch to a point where the foliage looks below the depth branch so that it creates the optical effect of having the first branch below the depth. It is somewhat complex to explain it in these lines, could you understand it?
Yes thank you. Descriptions of concepts are always easier for me to grasp. Understanding terms, and what experts mean when they use these terms is what I struggle with, so I appreciate you explaining these things. I even had to look up the word "cultivate" because it has many different meanings and practices, and it can mean something simple like "to raise".
Friend @creativetruth, thinking about it a bit I think you would understand this topic better with some drawings, I will make a publication explaining this topic.