Let's Talk!

Yes, #bonsai is my favorite topic on steemit.

Even though I am an amateur bonsai tree grower, I have a collection of trees that is always increasing in size. They, the trees, teach me so much about how to take care of them properly. They have either become my beloved pets or my wise masters, responding to my actions or inaction with consequences good, bad, and sometimes random.

The #pink #blossom #Azalea was in full bloom last month. I like to showcase trees in season on our stumps so we can view it from our deck. On the left is a #Juniper. Behind the Azalea is a Douglas Fir. In the upper right, a #Forsythia in a training pot I made.

Here are some of the topic I want to cover in this post

• Bonsai with Me

Bonsai with Me

There hasn't been very many original #bonsai posts for me to curate lately. Have some of my old friends here disappeared? I do not know. Looking at my steemit statistics at the bottom of my posts, you can see that the number of my votes given is increasing faster than the votes received. A change is in the wind.

There are so few of us now, so I hope more of us tree lovers can support each other and possibly become friends. Sometimes I nip and bite, but that is my way of saying I trust you.

As we know, many people on steemit post images they found stole from the internet, and I prefer not to support this kind of content. My favorite posts to support are when an expert is teaching the #art as they work on their own trees, allowing many people to learn from them. Also I enjoy when others are showcasing bonsai trees from a collection. Even wild trees in nature should sometimes be tagged with #bonsai if it inspires us in our art and appreciation for better design.

So if the #bonsai topic is something you enjoy posting about, you can almost guarantee votes from me and others in the future. All upvotes from @creativetruth are always 100% weighted, and chosen manually every day to ensure maximum voting power.

Scroll to the very bottom of this post to learn about becoming part of #teambonsai.

Bonsai Club

One of the activities I am very lucky to be allowed to participate in our local bonsai club. Each one of our members is an amateur, often making many mistakes, yet willing to share the knowledge we have gained through experience and through teaching from other masters.

Once in a while we get special guests to help teach us more advanced techniques in tree care and design.

Here, a local expert in pine trees explains how to de-candle the trees. After years of practice, he tells us when best time of the year to perform this procedure is, to encourage back buds and diverse healthy branch growth. He also explains the two types of pine, identifying them by counting their needle junctions, and how they must be pruned differently. One kind can have the candles pruned only once a year, and the other forms new candles and can be pruned twice.

Although I really enjoyed learning about #Pine trees, I do not have any in my collection. I seem to do best growing deciduous trees, as I like to water my trees often. With conifer trees, the soil needs to almost dry out as I understand, and so over-watering them can rot the roots or lead to disease problems.

I really appreciated when the expert passed around a diseased branch for us to see. The diseased twig he shared was an example of scale, which is an insect that forms a bumpy patch just under the surface of the bark or along the needle, like an aphid. They can be hard to spot, as it disguises in with the tree, and might not be easy to find under the prickly needles of the Pine tree.

Last month, one of our own members showed us how he deadheads his Azalea tree after it blooms.

I really liked the trunk design of this old Azalea tree. You can see where a big fat pruning mark has scarred over and healed. This is where the sacrificial branch used to be. It allowed this incredible #nebari to develop into what it is now.

Then he transitioned to his Trident Maple to demonstrate how he maintains it to support thicker trunk development.

The fun thing about Trident Maple is that it is one of the few trees that will graft itself onto any nearby Trident Maple that is squished closely against the living wood. His tree was living proof of this...

At first, none of us could really see what he was talking about as he demonstrated how he maintains his tree. We were all too curious about the design of his tree, and we kept interrupting him with questions, and he was nice enough to answer.

The way he grew his tree was by surrounding a central cylinder with various cuttings of Trident Maple. The ones that rooted, he maintained in place, until they thickened up and eventually swelled into one solid thick trunk. The unique properties of this particular species of tree allow it to graft together, to support the whole tree, rather than competing against the other tree union parts.

His goal was to keep a central leader from each cutting growing upright like a broom, tall and curving up like a vase. He showed this on two different Trident Maple trees he was growing in the same multi-trunk clustered style.

All of the weaker low growth branches, he pruned off so that leaves could only grow an inch or so from the main branch. This eliminated all criss-crossing branches. More air and sunlight can get to the center of the tree. More rainfall can get to the soil.

Also any top growth that was pulling the tops of his upright branches downward because they were too long and heavy, he would prune the height down to a level that allowed them to perk back into an upright shape. As long as they were heading mostly upward, he would leave the branch height alone.

With this technique strategy, he says that the parts of the tree will continue to thicken up the base trunks, which is the only part he is focused on developing. All the top branches will be sacrificial (they will be totally pruned off when they are no longer needed), and new branch shapes will be grown to enhance the design after the trunk taper is sufficient.

This is the method for quickly developing a thick trunk in fewer years. Normally a trunk of this diameter would take twenty years to develop. With the Trident Maple cuttings, he will accomplish the same thing in far fewer years.

This man on the left was curious, and walked in to join us. He had many of the same questions we did. Participation in our meetings is free of charge, and so we welcomed him as a guest.

After cutting off so many of the weaker small pieces of his tree, almost all of us became curious enough that we wanted to attempt to try growing Trident Maple too.

I asked if we could take some of his discarded #cuttings, and he said that was fine, and gave some instructions on how to shorten a branch cutting so that it will root and grow better. We all took a few pieces and wrapped them up in moist paper towels.

Currently some of my Trident Maple cuttings he gave me, I put in sand, and they are already budding out new leaves. If they form roots too, then I'll be able to develop them into more trees.

Developing a Tree Shape

Remember this guy?

@steven-patrick won 1 SBD in my first #NAME-A-TREE contest, for helping me to nickname this tree: Lefty.

I really like that, because I am left-handed too.

Well I brought little Lefty to the bonsai club meeting, because I wanted some guidance on how I should wire it.

At first, I was using very thin garden wire, and started spiraling it around in a very constricting shape. Nobody was really offering to help. Eventually, our demonstrator could no longer ignore some of my mistakes, and offered to help me start over... I was relieved!

The first thing he did, was show us all how to select the proper thickness of wire, and the type of wire that should be used. He brought a few different types of bonsai wire, which is made out of flexible aluminum.

The next thing he pointed out to me, was that the wire must start from inside the soil. Just jab it in!

Without starting in the soil, the wire is likely to spin around the trunk of the tree while the wire is being twisted. That does no good. By pressing the wire through the soil, it hold the starting point of the wire in place so the rest of the wire can be twisted and turned from a solid position that won't release.

All Lefty needed, I suggested was a little bit more curve, to continue the S-shape starting from the slight curve seen here at the soil line, and then lifting back up near the top. I think this will enhance the movement appeal of the tree to me.

Also it will help balance Lefty so it doesn't tip over on its side so easily. Wind, and/or transporting it in a car can easily cause a mis-balanced tree to tip over accidentally.

Finally, the last thing I was taught was to keep the wire looser. Allow for the wire to ring around the tree a little bit wider, so it does not start to squeeze the tree like a tourniquet. Instead the wires are formed into a loose shell, to guide and hold the tree in shape, but not to hold it so tightly that the bark cannot breath as it expands and shrinks when it is fed water and stores energy for winter.

Conclusion

That's it for my bonsai post this time. I hope you enjoyed it.

Please, if you grow any bonsai trees, or have an interest in starting out, share your journey here on steemit, and use the #bonsai tag. We are a very supporting community here.

Check out #teambonsai if you are interested in chatting and interacting with other bonsai admirers here.

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Photos in this post are all #originalworks by @creativetruth.

Find me on discord and chat with other tree growers, bonsai enthusiasts, and gardeners. We have quite a few accredited experts filling out our ranks, and a helpful Spanish-speaking community.

#teambonsai

No memberships. Love trees. Make friends. Grow together.

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Bonsai!

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

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