The Burn Pile. Newbie Graduation.

What is easier for a newb to keep alive?

  • A local tree dug in spring.

    Votes: 62 76.5%
  • A Juniper with new growth, recieved as a gift in winter.

    Votes: 19 23.5%

  • Total voters
    81

Nwaite

Chumono
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Can I lost a video right on here from my phone or do I have to upload it some were else ?
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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As long as you take the time to do a post-mortum, so you learn from each death, it's okay to kill a few trees. But try to learn from each.

Sticks in Pots, they are okay, given a decade or two of growing towards becoming pre-bonsai, they can become good trees. Just understand, a stick might need 20 years before it's first bonsai styling.

What really hurts is the stick you kept alive for 25 or 35 years, only to realize that way back when you should have cut here, wired there, and now the wood is too old to back bud or bend, result the 35 year old stick is still not suitable for bonsai. That hurts.

But it is the process I enjoy. After composting the above tree, I started a new stick of the same species, and already have done "the chop" and wired the trunk, hoping in 5 years it will look better than the original stick did. Eternal optimist. And I have every intention of living long enough to show it in a bonsai pot.

So nothing wrong with "sticks in pots", but know that it takes time, skill, and some effort to get them ready to become bonsai. Not all "sticks" will make the grade.

On the other hand, I need to have some pleasant looking trees in pots to enjoy while attempting to make a serious, quality bonsai. So a number of my trees have an amateur, mallsai quality to them. But I try not to show them as examples of "good" bonsai. They are for my pleasure.
 
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miker

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A healthy, growing juniper could probably miss one winter, if it was put in the sunniest indoor spot, or really high-powered grow lights and otherwise cared for properly, then placed out in spring and kept out thereafter. The problem is, most newbies would set it on top of the TV or in the kitchen, watch it turn a nice shade of tannish brown, then spray paint it green (true story).

I have two new temperate plants given to me within the past month(a rose and a venus fly trap) which I just placed outside and they will either get a healthy rest or die from lack of adjustment to the colder conditions. Sink or swim(I will protect them if it gets below 20F though).
 

Nwaite

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I'm going to start cleaning out all my "waste of time" bonsai plants . .
#1 of the day an avocado Iv been trying to play around with for the past year or so.

Now it will help heat the house in the wood stove.
 

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aml1014

Masterpiece
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You didn't kick them hard enough :) Actually you are proving the bonsai care corollary. Sometimes it is best to do nothing :)
I'm fact, I love this species of elm. Most elms are tough, these are tanks. They grow fast, develop fast, and have attractive small foliage that reduces drastically. I'm mostly done growing them from seed though as I've been given permission to collect as many as I'd like basically forever near the river here in town where they are running rampant and taking over the native cottonwoods.

Aaron
 

Carol 83

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Ha, ha, @aml1014 I had a similar experience of "coming back from the dead." I was busy preparing for the holidays, and guess I forgot to water a dwarf Barbados Cherry, and was thanked by crispy leaves. I didn't want my company to see the poor dead thing, so I put it out in the garage in a box with some pots. I was grilling last weekend and saw it sitting there, and just for the hell of it, gave the bark a scratch. Green! So in it came. Not sure if it will make it, but I'm going to give it better chance!
 

ConorDash

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Let's face it Newbs....

S- shaped anything, anything with painted green moss, glued rocks, anything in a pot with an attached drip tray, 90% of Fukien Tea's, every Walmart ficus, anything that came with an ID tag that reads "bonsai", and anything that ever came within 3ft, (1M) of a rock that reads, "peace", "hope", etc...., 75% of van/streetside purchased material...

Feel free to @anyone you feel needs to Graduate.

Couple of you know I'm itching to @you...
Don't make me do it...

Someone kick it off.....

Sorce

@ConorDash
 

Cattwooduk

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View attachment 132266

Lookin for a cabana boy?;)

Looks like a standard English summer BBQ.

I expect to have a whole range of sticks, twigs and stumps of various species and varieties of annihilation ready for a burn pile towards Autumn. They're all waiting for me to start some messy work at the moment. I have been eyeing them critically to try and get some ideas. They have been watching back in paralysed terror.
 

eferguson1974

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Ok Sorce I'm gonna call bullshit on this one... because it is a false argument :)

The question isn't (for a newb) which tree is easier to keep alive. The question should be (in my opinion) which tree will launch the recipient on a lifelong journey of enjoyment/appreciation of bonsai. If you gift someone a tree and it dies... but it ignites a passion for bonsai in the recipient, I view it as a "win". In fact, I would almost argue that the first bonsai you give anyone should be expected to die... because then there is no guilt and it puts someone on the path to bonsai enlightenment :)
Well said.
 

eferguson1974

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First I will say that sticks in your pot will give you a headache. Trust me.
Next order if business, I threw a bunch of less than healthty trees in my little piece of rain forest. But it's not rainy season and they didn't all land together. And since the other guy has to burn his civic, I presume to win, I have to burn down my jungle to have a chance. I'll need a new lighter (common problem for a loooong time). I guess you did specify a bic. Dammit, those are harder to get here. But if you want fire pics...... I could end up torching 1/2 CR and 1/2 Panama. Tomorrow. All I gotta do is find a stick in a pot, light it, drop kick it out the front door and haul ass and hope I can escape.
What's my prize? I wanna know! Cuz when I get out of jail I'll be deported. Thus you have time to collect said prize.
Maybe my new phone will take nicer pics. But I'll have to post them and erase them before the local clowns with the handcuffs show up. You understand. Evidence is bad.
 

sorce

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Here's the recovery room.
20170623_155704.jpg

Blue rug, Sargent , and the only one to survive the mites.....the Local J.Crack ERC.

20170623_155732.jpg

20170623_155729.jpg

20170623_155742.jpg

Sorce
 

StoneCloud

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Here's the recovery room.
View attachment 150356

Blue rug, Sargent , and the only one to survive the mites.....the Local J.Crack ERC.

View attachment 150358

View attachment 150357

View attachment 150359

Sorce

Damn homie........I've been battling them right now hardddddddd. Neem oil every 5 days and soap every 3 days. The last 2 weeks they have come in really bad.

I feel like I'm walking the line w/ them on a daily basis, like just keeping them at bay. J. Crack...very strong tree
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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Damn homie........I've been battling them right now hardddddddd. Neem oil every 5 days and soap every 3 days. The last 2 weeks they have come in really bad.

I feel like I'm walking the line w/ them on a daily basis, like just keeping them at bay. J. Crack...very strong tree

The wind hasn't stopped blowing since the last time I was able to neem!

Them testers anyway...they testers!

Love Crack!

Sorce
 
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