My year around bonsai work in the Inland Empire, CA

[my nellie]

Thank you so much for sharing, Bonhe!

Ah, looks like you have tamarix in your area.
With just 3 tamarix, they would keep me busy all year, but it is very fun to take care of them.
p/s: I really appreciate my teacher, Mr. Richard Ota, who taught me so much about the tamarix.
Bonhe

Yes, you are correct!
Lots of Tamarix alongside beaches, such a lovely attraction!
I recently acquired one. It's a collected Tamarix gallica with interesting old bark and deadwood.
Some of the new shoots are hardened so that I cannot bend them the way I would like... but the rest are still bendable.
I collect information on the internet regarding their cultivation as bonsai. There are some YouTube videos but are in Spanish so I cannot understand speaking notes

 

[Hyn Patty]

Oh my goodness. I think I clicked 'like' on this thread more times than any other thread I have read so far! I wore my finger out by the end! Thank you so very much for this wonderful and ongoing post, Bohne. It has been a joy to read and educational, both.

I did catch someone mentioning using Neem Oil /and/ a sulfur based spray. A word of caution that sulfur mixed with any oil can cause a phytotoxic reaction and kill your plants! Please be very careful if there could be any residue left over from one or the other spray that could mix on later applications. If in doubt, look up sulfur + oil to read up on phytotoxicity in plants. Very bad stuff. I killed plenty the first time I stumbled upon this mixture even though the sulfur spray I used was applied many weeks after I had used the Neem oil. It's a really good idea to choose using sulfur /or/ oil based sprays, one or the other, but not both.

 

[bonhe]

Thank you so much for sharing, Bonhe!Yes, you are correct!
Lots of Tamarix alongside beaches, such a lovely attraction!
I recently acquired one. It's a collected Tamarix gallica with interesting old bark and deadwood.
Some of the new shoots are hardened so that I cannot bend them the way I would like... but the rest are still bendable.
I collect information on the internet regarding their cultivation as bonsai. There are some YouTube videos but are in Spanish so I cannot understand speaking notes

You are welcome my Nellie.
It is good to know you have a lot tamarix there. Tamarix is one of aggressive species. It grows fast. You are very lucky if you can find a collected tamarix with interesting trunk line. Most of them will be straight trunks. My 3 tamarix were from the cutting trained by my teacher several years ago. Actually the last one was a cutting trained by Mr. Ohara, one of my teacher's students. It means to get the interesting trunk line, you have to make a cutting. There is no the other way around! Tamarix is so easy to make a cutting even though with a big cutting. This is a trick: you just let a cutting sit in a bucket of water. You should see the root in 1 - 2 weeks! Tamarix wood is so brittle that the branch diameter is greater than 0.3 cm can not be safely bent any more. I like to see you tree.
Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

Hyn Patty, post: 557363, member: 23952"]Oh my goodness. I think I clicked 'like' on this thread more times than any other thread I have read so far! I wore my finger out by the end! Thank you so very much for this wonderful and ongoing post, Bohne. It has been a joy to read and educational, both.
You are very welcome. When I help people, it means I get help, too!

I did catch someone mentioning using Neem Oil /and/ a sulfur based spray. A word of caution that sulfur mixed with any oil can cause a phytotoxic reaction and kill your plants! Please be very careful if there could be any residue left over from one or the other spray that could mix on later applications. If in doubt, look up sulfur + oil to read up on phytotoxicity in plants. Very bad stuff. I killed plenty the first time I stumbled upon this mixture even though the sulfur spray I used was applied many weeks after I had used the Neem oil. It's a really good idea to choose using sulfur /or/ oil based sprays, one or the other, but not both.
I agree.
Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

The Brazilian rain tree starts waking up.

Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

I have been using heavenly bamboo for mini bonsai and gifted them to my friends at work

Bonhe

 

[ihaveaspaceship]

Is the soft breaking technique on a Myrtle appropriate on a freshly (mid feb.) Trunk chop? It has tons of new growth, but it's shooting off to the moon.

 

[bonhe]

Is the soft breaking technique on a Myrtle appropriate on a freshly (mid feb.) Trunk chop? It has tons of new growth, but it's shooting off to the moon.

I think so.
Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

Is there anyone here using Epsom salt for plant? Epsom salt in gardening is not new. It has been a secret for years.
I have been using it since 8/2017 for one of my experiments. Recently I decided to give it a try one some of my plants through foliar sprays.
Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

I brought this tamarin out today to do some work .
Before. It has a lot of long young shoots


There are few young shoots emerging from the central third of the trunk


They were removed


There are 2 young shoots next to each other


Because I want to have a big trunk line in this area, I approached them together with the help of the wire and wired and bent them


After trimmed and wired some suitable young shoots down . Some shoots are too young to be wired, so I let them grow a little more


The barks at trunk base

Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

I pruned these two cork elm this morning.
#1. Before and after


#2. Before and after


Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

The tamarix in # 590 had much longer shoots this morning. They are trimmed back and wired down.
Before


The base of the shoots was cleared out any secondary branches


Those secondary branches at outer aspect


were trimmed short


The tip of the shoot was also cut off


The shoot was wired


and bent down


Finished. The top shoots will be let grow freely


Bonhe

 

[my nellie]

I pruned these two cork elm this morning.

How slender!
What is the height of each one?

 

[bonhe]

How slender!
What is the height of each one?

Thank you.
The #1 is 27" height
The #2 is 28" height
Bonhe

 

[my nellie]

Thanks for your reply!

 

[bonhe]

This crepe myrtle was ready to apply soft breaking technique this morning.
Before


After less than 1 minute


I am so happy that my teacher is using this technique on his trees at this time.
Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

I brought 13 oak seedlings out to prune and fertilize them this morning.
One of the cork oaks
Before


The bark in the lower part starts corking


After the sacrificed branch was removed


I like oak so much that I always tried to collect acorn every time I went to LEGOLAND, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studio. I really like this bark

Bonhe

 

[RobertB]

This crepe myrtle was ready to apply soft breaking technique this morning.
Before
View attachment 194346

After less than 1 minute
View attachment 194347

I am so happy that my teacher is using this technique on his trees at this time.
Bonhe

I am definitely new to this but I have found that wiring shoots and bending as regular normally ends with broken branches, hence I assume you justification behind the "soft break", which I will need to read back up on. What I have been doing is wiring, then starting the curves, just a little then coming out and bending a little more and more every couple days to once a week. You can basically bend each time until you hear a minor crack. This seems to be working well for me but this is only my first year wiring crepes. One real important thing is to keep bending the same direction from the initial bends.

 

[bonhe]

I am definitely new to this but I have found that wiring shoots and bending as regular normally ends with broken branches, hence I assume you justification behind the "soft break", which I will need to read back up on. What I have been doing is wiring, then starting the curves, just a little then coming out and bending a little more and more every couple days to once a week. You can basically bend each time until you hear a minor crack. This seems to be working well for me but this is only my first year wiring crepes. One real important thing is to keep bending the same direction from the initial bends.

Thank you for sharing info.
The way you practice is very conservative, I think. With all wiring and bending, I just finish it at the same time and rarely had a problem. Besides, crepe myrtle is very forgivable.
The “soft breaking “ technique has that name because every bending will cause some more or less damage to the tree anatomy . When I am bending the branch, my goal is giving that branch not only a curve but slow down the strength of that branch which still maintains the energy production for the tree.
Bonhe

 

[bonhe]

This trident maple gave out a lot of long shoots more than a month. Some of them were 2 meter height . I pruned all the shoots down . Sorry, I forgot to take “before” picture.
After pruning. This tree will need a ton of carving later on!

Bonhe