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Smoke

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if i looked hard enough i may even have some photos of your stuff from the old bonsai talk days - i remember saving some examples of yours and don blackmond posts from wayyyy back.
I would love to see anything you have. I lost a lot of photos in 2009 in a computer crash. I had the same IT guy as Hillary Clinton so some of my photos may be on Comey’s hard drive. And one hard drive was smashed with a ball batt so those trees are gone. So, yea post them up and if I still have them I can show comparisons. I can think of a few I have from before 2006. I still have foeminas from 1984!
 

Smoke

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Ha! Bet it’s easier to ship pot than junipers to CA.
Were you on rec.art.bonsai? I lurked there in 1996-99, never posted. No photos, just a newsgroup/message board.
Yes I posted a few times with Vance Wood and Vance Hannah. Then went to GardenWeb and was banished to Disneyland twice by Spike Hernandez. He let me back in if I promised to play nice but that damn Mark Rockwell always got me going!!! Then I went to bonsaiPage and in 2001 the server went down and never came back. I was already friends with Matt Chroust at Mindori club where Peter Tea was just joining. I was selling soil and supplies to Matt for Tree Bay. He started bonsaiTalk and I was the first guy to sign up.

When bonsaiTalk started going south in 2005 Matt and I were working on new projects but it didn’t work out. I went to Bonsai Study Group and Art of Bonsai in 2006 but found the format sluggish and really limited. Study group was a Boon appreciation site and unless you were an SOB you opinion didn’t matter even if you were right. There is always a better or similar way to do things in Bonsai. It’s never one way, but to some there is one way. I don’t agree with that notion.

That is why it took me a few months to sign on here. If I remember correctly Greg sent out personal invitations to members of bonsaiTalk that he wanted here. I’m pretty sure I recieved one of those bug out invitations. But I am getting older.
 

mcpesq817

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sorry for poor photos but its all i have at moment (dont think i have a current one from the front). scots pine from winter of 2006 to spring 2018


View attachment 195830View attachment 195831
Is the scots the same one in the bottom right front? If so, really nice progress! The trunk thickened quite a bit.
 

Smoke

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I wonder what the Hell Irene Britton is doing....she should have some masterpiece trees by now.....:p
 

Smoke

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And the gal from San Diego whom Matt made a moderator and she screwed the forum all up with her namby pamby ways. Let the people say what they have to say. Those that know will rise to the top just like the cream does.
 

Bonsai Nut

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If I remember correctly Greg sent out personal invitations to members of bonsaiTalk that he wanted here.

Though this may be hard to believe, when I created BonsaiNut I didn't know BonsaiTalk existed and didn't have an account there. I did several searches online for bonsai forums and for whatever reason couldn't find anything that I considered that good. At the time, I thought that the GardenWeb bonsai page was the biggest bonsai community out there. GardenWeb had mostly beginner traffic, and I couldn't find a site where people could talk about more advanced topics like styling and propagation.

I created the original site using vBulletin 3.0 software, but with a lot of customizations. About a week after the site was up and running, someone on the site asked if I had an account on BonsaiTalk. I was like "what's BonsaiTalk?" I'm glad that I originally didn't know it existed, because I probably wouldn't have created BonsaiNut if I had known.

BonsaiNut got hacked twice. Both times it was due to holes in the vBulletin software, and both times I was able to catch the hack, block it, and reverse it before much damage was done. However the second time could have been bad. I captured all the malware files and checked them out - and they could have destroyed the site given enough time. I think this was the round that destroyed BonsaiTalk, but I don't know for sure. I'm so much happier with XenForo - so much better software!!
 
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watchndsky

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Is the scots the same one in the bottom right front? If so, really nice progress! The trunk thickened quite a bit.
Thanks! Yeh same one i just dont have a pic from the front. Trunk went from about 1.5 to 5.5 inches. (bark makes it look about an inch thicker than actually is)
 

mcpesq817

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Thanks! Yeh same one i just dont have a pic from the front. Trunk went from about 1.5 to 5.5 inches. (bark makes it look about an inch thicker than actually is)

Wow, seriously? That's crazy growth. Did you put it in the ground at all or kept it in a pot?

I have a Scots that I put in the ground for about 3-5 years. Caliper only got to about 1.5", and I ended up digging it up this year to put in an anderson flat. I was going to keep it on the smaller side, but if your kind of growth is possible, I might rethink things. I saw a number of larger Scots Pines at the National Arboretum earlier today (including one donated by Bill Valavanis) - they almost make nicer pine bonsai than japanese black pines.
 

Bonsai Nut

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And the gal from San Diego whom Matt made a moderator and she screwed the forum all up with her namby pamby ways. Let the people say what they have to say. Those that know will rise to the top just like the cream does.

I personally believe more web sites are destroyed by moderation than are saved by it.
 

watchndsky

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Wow, seriously? That's crazy growth. Did you put it in the ground at all or kept it in a pot?

I have a Scots that I put in the ground for about 3-5 years. Caliper only got to about 1.5", and I ended up digging it up this year to put in an anderson flat. I was going to keep it on the smaller side, but if your kind of growth is possible, I might rethink things. I saw a number of larger Scots Pines at the National Arboretum earlier today (including one donated by Bill Valavanis) - they almost make nicer pine bonsai than japanese black pines.

i think scots are the perfect pine - i have one decent jwp, and it just does "ok". i have and have had several jbps and if i look at them wrong they get needle cast and turn brown after ive blinked twice. idk why.

to be honest, ive been surprised at growth too and wish i had some secret to share. after a couple of years in the original itty pot i put in a colander (probably a year or two after that photo was taken), didnt touch the roots, and just tried to treat like a jbp (decandling no pulling) . it would back bud like crazy and just kept getting fuller and fuller. id take more off the top candles to try and balance but thats basically all ive ever done. the actual size may be a little misleading because the bark is just so thick - each piece seems much thicker than any of my other pines .

i appreciate the comment - i almost didnt post because i was afraid adair would see my crappy guy wires and scold me. but thats also the only wire on the entire tree.
 

watchndsky

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I would love to see anything you have. I lost a lot of photos in 2009 in a computer crash. I had the same IT guy as Hillary Clinton so some of my photos may be on Comey’s hard drive. And one hard drive was smashed with a ball batt so those trees are gone. So, yea post them up and if I still have them I can show comparisons. I can think of a few I have from before 2006. I still have foeminas from 1984!

im going to look a little more - at one point i know at one i had an "ideas" folder that was a bunch of bonsai talk photos before it went bye bye. im usually very organized so im not sure why im not finding that folder and i rarely delete anything. ill let you know .
 

Nybonsai12

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Thanks! Yeh same one i just dont have a pic from the front. Trunk went from about 1.5 to 5.5 inches. (bark makes it look about an inch thicker than actually is)

Really nice! Glad you posted.
 

Smoke

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im going to look a little more - at one point i know at one i had an "ideas" folder that was a bunch of bonsai talk photos before it went bye bye. im usually very organized so im not sure why im not finding that folder and i rarely delete anything. ill let you know .
You remember this tree? I dug it in 2005 and posted it on BonsaiTALK. It got killed by a person helping me in the backyard. I was repotting cause I needed help lifting it. It weighed a ton, like 200 pounds. I had been cleaning windows and I had a spray bottle filled with ammonia and vinegar. I had to go to the bathroom and I asked him to spray it down to keep the roots moist. guess which bottle he used. When I came out I saw what had been done and we tried to wash the thing but I think the ammonia just killed stuff on contact. I potted it and hoped for the best and it was brown in about four days. This was a common myrtle and I took the stump as a cutting. No roots at all and it grew so hard it was crazy. never get ammonia around your roots it will kill a tree fast.

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