herzausstahl
Chumono
Does anyone's have a preference between growing out pre-bonsai in a raised bed vs just straight in the ground? If so, why?
Does anyone's have a preference between growing out pre-bonsai in a raised bed vs just straight in the ground? If so, why?
Here people use raised beds because our soil is clay and does not absorb water quickly. You have to be careful when digging out a garden bed and filling it with garden soil that you aren't creating a swimming pool/swamp.
Having a raised bed allows the water to percolate through the soil and drain out the bottom of the bed, rinsing the soil. It also generally allows for higher oxygen levels in the soil than ground growing. Downside - soil dries much more quickly and is not as protected from temperature swings - high or low.
With few exceptions, I've pretty much decided to grow my pre-bonsai trees in cut-off 55 gallon plastic drums. These cut-off pots holds around 25 gallon and is around 24" inch in diameter. Unless the trees are very big, these pots are as good as in the ground since I can control the soil and fertilizer a little better than my terrible clay soil that turned into gumbo mud when it rains.I tend to use large nursery pots, or Anderson flats or other large containers. The media is recycled bonsai mix with added organics, like used orchid mix. Pots usually only need to be watered once a week. I use 1 gallon thru 20 gallon sizes. My native soil is heavy clay, once a tree roots in, you are never going to get it out. The thought of building a propper grow bed always made my back hurt. And should roots go deeper into the clay below, the tree could be a permanent feature.
Pots have advantage of being able to be moved to work table for pruning.
Down side of pots is growth is not as rapid as ground growing. But it can be fast enough to get reasonable results.
I've used stone/ceramic tiles, as well as plastic colanders; especially for seedlings or saplings with a taproot that I don't want to deal with later down the road. Otherwise I just let them grow in the bucket, and even out of the drainage holes & into the ground if they want.@MimosaGroveMexia have you ever placed a tree on a board or plate (like the ebihara method), or placed it in something like the basket in the attached photo (with many holes in the bottom, and with the bottom and sides screened), and then placed all of this into the big black pot that you posted?
i am trying to find a way to retain bonsai substrate near the tree (the basket), while allow the longer roots to roam freely into standard potting soil fill larger pot (the black pot)
thoughts?