Recent content by Andrew Robson

  1. Andrew Robson

    Coast photos Oregon!

    Judy, glad you were able to see my beech! Hope you had a nice visit to Portland, sorry I missed you!
  2. Andrew Robson

    Bjorn & Bonsai Empire's Advanced Bonsai Course

    I had a chance to view the Advanced Bonsai Course of Bjorn's recently, produced by Bonsai Empire, and wanted to share a few thoughts and impressions... The course is more expensive than previous Bonsai Empire courses, but for good reason. A lot of time was spent filming this course, which is...
  3. Andrew Robson

    Is Bonsai an Expensive Hobby?

    It's all about time... time is money in bonsai. Growing from seed, cutting, & air layers is a great way to do bonsai inexpensively.
  4. Andrew Robson

    Shohin Japanese Maple [#18]

    Just curious, what are you're evolving tastes and interests?
  5. Andrew Robson

    Trident Maple Material Arrived, Help requested

    Take a look at this post: http://thingsofwood-gary.blogspot.com/2011/12/trident-building-process.html
  6. Andrew Robson

    Loblolly plugs, what would you do?

    @garywood Is the expert! He collected this Loblolly many years ago, which I bought and initially styled last year with my friend Matt. https://www.rakuyobonsai.com/blog/styling-of-a-loblolly-pine I would put them in a mix of 60-80% pumice, or perlite if you can't get pumice, and 20-40%...
  7. Andrew Robson

    US Native Deciduous Trees (please share your photos)

    Red Maple (Acer rubrum) from my teacher Michael Hagedorn's garden. Grown not from a collected stump, but patiently over several decades from a seedling. https://crataegus.com/portfolio/portfolio/
  8. Andrew Robson

    Air Layering a Short Needle Pine, Southern Louisiana

    Shortleaf pine has good potential for bonsai, however pines don't airlayer easily. I'd recommend growing them from seed, and here's a great link to help you do that! https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/08/17/grow-japanese-black-pine-seed/
  9. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    That's like saying any potted tree is a bonsai, which is hardly the case...
  10. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    Actually most bonsai professionals would disagree with you. Assuming we are using volcanic soils (pumice, lava, akadama) the benefits of cakes is that once you want to stop fertilizing, you simply take the cake off, like after black Pine decandling. Furthermore, you can really fine tune your...
  11. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    The benefit of organic fertilizer cakes is that you can see what you're doing. If you just mix up one batch of liquid fertilizer in the spring and give it to all your trees, you're gardening, not doing bonsai. What's happening in that scenario is that some trees like black pines and tridents...
  12. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    O I disagree... having healthy trees is great, but there are different kinds of healthy trees. In bonsai we want healthy trees with controlled growth, and if we overfertilize we can end up making our trees too youthful, to the point where we can flake off old bark on conifers and abort years...
  13. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    For bonsai, especially old bonsai, miracle Grow is way too much nitrogen. Stay in the single digits. If you're looking for a great inorganic fertilizer, consider Dyna Grow instead of miracle grow. It's much more balanced and contains more micronutrients than I've ever seen on any other product...
  14. Andrew Robson

    I'm at Boon's this weekend...

    Adair, Your olive is looking great! Nice work! Also the Chojubai is cute! Nice trees!
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