Recent content by dustbust

Looks like there are a few methods for success. I like the pond basket idea, let the roots escape then trim in the fall. I have 4 ficus, 2 about the same. Maybe ill just experiment. 1 planted on a tile and repotted every year. 1 put in a buried pond basket, pulled, and trimmed.

I just built a monster raised garden bed for growing out bonsai. I have a plan to plant my ficus trees every spring and dig up in the fall, pot, and grow inside over the winter. I have a grow area in my basement. I live in ND so I get about 4 months outside time for my ficus. Anybody have...

so Just for fun last year I tried to air layer a 3" diameter lilac just to see if it would work. At the end of the summer i chopped it off the mother tree and threw it in a pot. The tree looked pretty weak and i figured it was a bust so i basically forgot about it. Well winter came and now its...

here are the 2 maples i have http://imageshack.com/a/img843/831/thcc.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img843/7993/9l2tx.jpg kind of hard to see because life is just starting to take hold but they are mostly trunks with little branching.

I took some pics tonight but the look like garbage so I will get some before work tomorrow

The branch idea is a good one. That could be in the future. Maybe instead of chopping it I could use it as a parent plant. I like the idea though of having immediate 1-3" trunks

Might not work then. It has plenty of branches at the top but none down the rest of the tree. But there is a lot of back budding down the trunk. Maybe it could be a 2 year project. 1 layer this year, let the buds grow and do 3 more next year.

I have a 10 foot tall Amur maple that looks grafted and was in the dying section of the nursery. Tree got a little tlc and is now in pretty good shape. The base is about 3" the apex which I already chopped to fit on my SUV is 1". I'd like to "part it out" and do some air layers to get multiple...

well i put the 3 together. I cut the roots where they meet and electric taped them together. Actually was pretty easy and matched up pretty good. Now to wait. Ill post a pic after work.

Broom is what I kind of had in mind for that one. I cant decide if I should keep the broken side branch or not. I kind of like the Non-perfect style of trees.

Ya that's what i figured. Might just have to create another growing contraption

3 are from the same, 4th one is not. So ill prob just do the 3 which will still give me a good kickstart. second part to this question while I have Ryan chiming in. My setup is trees outside in the summer and back indoors in the winter in my basement. I have a 4Lx4Hx2D frame I have it wrapped...

ya, thats a GREAT idea. I wouldn't be able to do the steel cage method (read your thread Ryan, very cool) but maybe just wrapping them together would work. With ficus do i need to peel the bark where they meet or will they just fuse? thanks guys

a few of my trees at their ugly stage. pic 1 will not make a proportional bonsai. The trunk is too thin. I have about 3 more trees with a trunk this size that im growing out. This is my "practice ramification" tree. Pic 2 is a walmart ficus sold as bonsai with the glued rocks. I re-potted last...