Jade bonsai?

Nybonsai12 said:

Holy shit my wife has to hear about this!

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Youre sure you want to tell her? Because youll just end up wrong.

Just remember these words "Yes Dear" and nod alot.

A wise man once told me "when it comes to marriage you can be right or you can be happy"

Neli said:

Your tree needs more light...it has too long internodes. That is why I thought it is afra.
Have you thought what style you want it? If you have a style in mind...is better, so we tell you where to cut.
Do You want a small bonsai...if not you need to grow the trunk...then dont cut it.
You can change the pot after you advance the design

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Thanks again. I was given the tree basically as is awhile ago and it has been growing new growth for a few weeks now. It was in a window that got decent light and is now in the window of my house that gets the most light per day (I live in a cabin surrounded by trees so i do what I can). i dont have a style in mind yet but I'd love to know what your opinion on style of this particular plant if you dont mind.

This Jade isn't trained but my friend took two pictures of it for me in his Dads greenhouse, the quality is rough as it was very sunny but if you zoom in a bit you can see that they flower. That tree is 40 years old and requires very little care.





Grimmy

GrimLore said:

This Jade isn't trained but my friend took two pictures of it for me in his Dads greenhouse, the quality is rough as it was very sunny but if you zoom in a bit you can see that they flower. That tree is 40 years old and requires very little care.





Grimmy

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Wow thanks for the pics. This tree is incredible!

I have yet to do any work on this tree. I feel like it needs a heavy prune as its beginning to become top heavy but im a bit weary of lopping off entire shutes of new growth. Should I just continue to pinch off new growth? Or can I actually trim the branches down?

You can pretty much do anything you want to with this plant, except for overwater it or let it freeze. i like to take big cuttings off mine to start new plants, any time of the year. I had several nice ones (portulacaria afra) until left them out too long this winter. They all froze. If they get enough sun, some shade in the hottest part of the day,get to dry out between waterings, some fertilizer. and enough room to grow, they'll grow like weeds. I have a lot of fun with this plant. Any size piece of it that you take off will grow!


Libby

bumblebee said:

You can pretty much do anything you want to with this plant, except for overwater it or let it freeze. i like to take big cuttings off mine to start new plants, any time of the year. I had several nice ones (portulacaria afra) until left them out too long this winter. They all froze. If they get enough sun, some shade in the hottest part of the day,get to dry out between waterings, some fertilizer. and enough room to grow, they'll grow like weeds. I have a lot of fun with this plant. Any size piece of it that you take off will grow!


Libby

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Thanks Libby. I have taken small cuttings to give away but not really to trim it down. Ill start by removing a couple unsightly branches.

After looking at the plant again I have decided in re-potting it. I suppose ill wait on pruning it for now.

The Life of a Jade Bonsai

It seems I've always had a Jade or two as houseplants. They came and went, some lasting several years and making very nice houseplants. Yes, but they are tropical/sub-tropical plants and up this way it only takes one freeze and they're done for. Most of mine gave in to overwatering, but the rest got frozen.

A few years ago I started a few pieces as bonsai projects.

In 2007 I took a cutting from a friends tree and the first pic shows the cutting in '08. Believe it or not I was going for a broom style, I was working alone and no one told me better.

In 09 (and this is the one that gets poohfooed by all the naysayers) I planted it and another informal upright project in the ground. I waited until we were past any danger of freeze, these guys are hardy down to about 40F and they can take a light frost. I had some left over tiles and I prepared a lined pot in the ground.

In the fall I dug them up and brought them inside for the winter. In that short period they grew very much and I should have kept to that regimine each year, but other projects over ruled and it stayed in a pot since.

Each spring it was taken outside for the summer. Every other year I cropped all growth back to stubs and allowed it to regrow.

more....

The Life of a Jade Bonsai

I had the plant in a large pot and began reducing by planting into a large clay bowl. Last night I decided to come down another notch and repotted it into this mica riveted drum pot. The bowl had produced a very nice root mass with a good spread of roots all the way around the base.

These pics are not as bad as I thought, but I'll get some fresh ones once the suns up. I hope you enjoy and I invite any comments or advice. Thanks for looking, Rick

I grow all of my tropicals outdoors, all year round. I just want to make sure that no miscommunications happen and make that clear; I know a lot of users here grow indoors.

Just like the other user said, you can do anything you want to these plants as long as you drought them first. You actually NEED to drought them when you repot, or remove more than 50% of the foliage. I don't know what the scientific process is called, but basically the tree absorbs so much water that when you do either of these actions it has no way of getting rid of the water, and rots and dies. It's easier to wire them when they've been dry for a few days because the trunk is less swollen with water and a bit more flexible. You can begin to water the tree again once it has put new growth on all of its branches.

The first picture is May 2013, the tree was hard pruned and then repotted in June, for about a period of 2 months the tree received no water. The second picture was in January, mine isn't finished or close to it, but you can see how fast they grow and that the drought periods cause no harm or foul. The last picture is the tree today, after being pruned hard over a month ago for Spring growth, and is now back in the water. The picture isn't to great, it's a very bright warm and sunny day here in Florida =D.

They create dense canopies in time with pruning. If you Google Image search "Portulicaria Bonsai Jim Smith" you can see some of his great trees. Richard Turner also has some nice ones.