Berry Bushes as Shohin/Mame?

penumbra

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I have seen a few blueberry bonsai and I frequently have eyed some blueberries I have seen growing but have not made the leap. I have seen that Goji berries are being used by some folks. I don't think any cane berries such as blackberry are likely to work.
 

rockm

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Blueberry bonsai are pretty common, especially in the N.E. They've been used for 40 year or so as bonsai material.
http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t2213-a-blueberry

Blueberry are acid lovers and require some work with the proper soil. They also tend to die back, leaving deadwood. Larger or huge blueberry bushes are the best candidates for bonsai.

Blackberry won't work, as the canes that make up a blackberry patch are very very reluctant to branch. It's mostly a stick in a pot if you use it for bonsai.

If you're looking for wild collected berries, bittersweet and porcelain berry have become invasive pests in the eastern U.S. they make excellent bonsai however. Old bittersweet vines are muscular and aged looking. They're also easy to dig out and tough. They produce red berries that can hang all winter if the birds don't get them. Porcelain berry is a traditional Japanese bonsai subject. There are some spectacular shohin sized bonsai with purple berries being posted online every now and then. The species has also become a pest in the U.S. They're also easy to dig up, if you find one with a decent five inches of trunk.

Porcelain berry
porcelainberry.jpg

Here's a bittersweet trunk I dug up a few years ago. Unfortunately, I left the pot on the ground just after collection--and it grew like a weed for a few weeks. Had a huge hard rain that splashed soil from the backyard up into the pot. It developed a raging fungal infection that killed it in two days...There's another vine like this at the site I dug this one. I have to get back someday to get it.

bittersweet trunk.jpg
 
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rockm

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How about grapes?
Not worth the time, unless you can find a trunk with branching. Mustang and wild grapes tend to have long uninteresting vines. Best bet for grapes is old vineyard stock
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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This thread talks about flowering bonsai
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/good-flowering-bonsai-for-zone-4-5.34710/#post-581524

Blueberries, are ''my thing'', well I am the chief hedge pruner and and dung spreader for a 3 acres blueberry patch on a piece of farm / hunting camp. I'm also in charge of weighing buckets the pickers bring in during harvest. And every picker has a story, yikes. End of 2015 a group of us bought at 76 acres abandoned farm, that had not been worked for 20 years. We found 3 acres of still healthy blueberries and decided to revive them as an organic blueberry patch. We sell through a broker that handles organic fruit for a Farmer's Market circuit. So I had to learn a little bit about blueberries. I have posted pretty detailed articles in the threads below. I should probably pull the messages together and post a more complete coherent article in the resources section.

The following are some threads about blueberries as bonsai.
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/ideas-suggestions-welcome-blueberry.25620/
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/boredom-leads-to-a-blueberry.28763/
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/how-to-increase-soil-acidity-for-blueberry.37068/#post-624563

Satsuki azalea
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/just-how-important-is-kanuma-to-satsuki.33582/#post-559574
 

barguy8194

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This thread talks about flowering bonsai
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/good-flowering-bonsai-for-zone-4-5.34710/#post-581524

Blueberries, are ''my thing'', well I am the chief hedge pruner and and dung spreader for a 3 acres blueberry patch on a piece of farm / hunting camp. I'm also in charge of weighing buckets the pickers bring in during harvest. And every picker has a story, yikes. End of 2015 a group of us bought at 76 acres abandoned farm, that had not been worked for 20 years. We found 3 acres of still healthy blueberries and decided to revive them as an organic blueberry patch. We sell through a broker that handles organic fruit for a Farmer's Market circuit. So I had to learn a little bit about blueberries. I have posted pretty detailed articles in the threads below. I should probably pull the messages together and post a more complete coherent article in the resources section.

The following are some threads about blueberries as bonsai.
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/ideas-suggestions-welcome-blueberry.25620/
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/boredom-leads-to-a-blueberry.28763/
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/how-to-increase-soil-acidity-for-blueberry.37068/#post-624563

Satsuki azalea
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/just-how-important-is-kanuma-to-satsuki.33582/#post-559574
Awesome! Thanks!
 

Fidur

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I read recent rockm's thread on intelligent downsizing a collection, and also this one.
These two were born in my garden last season. I repotted them and have been doing some pinching and wiring. (blackberry and winevine)
IMG_20211130_161834.jpg IMG_20211130_161943.jpg

I guess this is exactly what I should discard, even if they are branching and reducing leave size...
 
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