Attila Soos
Omono
I posted this thread over at BonsaiTalk as well, since some people don't frequent both forums. Here it goes:
This is the first time I am posting something like this, but this is very serious, so I need some advice from those with direct experience with Sequoia sempervirens.
About 5 years ago I purchased two collected redwood yamadori from Mendocino Coast Bonsai. Both were old stumps, with a very large nebari. One became a little grove (with interconnected trunks), the other one a double-trunk bonsai. For the last 4 years I trained them in nursery containers, building up the trunks and reducing the rootball to a flat pad. The trees were doing great, pushing out tremendous amount of growth every year, so I constantly had to prune them to keep them in check.
Last year I moved them into bonsai pots. They were medium-to-large size bonsai. I continued to grow them in the bonsai pot, and they were healthy and vigorous, the same way as they were in the nursery pots.
Then, this year, finally I started some more serious styling: wired all the branches, reduced branches to their proper length, removed all the superfluous buds growing everywhere (redwoods keep pushing new buds everywhere, from the nebari to the trunk). Redwoods are also a very thirsty species. The soil needed constant watering to prevent it from drying out. The medium that I used for them was 70% pumice, 20% orchid bark, 10% leaf mulch.
Everything seemed to be all right, until, late August this year, disaster hit. The new foliage started to dry out. The trees tried to push new growth, but all the green shriveled, and the trees slowly died. It took them about two months to die.
I also had a young redwood, this year I trained it into a literati. I have been growing it for many years, without serious styling. This summer I did some serious wiring and pruning, but a month ago this tree died as well.
The two large redwoods were the pride of my collection.
Here is the question:
What happened, that all 3 trees died, after some wiring and pruning? They were all healthy in small containers for so many years. Not just surviving, but very vigorous and healthy.
And the most important question:
What is the proper way to train the Coast Redwood into bonsai, so that this doesn't happen again in the future?
My suspicion is that I removed too many branches, and the tree's system collapsed. But the reason I did this, was because I know that redwoods bud back profusely from anywhere. May be I should have done the styling in the middle of Spring, and should have left them alone for the rest of the year, instead of constantly pinching and removing useless buds? I don't know.
I have one redwood left, that is unstyled. It is a medium-sized tree, and healty and vigorous, growing in a nursery container. I am planning to do some styling next year. I wonder whether it will have the same fate.
Obviously, I need to do something differently, but I have no idea, other than this time, I will just wire the branches without pruning them. May be, going very slowly, will help.
Just to add one more thing - I have hundreds of trees, in various stages, and I have not killed a single tree for years. But the mystery with these redwoods, just blew my mind.
What's your advice?
This is the first time I am posting something like this, but this is very serious, so I need some advice from those with direct experience with Sequoia sempervirens.
About 5 years ago I purchased two collected redwood yamadori from Mendocino Coast Bonsai. Both were old stumps, with a very large nebari. One became a little grove (with interconnected trunks), the other one a double-trunk bonsai. For the last 4 years I trained them in nursery containers, building up the trunks and reducing the rootball to a flat pad. The trees were doing great, pushing out tremendous amount of growth every year, so I constantly had to prune them to keep them in check.
Last year I moved them into bonsai pots. They were medium-to-large size bonsai. I continued to grow them in the bonsai pot, and they were healthy and vigorous, the same way as they were in the nursery pots.
Then, this year, finally I started some more serious styling: wired all the branches, reduced branches to their proper length, removed all the superfluous buds growing everywhere (redwoods keep pushing new buds everywhere, from the nebari to the trunk). Redwoods are also a very thirsty species. The soil needed constant watering to prevent it from drying out. The medium that I used for them was 70% pumice, 20% orchid bark, 10% leaf mulch.
Everything seemed to be all right, until, late August this year, disaster hit. The new foliage started to dry out. The trees tried to push new growth, but all the green shriveled, and the trees slowly died. It took them about two months to die.
I also had a young redwood, this year I trained it into a literati. I have been growing it for many years, without serious styling. This summer I did some serious wiring and pruning, but a month ago this tree died as well.
The two large redwoods were the pride of my collection.
Here is the question:
What happened, that all 3 trees died, after some wiring and pruning? They were all healthy in small containers for so many years. Not just surviving, but very vigorous and healthy.
And the most important question:
What is the proper way to train the Coast Redwood into bonsai, so that this doesn't happen again in the future?
My suspicion is that I removed too many branches, and the tree's system collapsed. But the reason I did this, was because I know that redwoods bud back profusely from anywhere. May be I should have done the styling in the middle of Spring, and should have left them alone for the rest of the year, instead of constantly pinching and removing useless buds? I don't know.
I have one redwood left, that is unstyled. It is a medium-sized tree, and healty and vigorous, growing in a nursery container. I am planning to do some styling next year. I wonder whether it will have the same fate.
Obviously, I need to do something differently, but I have no idea, other than this time, I will just wire the branches without pruning them. May be, going very slowly, will help.
Just to add one more thing - I have hundreds of trees, in various stages, and I have not killed a single tree for years. But the mystery with these redwoods, just blew my mind.
What's your advice?
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