Gabler’s 27-Year Nebari Challenge

[Gabler]

Contest for 2023?

How’s about a warp speed styling contest? like get a new nursery stock juniper under 25$ and we see where you get it in 1 year! I guess this is something I’d like to do.. like, every year!🤣 There are so many convention demos and YouTube videos on this topic that it has kinda lost its novelty...

www.bonsainut.com

You may have posted it as a joke, but I’m doing it. Twenty-seven years. In case you’re wondering, I’ll be fifty-four years old twenty-seven years from today, assuming I don’t die in a car wreck or something.

I collected several of these small beeches two years ago, and now it’s time to start them on the long road to development. I chose them for movement low on the trunk. I’ll use the Ebihara method and grow bags to get good ramification in my roots, and I’ll fertilize like crazy to thicken the trunks as fast as possible. That said, they’re beeches, so I’ll need all 27 years to get enough growth to build good trees.

 

[misfit11]

I think this is great. I wish I still had that kind of time. I turn fifty this year. Seventy-seven isn't completely beyond the realm of possibility but I'd still need to create the canopy after making that amazing nebari! Of course, those things can occur simultaneously but I definitely don't have the years ahead of me in bonsai that I used to. I started 20 yrs ago and wish I had the knowledge and forethought to get some of these long-term projects going way back when. Good for you!

Can't wait to see what you've got in 2050!

Cory

 

[August]

In 27 years I'll be 51 and we'll all be doing bonsai behind a pair of VR goggles. But I'm in if I can decide on the material I want to use!

 

[Underdog]

I'll be 87 and prolly long dead... If I had had known I was going to live this long, I'da taken better care of myself. LOL

Good on you young pups

 

[PaulH]

I'm in. Gives me an incentive to make it to 99.

 

[Ruddigger]

Okay fine.

 

[19Mateo83]

I’ll be 67 by the time this ends but what the hell, I’m in. I gotta find a good start for this one. @Gabler i like your style. I may have to follow suit on this one, these two were collected last spring. I planted them how I found them in the woods. Kind of a mother daughter kinda thing going on.

 

[Shogun610]

Ok I’ll be 58 but by then you can see it in the national show… hell let’s make it 67 year competition see you in 2090

 

[ShadyStump]

On a philosophical note, I think this is what's so appealing about bonsai to me right now: it's a reason to imagine myself further in the future than the next three months.

Screw it; I'm in. I'll be 68.
Worst case scenario I kill a dozen trees and finish out the challenge with a mediocre specimen.
Or my knees and back finally give out, or decades of smoking non-filters catches up to me, or I get lost and/or injured while camping and eaten by coyotes, or...

Eh, whatever.
I'll probably just find a Siberian elm or something.

 

[leatherback]

That said, they’re beeches, so I’ll need all 27 years to get enough growth to build good trees.

Hm.. Not sure why you feel that way. Them being beeches mean they very quickly fatten up and build ramification very reliably? There is a very nice beech on the forum grown from similar material. If my ancient memory serves me right, it used to be @JudyB s tree and moved on to @MACH5 . If my mind does not serve me well, both names are incorrect

Have fun. I doubt I will join in. For my videos I have done quite a few stylings in the last months and I am not looking for another one. Then again, I still have a few spruces, but this I wanted to style & flip to keep my benches a bit emptier. Big Pine coming in over summer.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Will be interesting to see if website lasts to 2050 and I to 103. Although aiming for 150.

 

[R0b]

My 10 € beech will join in 27 years I will hopefully be 74 and this beech awesome.

 

[Gabler]

My goal here is to start off seedlings in the right direction and to fix the flaws in trees with bad roots overall. I won’t bore you with pictures of nearly-identical seedlings, so I’ll just post some examples for now.

 

[Gabler]

Here’s one of the oak seedlings I’m working on this spring. It’s some sort of hybrid. I chopped off the tap root, leaving the radial roots you see pictured.

 

[Gabler]

Here’s the same beech pictured earlier in the thread.

There wasn’t much space to layer the tree, so I added a tourniquet to keep it from bridging the gap.





Then I added a piece of plastic to encourage the roots to grow out instead of down and applied a bit of rooting hormone gel.

 

[Gabler]

I put these white oaks through washers. They do a lot of growing below ground before they bother growing much above ground.



This one was a bit too fat for the washers I have, so I just chopped off the tap root.

 

[leatherback]

You may have posted it as a joke, but I’m doing it. Twenty-seven years. In case you’re wondering, I’ll be fifty-four years old twenty-seven years from today, assuming I don’t die in a car wreck or something.

So, just so I understand.. 27 years, push a tree as hard as you can that year and over the years we see the progress?

I have 2 japanese maple youngsters. Once a laceleaf cutting, and one a cross between arakawa and laceleaf. Both I will develop to bonsai. Maybe I could play along?

 

[Cajunrider]

I am in with Batman. I'm gonna push it as hard as I can. Whether I can move it depends.
It has an all-around base with deep flutes that stretches out to 36" already. Pushing the base flatter and further out to 48" will be my 27 years goal.
Right now I am trying to keep it alive. When I get to PA, I will move it to a big pot and get started.
PS: If it starts to throw up a lot of knees, I will build a pot with a moat!

 

[Gabler]

So, just so I understand.. 27 years, push a tree as hard as you can that year and over the years we see the progress?

I have 2 japanese maple youngsters. Once a laceleaf cutting, and one a cross between arakawa and laceleaf. Both I will develop to bonsai. Maybe I could play along?

Yes, please do play along. Start your own 27 Year Nebari Challenge thread, and I’ll be sure to follow it.

I’ll be experimenting with developing many different trees’ nebari using different techniques, and I’ll see what I can accomplish. This thread is to document my progress over the years and help sustain my focus on growing better bonsai. I don’t know that I’ll need the full 27 years to develop a single decent tree, but if I feel like I’m “finished” in ten tears, the length of the challenge should serve as a reminder that there’s always room to continue to improve my technique and my trees.

 

[Gabler]

I am in with Batman. I'm gonna push it as hard as I can. Whether I can move it depends.
It has an all-around base with deep flutes that stretches out to 36" already. Pushing the base flatter and further out to 48" will be my 27 years goal.
View attachment 488845

Join us! Start a thread! Show us what you’re doing with all of your bald cypress trees to further develop the nebari.

In particular, I’m eager to see if you manage to grow some knees, but document your overall efforts to develop nebari. Let’s see what works and what doesn’t. In time, we’ll have a number of good threads for new bonsai growers to learn from—some good examples and hopefully not many bad examples.