rockm
Spuds Moyogi
After letting this Gray Oak I got from Alavaro Arciniegas http://www.chobonsai.com sit for the last two years to acclimate to Va., I repotted it.
Photos are bad, but you get the idea. First one is of the oak when I got it in Texas in 2017. The tree pushing to the left is an in-ground arakawa that is always in the way
The buds on this oak (like those on my other Texas live oak) don't move quickly in the spring. While I completed all my repotting on maples elms, etc. the buds on this one remained tight until last weekend. not unusual, as my other live oak pushes new growth in late March/early April, as they do in the wild. The new growth pushes off older leaves, so the green mostly remains on the tree all year --which is why live oaks are called "live" They don't lose all their leaves in the fall and aren't bare.
Anyway, I moved this oak from the container made for it by Alvaro to accommodate an odd (like most collected trees) shaped root mass into a bonsai pot. That old container was falling apart.
The move may seem drastic, but it probably isn't (fingers crossed--I've not worked roots on this species before). I was able to make the move because the tree was "pocket collected" that is it had been growing in a natural bowl of stone in the wild, which forced it to make a relatively compact root mass. The tree grew very strongly last year, putting on several three foot extension shoots --which have been removed.
I was not all that aggressive with root pruning, however, I did manage to replace about 70 percent of the soil in the root mass, as well as remove the furthest extending root which had died back. I also removed several large pieces of stone and a lot of mucky field soil.
I used a soil mix that incorporates regular bonsai soil, pumice and some other stuff. We'll see how things go.
Pot is Chinese with lion "handles" on the sides. Don't know if this is the final container, but it will work for a while.
Photos are bad, but you get the idea. First one is of the oak when I got it in Texas in 2017. The tree pushing to the left is an in-ground arakawa that is always in the way
The buds on this oak (like those on my other Texas live oak) don't move quickly in the spring. While I completed all my repotting on maples elms, etc. the buds on this one remained tight until last weekend. not unusual, as my other live oak pushes new growth in late March/early April, as they do in the wild. The new growth pushes off older leaves, so the green mostly remains on the tree all year --which is why live oaks are called "live" They don't lose all their leaves in the fall and aren't bare.
Anyway, I moved this oak from the container made for it by Alvaro to accommodate an odd (like most collected trees) shaped root mass into a bonsai pot. That old container was falling apart.
The move may seem drastic, but it probably isn't (fingers crossed--I've not worked roots on this species before). I was able to make the move because the tree was "pocket collected" that is it had been growing in a natural bowl of stone in the wild, which forced it to make a relatively compact root mass. The tree grew very strongly last year, putting on several three foot extension shoots --which have been removed.
I was not all that aggressive with root pruning, however, I did manage to replace about 70 percent of the soil in the root mass, as well as remove the furthest extending root which had died back. I also removed several large pieces of stone and a lot of mucky field soil.
I used a soil mix that incorporates regular bonsai soil, pumice and some other stuff. We'll see how things go.
Pot is Chinese with lion "handles" on the sides. Don't know if this is the final container, but it will work for a while.
