I dont mind if you laugh

[Heavy_Set]

This tree is the tree the really got me to actually try bonsai. Like i said in my intro run on sentence post, ive been really interested in the art since i was a kid ( im only 34ish now) i always asked my parents for one the "grow your own bonsai kits" that were around back then. I always got the same answer....no.
Fast forward to last year, i find this JM in a half gallon pot tipped over abandoned by the tree lot that occupies the spot in the spring/summer. I bring it home, repot it into a gallon pot with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil. I burned the few new buds that were forming and thought i killed it, so it sat on a table outside for a few months till it started exploding with new growth of the old branches. I then read a few things online about starting a bonsai, i proceded to wrap the whole dam tree in wire bending it all over (thinking i was some kind of expert) which ended up killing all the new growth......ive thought it was dead until this spring when it magically came back to life.


Now i know its ugly as sin, has a hideous graft, branches are all in the wrong spots, its got dead wood on a maple...the list goes on.

BUT I STILL LOVE THIS DAMN TREE!!!!

 

[GGB]

That's the point man! keep working on it, worst case scenario it dies and you learned 100 times what you knew before it.

 

[Alain]

BUT I STILL LOVE THIS DAMN TREE!!!!

Which is basically the point if you ask me

Welcome to the Nuts' House!

 

[Alain]

That's the point man!

We are like, just one mind!

 

[M. Frary]

What's to laugh at? You've managed to keep it alive for a year. That's excellent. Really.
Also it's your first tree. Most on here started out with worse.
I say good work. Your trees will get better over time as you grow.

 

[fredman]

Yeah man I agree. We all started somewhere. I'm starting over all the time. I see you're a master carver already

 

[j evans]

For all of us it is just for fun. Doesn't matter what you are working with or really what you end up with if you are enjoying yourself. Nice part is that you can ask any question you want here and you will get honest and sincere answers and maybe a bit of teasing but it is all in good fun. We are here to have a good time and help each other in learning about the practice. Welcome and I like your tree also.

Jamie

 

[sorce]

Laugh at what?

You can't see ANYTHING in those pictures!

I think your camera may have D.L.S.
Dusty Lense Syndrome.

I always forget to blow off my hole.
But When I do....the pictures come out way better.
______

I kinda like the base enough to wanna chop it to the rootstock.

Great story!

Sorce

 

[Heavy_Set]

Laugh at what?

You can't see ANYTHING in those pictures!

I think your camera may have D.L.S.
Dusty Lense Syndrome.

I always forget to blow off my hole.
But When I do....the pictures come out way better.

______

I kinda like the base enough to wanna chop it to the rootstock.

Great story!

Sorce

OH, it suffers from much more than just DLS....like *BAOCS, and a parasitic celular phone attached thats from 2011
Also the operator/surrounding area may have been a little hazy yesterday.

If/when it fills this pot with roots it going to get air layred off above the nasty graft. Maybe, just maybe the stump will grow new growth.

*busted ass old camera syndrome

 

[eferguson1974]

No laughing here! I cant say my first bonsai effort made it a year. But my second has been with me three years and is alive, well, and growing. But ficus are tough trees. I like your base too, its unique. If you can get it to bud below the graft, maybe it would be better to layer off the top and have 2 trees. You will want more trees soon if your like the rest of the nuts here. Good luck, keep it up the good work. And enjoy your bonsai journey, learn a lot and you will probably have some trees to be proud of soon enough.

 

[Heavy_Set]

No laughing here! I cant say my first bonsai effort made it a year. But my second has been with me three years and is alive, well, and growing. But ficus are tough trees. I like your base too, its unique. If you can get it to bud below the graft, maybe it would be better to layer off the top and have 2 trees. You will want more trees soon if your like the rest of the nuts here. Good luck, keep it up the good work. And enjoy your bonsai journey, learn a lot and you will probably have some trees to be proud of soon enough.

It does look like it wants to bud in a couple spots on the root stock. If so i will be layering the top off for sure.

 

[Heavy_Set]

Yeah man I agree. We all started somewhere. I'm starting over all the time. I see you're a master carver already

It started with just removing the dead bark on the top of that root real quick.....2.5 hours later i have what you see now. Its strange, very strange

 

[Potawatomi13]

Love your tree too. Personally have soft spot for orphan plants. Does not look bad at all. One thing: You used lousy potting medium. Club will help you with that. Asking on here will start another "soil war" of greatly conflicting and strongly held opinions. Give lots of room for roots to grow and trunk to develop and perhaps graft will grow out? Join local club for sure and you will get much help and several great professionals are in the portland area. Welcome to Bonsai!

 

[Heavy_Set]

Love your tree too. Personally have soft spot for orphan plants. Does not look bad at all. One thing: You used lousy potting medium. Club will help you with that. Asking on here will start another "soil war" of greatly conflicting and strongly held opinions. Give lots of room for roots to grow and trunk to develop and perhaps graft will grow out? Join local club for sure and you will get much help and several great professionals are in the portland area. Welcome to Bonsai!

Thank you for the welcome, i am glad to be in the crazy house!!! I potted this tree (after i realized it was still alive this year) in 3/4 perlite 1/4 bark mulch compost and maple leaf litter compost. The 1 gallon pot is 3/4 full of that mix with Fox Farm brand Ocean Forest potting soil on the very top layer for some nutrients to seep as i water. I am new to the bonsai game, but i do know better than to ask about the best soil mix in an open thread online I have quite alot of experience growing plants/flowers (not trees) indoors and out, so i am hoping that some of that knowledge will transfer over to trees. Time will tell.......maybe i have the very best soil imaginable in this pot....for this area....for this type of JM....maybe i dont. Im happy and my tree is happy so i cant imagine there is too much going wrong here

 

[Heavy_Set]

Update with a few ultra shit quality pics due to the lense on my stupid cellular telephone camera being cracked.....
The tree is growing very well and about to have its second push of growth, tiny buds are starting to form in the leaf crotches
I will probably leave it in this pot for at least another year before it gets a proper training pot.

 

[jomawa]

Update with a few ultra shit quality pics due to the lense on my stupid cellular telephone camera being cracked.....View attachment 105925 View attachment 105926

I'd say you've done well on that tree, esp considering the journey mentioned already, but I'm just a newb and partial to the character of the root work you've done and the distraction it poses from the graft area. Welcome to the bnut house where we're all a half bubble out of plumb.
For your sake and ours, maybe just try at least borrowing someones camera to post some decent shots so I/we might clearly see that graft in context with the root. Maybe just my stink'n think'n, but I cringed at the thought of air layering away from that root, but you at least seem to be considering keeping the root stock and "stump" also, if even on a separate plant from the air layer.
Just saying.

 

[Heavy_Set]

I'd say you've done well on that tree, esp considering the journey mentioned already, but I'm just a newb and partial to the character of the root work you've done and the distraction it poses from the graft area. Welcome to the bnut house where we're all a half bubble out of plumb.
For your sake and ours, maybe just try at least borrowing someones camera to post some decent shots so I/we might clearly see that graft in context with the root. Maybe just my stink'n think'n, but I cringed at the thought of air layering away from that root, but you at least seem to be considering keeping the root stock and "stump" also, if even on a separate plant from the air layer.
Just saying.

Thanks, I know....im working on getting a fancier camera soon.
If/when i do layer it, it will be the top 1/3 first, then down to the graft will be second. I will for surely keep the stump and roots, im ptetty sure it will bud out on the stump by the time that comes.
I think its a bloodgood maybe....i dont really know.

Ill try to get some better pics of it up tomorrow

The graft is pretty nasty.

 

[Smoke]

You did take the shipping plastic off the camera part right???

 

[Heavy_Set]

You did take the shipping plastic off the camera part right???

Hahaha, i did. I also have dropped it many many times, one of the times it cracked the lense.....maybe i can modify it to have no lense....

...be right back