KCS2015
Seedling
This is my first post here. I have been reading many threads here and am impressed at the knowledge here. I have seedling trees that, while they may not be bonsai even within my lifetime they will still be beautiful, and perhaps someone will get to take over where I left off. My seedlings (grapefruit, lemon, mango, and an avocado that is close to germinating) are not exactly zone 5. I had them already though before coming here and learning about zone envy. I am going to make sure these trees get real light though (and spend the summer outside) and actually get some trees to work on that ARE zone 5 compatible. I am fascinated by the idea of mame but I also like the larger trees a lot. My question is about developing nebari. I am going to put these trees in 5 gallon pots in the spring. I want to try the cd method of making roots spread outwards. I even thought about buying the plastic trays meant for pots to drain into in an effort to make the plants spread out their roots. Just not sure if that is a good idea. I know these trees have 5 to 10 years to go to even become mame. The mango tree I want to make larger so it has a good 10 to 20 years to go. Thing is the nebari need the same amount of time to develop convincingly no? I may be a bit premature in worrying about nebari on these trees but they are growing nicely, especially the grapefruit trees. As for sun and humidity, there is plenty of that here in the late spring to early fall. Mangos like a dry season so overwintering them in our house I am hoping that will work. I am going to build a display case for these trees that will have metal halide lighting, glass sides and front, and of course a paint that will render the wood waterproof. I will have a humidifier in it. In the meantime these plants get 6 hours of direct sun per day as we have a sliding door with southern exposure.