Maintaining Large Collection / Refined Collection When Traveling

KingJades

Shohin
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I have a question that seems pretty basic, but has puzzled me for a little bit. How do the individuals with a large collection of highly refined trees travel or be away from their trees for extended periods of time, for example of week of travel or weekends away for shows/exhibitions?

While working my apprenticeship at the US National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, I became accustomed to watering trees of this caliber and refinement level multiple times a day, depending on a wide range of conditions. The bigger focus was not how often I was actually watering, but the consistency in checking the trees to ensure that water was being delivered at the appropriate times. Sometimes the trees were still a little wet on the first check of the day, but I knew that the tree would be ready in about an hour. I would sweep back in an hour and then water that tree. As an employee there full time, I was basically at the tree's mercy on maintaining correct care and would change my work schedule around to accommodate longer or shorter time lengths between watering to maintain optimal care. On days I had off, another person would cover the trees and ensure great watering, catered to each tree's needs.

The best way to maintain trees at this level is probably to have someone overseeing the collection and watering as needed based on the conditions of that day. Are people maintaining collections of that level typically having someone essentially be on-site all day maintaining proper care while they are away?

I understand how it works with collections that maintain full-time staff or nurseries with employees, but how are some of the ways that it is working for someone who travels once a month or so and doesn't have employees that be readily tapped?

I would tag people with collections of that level, but I hope this just magically finds its way to them! ;)
 
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JudyB

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I'm with Bri on this one. If you have a well built and thought out irrigation system, then you err on the side of too much water instead of too little. The trees will deal with it for short periods of time and if you now your climate well enough you can be fairly accurate for their needs. I don't think trees care if they get watered on the dime, as far as an hour or so difference it's not problematic. I always had zones set up on my auto watering so the trees that didn't need to be as wet didn't get watered at the same frequency, also soil mixes can help with timing too. It's really not that hard if you are only gone for 7-14 days. Over that then I would have to have an oversight as a secondary backup.
 

Bonsai Nut

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Automatic irrigation system.

+1

Until I started using sprinklers I was always worried about my trees. There are some downsides with broadcast sprinklers (versus drip irrigation) in that the foliage gets wet and is potentially more susceptible to fungus, and you have to be careful with tree positioning so one tree doesn't block water for another. However I have found it to be relatively bullet-proof (especially relative to hiring Jr Barnes to come water your trees).
 

KingJades

Shohin
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Thank you all! I have seen a lot of people using automatic systems, but I wasn't sure if that's what's being done in practice for the top gardens.
 

leatherback

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Absolutely nowhere near refined trees here. But travelling for work frequently.

Since 2 years I have sprinklers. Besides that my wife checks whether everything runs, for peace of mind. During our holidays, we have friends nearby who often just move in at our place (They have an appartment, they love to have a garden in summer) or drop in every other day to check.

Still, last summer I lost a few trees because the "dropping in" thing was not enough to spot a sprinklertop that had moved (Cats? Neighbours football?). So make it really stable. And not el cheapo as I did last year.
 

Adair M

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The automatic sprinklers that use “spitters” work well. A single tree may need several spitters to properly cover the soil surface on all sides.

For a large collection, a zoned system would be necessary. Each zone gets a couple minutes, once a day. Maybe in the heat of the summer, it could be done twice a day.
 

Anthony

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On our side, you train the yardman or maid.
Spend a month, and let them learn.
Then test them for month, before you leave.

Automatic systems won't work for us as water
comes every three days.
Good Day
Anthony
 
D

Deleted member 21616

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This system (attached) did save me this summer, but was a terribly poor choice. Very problematic for a number of reasons.

next year I will use a sprinkler system (attached) for most trees, and will wind a soaker hose (or a hose with holes poked in it) around those trees that are up against the neighbour's fence (since their vegetable garden is just on the other side).
 

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eb84327

Mame
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On our side, you train the yardman or maid.
Spend a month, and let them learn.
Then test them for month, before you leave.

Automatic systems won't work for us as water
comes every three days.
Good Day
Anthony

They do make centralized systems that take annual local rainfall, along with any daily precipitation into account and automatically adjust programs as needed. our "track and field" track has a centralized system because of how its built. The turf is basically planed on compacted sand so moisture levels have an extreme variance so it uses sensors, weather models and algorithms to determine a custom watering cycle.
 

Anthony

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Eb,

when someone has a collection, it is dangerous to trust automation.

Water on our side is scarce, especially during the Dry Season [ more or
less 6 months ] and it is filled with particles.

Thanks for trying to help, much appreciated.
Good Day
Anthony
 

eb84327

Mame
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Eb,

when someone has a collection, it is dangerous to trust automation.

Water on our side is scarce, especially during the Dry Season [ more or
less 6 months ] and it is filled with particles.

Thanks for trying to help, much appreciated.
Good Day
Anthony

I would never rely completely on automation for bonsai, its for supplemental watering. Even on campus i regular do a check to make sure every thing is functioning. It breaks constantly, our pressure is not stable. Our centralized system is monitored 24/7 by an outside company that can make adjustments real time, and its ran manually daily. My location, water is scarce also, we use "reclaim" water irrigate on campus at home its domestic and they regulate watering by restricting what days we can water. Even address, even days, odd address odd days. Its did not rain one drop from june to end of august, horrible drought and hot. Without supplementing my hand watering with an automatic system all my trees would definitely died while at work. I even lived close to work so i would check the at lunch, we had 9 straight days of heat over 100, no humidity for days
 

BrianBay9

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I would never rely completely on automation for bonsai, its for supplemental watering. Even on campus i regular do a check to make sure every thing is functioning. It breaks constantly, our pressure is not stable. Our centralized system is monitored 24/7 by an outside company that can make adjustments real time, and its ran manually daily. My location, water is scarce also, we use "reclaim" water irrigate on campus at home its domestic and they regulate watering by restricting what days we can water. Even address, even days, odd address odd days. Its did not rain one drop from june to end of august, horrible drought and hot. Without supplementing my hand watering with an automatic system all my trees would definitely died while at work. I even lived close to work so i would check the at lunch, we had 9 straight days of heat over 100, no humidity for days

We haven't had any rain since April, but that's pretty normal here. Seems like the fall rains start later and later these years. We're supposed to have the first measurable rain of the season tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get enough to make a difference to the fire fighters.
 
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