New to bonsai - help with this eugenia?

[mmp77]

Hello everyone! I've been browsing and researching bonsai for a few months or so now. So far, I'm managed not to kill (it's early, I know) 2 ficus microcarpas (1 big and 1 small), 3 fukien teas (1 big, 1 small, and 1 tiny I purchased to try the root over rock method), a dwarf jade (medium). I've gotten to the point where I've mapped out most of the nurseries around my work and home and intentionally plan my trips to and from work around them just to go look. This is all so fascinating. Anytime I've come across a neat looking specimen, one of the first things I've done is pulled out my phone and typed "[name of specimen] bonsai nut" to see what you all have to say. Thanks for being such an awesome resource!

Now, searching for this gorgeous (to me anyway) eugenia, I came across a lot of good information - mostly that, yes, it will bonsai. It's huge and the trunk is what attracted me to it. I got it for $40 from a family-owned plant shop and was told by the owner that this was a eugenia (mytrifolia?). It was pruned into a globe and looking at it for the past we days, I decided I wanted to go for an upright style. I removed a lot of dead woody stems and cut back a lot of the lower twiggy branches to open up the bottom. There was one low branch I've left based on everything I've read about a sacrifice branch in hopes it will help further thicken the trunk. I have not repotted it since purchasing it because I got the impression from everything I've read that I should perhaps wait till the spring at which point I was thinking of either slip potting it or putting it in a grow bag or box.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do and I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on that (and even thoughts on what I've done already, i.e. messed up already). I've attached pics from various angles in hopes of capturing all of it. Thanks!

 

[nagatay]

look up Simpson stopped it is in the same family.

 

[nagatay]

typo stopper

 

[nagatay]

McIntyre fragrance [Sun Eugenia simpsoni] it was once known as Eugenia university of flordia.

 

[Vance Wood]

Hello everyone! I've been browsing and researching bonsai for a few months or so now. So far, I'm managed not to kill (it's early, I know) 2 ficus microcarpas (1 big and 1 small), 3 fukien teas (1 big, 1 small, and 1 tiny I purchased to try the root over rock method), a dwarf jade (medium). I've gotten to the point where I've mapped out most of the nurseries around my work and home and intentionally plan my trips to and from work around them just to go look. This is all so fascinating. Anytime I've come across a neat looking specimen, one of the first things I've done is pulled out my phone and typed "[name of specimen] bonsai nut" to see what you all have to say. Thanks for being such an awesome resource!

Now, searching for this gorgeous (to me anyway) eugenia, I came across a lot of good information - mostly that, yes, it will bonsai. It's huge and the trunk is what attracted me to it. I got it for $40 from a family-owned plant shop and was told by the owner that this was a eugenia (mytrifolia?). It was pruned into a globe and looking at it for the past we days, I decided I wanted to go for an upright style. I removed a lot of dead woody stems and cut back a lot of the lower twiggy branches to open up the bottom. There was one low branch I've left based on everything I've read about a sacrifice branch in hopes it will help further thicken the trunk. I have not repotted it since purchasing it because I got the impression from everything I've read that I should perhaps wait till the spring at which point I was thinking of either slip potting it or putting it in a grow bag or box.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do and I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on that (and even thoughts on what I've done already, i.e. messed up already). I've attached pics from various angles in hopes of capturing all of it. Thanks!


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They can be fussy to deal with and can have issues with Scale, White Fly and fungus issues. I noticed what seems to look like you sheared the tree to shape like a hedge? If that is true you need to learn that this is not what you do with bonsai where each branch has to be carefully trimmed and pruned so that the tree does not look like it has been hedged. If you cut a leaf the leaf will die or look like a garden tree till it falls off and is replaced with new growth.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I like the starter material you have. Search on BNut, ''broom form'' or ''broom'' or ''zelkova broom'' or ''elm broom'', your tree is already well along the way to achieve this form. Don't be in a rush to prune anything. Keep it full until you have a step by step plan, that is adjusted to the calendar in order to keep your tree healthy.

First @Vance Wood is correct, this member of the Myrtle family can be a little tricky to keep alive. In terms of water, & sun, it needs nothing special, part shade to full sun is appropriate. To dive into culture we need 2 things. First we need to know roughly, within a few hundred miles, where you live. If you are in New Zealand, it is almost summer, if you are in Chicago, it is the beginning of winter. Whether you are in Chicago or Miami will also change the advise.

Second, we need to get the species name right, to get the horticulture right. I believe you have a tree that used to be called Eugenia, but several decades ago was moved to a different genus, Ugni. I believe you have Ugni myricoides. This is a medium to high elevation plant of mountainous areas from Chiapas, Mexico south through the Andes of Peru. It is pretty forgiving and gets along at sea level fairly well. We have a member of my local bonsai society that has several Ugni myricoides, and at least up in the Milwaukee - Chicago area it does well with a few tricks. It likes a mildly acidic soil, what you use for azalea would be better for it than a purely mineral soil like you would use for pines or juniper. It dislikes fertilizer that has additional calcium. (Dyna grow Cal-Mag or Peter's Cal-Mag or MSU K-Lite). Use a ''acid plant food'' for it, like Mira-Acid.

Only do major pruning when in full growth mode. While it does not go dormant the way a maple would, it does go semi-dormant for a period in winter. Only prune while you see evidence of active growth. A little off the top in winter is okay, but the aggressive pruning needed to style this pre-bonsai should wait until active growth.

Trick from my Milwaukee guy, Houston, he will only disturb the roots, by repotting during the two weeks after the autumnal equinox. No spring repotting. When he repots, he defoliates the tree first. Remove at least 90% of the foliage before repotting. This means repotting is fairly traumatic, so only repot every other year, or every third year. DO NOT SLIP POT. This will put you in the situation where a pot will have 2 different media one part will always be too wet, and one part will be too dry. Ugni never want to dry out totally. After defoliation, it will take about 2 weeks for new buds to show, and it should be fully leafed out in about 6 weeks.

Ugni has flowers with white petals and a puff of stamens in the center that mark it a member of the myrtle group. Delicious to eat dark purple black fruit, much like a blueberry, though actually it is more closely related to Eugenia and Guava. Leaves are small, bark gets rough, overall it is a nice species for tropical or sub-tropical bonsai. It ''might'' tolerate a few degrees of frost, but generally it comes from areas that rarely or never freeze.

Houston feels that defoliating a tree when you repot it works for most member of the guava family. So if you have trouble with members of this group, try out the defoliation trick. For Luma, and Ugni Houston has tested the ''defoliate with autumn repot", for others, like Eugenia, Psidium, Jaboticaba, and a few other genera, if you have trouble repotting, consider autumn equinox for repotting and defoliating as you repot.

Myself, I have had trouble keeping Ugni and Luma alive, so I have been getting coaching from Houston, I'm passing along what I have been told, but I am only 6 months into keeping the latest Luma I have picked up.