kip
Seed
Hi all,
Got my first bonsai tree from bonsaioutlet(dot)com...Went with the Harland because I love the bark and the look. I'm from Northeast Indiana, was gonna give you some background and ask a few questions. I know i've already made several new guy mistakes because I found this site a week ago and have already learned so much about what i'm doing wrong...
I got the tree January 10th, and the top left image is what it looked like out of the package. I promptly did a bit of pruning (first mistake) that you can see in top right image. I stuck it in my office in an east facing window (next mistake) where it's been sitting for the last month. The lower left picture is about 4 days after I got it, we had some moss growing in our gravel parking lot next to our building at work and i scraped some and put it on top of the soil. The lower right pic is taken a few days ago, you can see a bit of new growth but also some yellowing of leaves/signs of stress. I'm afraid to take it outside though because it's still really stinkin' cold. I've tried to let it get almost dry before i water it, and i've kept the humidity tray wet...seemed to me (with my limited knowledge and experience) that it needed watered every other day without the moss, with the moss ever 3 days or so. My office has an indirect fan for some slight air movement and is constant 70 degrees. I know it needs to go outside and stay out. Also, i'm not a fan of the soil it came in, it seems too dense so i bought some "quick drain soil with akadama" from bonsaitrees.com, also bought a shallower pot, as i don't like this pot much.
My questions are, how do i winter this thing in indiana? I've read so many conflicting things about temp, sunlight during winter, temp for harland's, etc i don't know what to do. My goal here is to prove to myself that i can keep it alive and thriving through the year, and properly winterized...once i'm confident in that, then i'll try and plan the look of the thing. But that brings me to my next question, what are the possibilities for the look of this tree? I'd like informal upright if possible, but it may require quite a bit of hacking down at some point...seems to have that one thicker branch and all the rest are really thin and tender still. The trunk seems really short, but i wont know until i repot if any of it is hidden under the soil...my plan is to repot in early spring, get it outside, and let it grow. Next year i'm thinking i'll start doing more "bonsai" things with it. Also i'm going to start looking for a club around here. Thanks guys for any help or advice you can give!
