Newbie Bonsai in the Tropics

gopix

Seedling
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Hi, newbie here. Mostly have prebonsai of Pemphis Acidula, Causarina E, a few ficus var, Calliandras and a few JBPs

I have lately received 3 Asahiyama Sakuras, a Deshojo, Satsuki Azaleas and a Trident. When I saw buds swelling I repotted and lightly removed 70% of the nursery soil and placed them in a slightly deeper pot and wired them in. The soil mix is a 70% Akadama/Kanuma/Kiryuzuna (a succulent mix here) and 30% local country's generic River Sand + Pumice + trace Charcoal bits

They have woken up and bloomed last week since they came in their dormant form. Placed a bit of slow release fert with trace elements. They're growing under a Mango tree I trim to shade them only fm noon sun

However I have lurked a bit and found these trees might suffer from the lack of winter chill months.

Saw a hot topic on Fridges (seriously thinking getting a Cabinet type glass frontage Chiller for drinks and place it outside morning sun only.. Anyone from the tropics successfully helped these temperate trees thrive? May I see your notes on your actual experiences etc. Thanks!
 

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Hello gopix,
I live in the subtropics. I see Trident's at the local bonsai exhibits, and they take a little bit of colour during winter. JBPs are not common, but I think it's due to the price and relative youth of the bonsai clubs here. There are certainly some grand old JBPs in one fellow's collection. Azaleas are abundant, except they may be cultivars for our climate. I'd expect these cultivars are what your buying. So much diversity!

Japanese Maples are rare but they are around. The red leaves on your plant are great, and I love the diversity of these plants. I am testing a method to keep them cold. Buy XPS foam, which is relatively cheap and use that to make a box. Use a freezer and reuseable dry ice. Cycle the dry ice between the chill box and the freezer. 2nd hand chest freezers are not too dear for me, and reach colder temperatures than other models. This test of mine began this year, and I cannot promise any results. The smaller chill box is maintaining low temperatures but my larger one is not.

Regretably we will always want something a little exotic. The Autumn colours of Japan will stay there, ginkgos and maples and what-not. If you're newer to the hobby, I suggest focussing more on cheap local stock, so you can spend a little and have a pleasant afternoon styling. This grows our skills, saves our banks, and one of our little experiments will come good.
 

sevan

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If I were attempting this, I would only get deciduous trees so that I would not need to provide any light for them in the winter. Then I would build a heavily insulated cold room inside my garage (with a drainage outlet). To keep the room cold, I would look at DIY plans for keg cold rooms or trailers. I think most of them use a hacked AC unit to chill below 40 degrees. That would give you more flexibility than a freezer to decide how many trees you want or how big they are. However it might cost more in electricity, depending on what the temperature is outside.


I was recently talking to a club memeber here in Atlanta that built something like this for his deciduous trees, even though it gets plenty cold here. In his case, he did it to avoid the temperature swings we deal with. His trees avoid any rare extreme winter weather and he keeps them dormant until April to avoid late freezes.
 

dbonsaiw

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My two cents is that it is easier to keep tropicals in temperate climates than it is to keep deciduous in the tropics. This is because one can bring the tropical trees indoors and place them under lights. Giving trees a "winter" in the tropics is harder. Simply placing the trees in a fridge may not work as the conditions tend to be very dry. Mach5 has a thread on a maple that he refrigerated and it didn't do well (he, of course, managed to turn it into something awesome after it died back). For an additional 2 cents, I would stick to the trees that grow well outdoors in your climate - and you have tons of choices.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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Hi, newbie here. Mostly have prebonsai of Pemphis Acidula, Causarina E, a few ficus var, Calliandras and a few JBPs

I have lately received 3 Asahiyama Sakuras, a Deshojo, Satsuki Azaleas and a Trident. When I saw buds swelling I repotted and lightly removed 70% of the nursery soil and placed them in a slightly deeper pot and wired them in. The soil mix is a 70% Akadama/Kanuma/Kiryuzuna (a succulent mix here) and 30% local country's generic River Sand + Pumice + trace Charcoal bits

They have woken up and bloomed last week since they came in their dormant form. Placed a bit of slow release fert with trace elements. They're growing under a Mango tree I trim to shade them only fm noon sun

However I have lurked a bit and found these trees might suffer from the lack of winter chill months.

Saw a hot topic on Fridges (seriously thinking getting a Cabinet type glass frontage Chiller for drinks and place it outside morning sun only.. Anyone from the tropics successfully helped these temperate trees thrive? May I see your notes on your actual experiences etc. Thanks!
"However I have lurked a bit and found these trees might suffer from the lack of winter chill months."

They will and there's really nothing you can do about it.

People misunderstand how dormancy works in deciduous trees. Roughly, It is NOT simple cold. It is a process LEADING UP TO THE COLD. That process involves shortening daylengths, combined with declining temperatures. Those shorter days begin at the summer solstice, which is usually in late June. As days get progressively shorter into autumn, it signals the tree to begin shifting energy to storing energy, instead of devoting that energy to active top growth. Increasingly colder temps, with the first frosts and shallow freezes in mid-late autumn signal trees to "harden off" roots to protect from the deeper coming winter cold.

It's a process worth looking into.

In the tropical latitudes, there are no shortening daylengths. Temperate deciduous trees perceive that as perpetual summer and try to keep growing, eventually exhausting themselves. A refrigerator cannot replicate the dormancy process. Simply putting a deciduous tree that is in active growth into a cold refrigerator does not really induce any dormancy, as much as put into deep shock. The tree will likely drop leaves and look dormant, but it's mostly in shock from the sudden temperature drop. Additionally, there is some evidence that deciduous trees DO need some light during dormancy to help activate new growth in buds in the spring. The flip side of inducing dormancy is getting it effectively OUT of dormancy. That process can be short circuited a bit by taking it out of the cold and putting it out into higher temperatures. I'd speculating that that's kind of another form of shock--forcing the trees into heavy active growth all at once, where in colder climates that growth demand is comparatively gradual.

You will likely get comments from people who say they're keeping their maples in refrigerators successfully in tropical areas. Ask them HOW LONG they've been doing it and ask to see photos of their trees...
 

BrianBay9

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Most deciduous trees that have evolved in colder climates require hundreds of hours of "chill" temps to overwinter and reset for spring. These are temps between about 50 F and 40 F. Hours colder than 40 F apparently don't count. So it's definitely not as simple a putting a tree in a freezer.
 
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