Projects in BNut's Backyard

[Bonsai Nut]

I thought I'd join the gang, and include a few "work-in-progress" trees. I recently moved from SoCal to North Carolina, and had to more or less bare-root all my trees. They are all in Anderson flats or large pond baskets now, and it may be next spring before I get the opportunity to start moving them back into bonsai pots (since all my bonsai pots are still back in SoCal).

At any rate, here's a tree I've been working for the last three years. It is a silverberry - Elaeagnus sp. - that I picked up as a five gallon nursery plant. It is an interesting tree... evergreen with small intensely fragrant blooms in the late fall. The last couple of years have been spent reducing the height by about 40%, removing many bad or overly thick branches, and repotting it from the five gallon nursery pot into an Anderson flat.

Here is what it looked like when I first got it, and my first trunk reduction:



Now that I am situated in North Carolina, I have been waiting until it has begun pushing strong leggy growth before I defoliate it and wire the branches. As of this morning it looked like this. I am working on it under my porch stairs to stay out of the sun



Just for fun, I defoliated the entire tree to show the branch structure. Normally I would prune as I defoliate, since there would be no point in defoliating branches that I had no intention of keeping. Here is what it looked like defoliated. For some reason, I didn't turn the tree to take the photo from the front. This is the back of the tree.



And here it is pruned and wired. I'm still not happy with the branch structure, but it will come with time. I'll take another photo when the tree leafs out. This is the only work I plan on doing on this tree this year. Trying to keep it as strong as possible to heal the big pruning scars.

 

[just.wing.it]

Hell yeah welcome to the east coast my friend!

 

[JudyB]

Lets see some pics of the new digs! That is a nice structure to start with on that Elaeagnus.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Lets see some pics of the new digs! That is a nice structure to start with on that Elaeagnus.

The house is a tear-down. I've got bonsai benches wrapping around the house, but they will be moved once we start demo... which could easily be a year from now. I've still got to pot up my 40 JBP for the 6 year contest. I winnowed them down to the best 40 when I left SoCal. I might end up planting a lot of them in my landscape

 

[JudyB]

OMG, that's a lot of trees to work on, you will not be bored in retirement that's for sure!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

OMG, that's a lot of trees to work on, you will not be bored in retirement that's for sure!

LOL there's more around the corner However some of my projects are cuttings and seedlings. The only trees that require a ton of annual labor are the pines.

 

[sorce]

since all my bonsai pots are still back in SoCal

Let's not turn that into an episode of storage wars!

I love the uniformity of your set-up.

Sorce

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I love the uniformity of your set-up.

I like that bench setup when I am placing the shelves with their backs against something. In a flat yard I would just go with flat tables. Each "bench" costs me $64 after tax... and it's all I can put in the back of my SUV in one trip

2" x 8" x 8' (treated boards) (4)
8" x 8" x 16" cinder block (12)
8" x 8" x 8" cinder block (8)

Super easy. Really robust. Everything is just dry stacked.

OMG, that's a lot of trees to work on, you will not be bored in retirement that's for sure!

Think of Walter Pall. He's got 800 trees, and most of them are big!

 

[sdavis]

I like that bench setup when I am placing the shelves with their backs against something. In a flat yard I would just go with flat tables. Each "bench" costs me $64 after tax... and it's all I can put in the back of my SUV in one trip

2" x 8" x 8' (treated boards) (4)
8" x 8" x 16" cinder block (12)
8" x 8" x 8" cinder block (8)

How about a closeup of how you stack your blocks?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

How about a closeup of how you stack your blocks?

It just started raining so I can't go out to take a picture... but here's something better! An Excel screenshot!



Each square is 8", so you can figure out the dimensions. (32" front to back, 40" height top shelf, etc).

I put each support 24" in from the end of the shelf (on center), so the shelf projects 20" on each end, with a 40" span in the middle (and 16" of block in the two supports). Each two boards would fit perfectly snug on each level, but I leave about a 1" gap between the boards for drainage and air flow, so the front board on each level sticks out about 1".

Like I said, super easy. Just use a measuring tape and a level to make sure the bottom level of blocks are square, level, and 48" apart (on center) and the rest goes up in 5 minutes. No cutting, nailing, screwing or concrete required

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Wow, that is a lot of trees to move.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Wow, that is a lot of trees to move.

Yeah. Built in workout facility.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Wow, that is a lot of trees to move.

Trust me, I have a few extra grey hairs. Some of my larger trees are around the corner sitting on a stone wall. I was able to move a number of them with their pots. My largest tree, a California juniper that probably weighs over 100 lbs, is still in California. Not 100% sure I will be able to move it.

The problem is... now that I am in North Carolina, I can keep Japanese Maples and Japanese white pines(!) When will it end?! I've got 22 princess persimmon seedlings that are in their 2nd year, with several hundred more seeds in the ground, plus a ton of variegated elm cuttings - several of which are promised already. This move really screwed up my growing year... but it's all good in the end. The important things like family and health are looking good.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

After you get used to being able to use the water straight from the tap, and the relatively mild summers, with regular (usually weekly) rain, you will wonder why you did not move a decade earlier. JWP will be fine in the Charlotte area, it does have enough of a winter.

 

[River's Edge]

Trust me, I have a few extra grey hairs. Some of my larger trees are around the corner sitting on a stone wall. I was able to move a number of them with their pots. My largest tree, a California juniper that probably weighs over 100 lbs, is still in California. Not 100% sure I will be able to move it.

The problem is... now that I am in North Carolina, I can keep Japanese Maples and Japanese white pines(!) When will it end?! I've got 22 princess persimmon seedlings that are in their 2nd year, with several hundred more seeds in the ground, plus a ton of variegated elm cuttings - several of which are promised already. This move really screwed up my growing year... but it's all good in the end. The important things like family and health are looking good.

And you have a beautiful property to build on, not to mention the joy and excitement of all the planning and building! You are in for some busy times.
I just placed a group of black persimmon ( 4yr) in the grow beds this spring. I have found them slender in their growth habit! Is that your experience so far!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

And you have a beautiful property to build on, not to mention the joy and excitement of all the planning and building! You are in for some busy times.
I just placed a group of black persimmon ( 4yr) in the grow beds this spring. I have found them slender in their growth habit! Is that your experience so far!

Mine are all princess persimmons. I only have three larger females and one large male. Sadly, I had been holding off pruning them because I was hoping to take some air-layers. The timing of my move required me to prune them down substantially in order to reduce their size just to move them. I have a feeling that I pruned away 100% of the fruit for this year. Good news is that I have 22 seedlings from last year well-established, and literally hundreds of seeds from last year that just went into the ground. I plan on having a couple of raised beds of nothing but princess persimmons.

Based on my limited knowledge of only a couple of years, I would say they tend to remind me a lot of quince. Hard wood, with branches that tend to be on the brittle side. Tendency to throw long shoots of straight growth, and frequent suckers (though not as many as quince). To be honest, I babied them in SoCal, and they did ok, but I had to give them sun protection in the summer. I can already see they are going to do better here in NoCar (Love that acronym) I had to reduce my male pretty dramatically and bare-root it, and it is back-budding pretty heavily on old wood with no foliage. In addition to the different flowers, the females have heavier growth habit than the males (this I heard from the nursery, in addition to what I am observing personally). They are slow to heal over pruning scars, and seem slow to put on girth/trunk caliper.

 

[Adair M]

If your California Juniper is not grafted with shimpaku, you may consider selling it so it can stay in California. In North Carolina, it will be a constant battle with various diseases and fungus.

 

[River's Edge]

Mine are all princess persimmons. I only have three larger females and one large male. Sadly, I had been holding off pruning them because I was hoping to take some air-layers. The timing of my move required me to prune them down substantially in order to reduce their size just to move them. I have a feeling that I pruned away 100% of the fruit for this year. Good news is that I have 22 seedlings from last year well-established, and literally hundreds of seeds from last year that just went into the ground. I plan on having a couple of raised beds of nothing but princess persimmons.

Based on my limited knowledge of only a couple of years, I would say they tend to remind me a lot of quince. Hard wood, with branches that tend to be on the brittle side. Tendency to throw long shoots of straight growth, and frequent suckers (though not as many as quince). To be honest, I babied them in SoCal, and they did ok, but I had to give them sun protection in the summer. I can already see they are going to do better here in NoCar (Love that acronym) I had to reduce my male pretty dramatically and bare-root it, and it is back-budding pretty heavily on old wood with no foliage. In addition to the different flowers, the females have heavier growth habit than the males (this I heard from the nursery, in addition to what I am observing personally). They are slow to heal over pruning scars, and seem slow to put on girth/trunk caliper.

Thanks for the information. My experience with persimmon is limited to the seeds I purchased at Taikan 10 in 2015. They were described as Black Persimmon in that the fruit were a dark ebony color on the parent plant displayed. From the small packet of seeds I have 18 plants 4 years later! They are growing faster than my Chojubai, more in line with the Chinese quince. Also as you say very slow to put on girth at least in the first few years! So far I have seen no difference in the leaf formation to identify sex on individual plants. They are currently 18-24 inches tall with 1/2 inch diameter trunk at the base. Will see what the season brings.
Embrace the change, take time off from the job jar.

 

[hemmy]

I recently moved from SoCal to North Carolina, and had to more or less bare-root all my trees.

As someone who knows that they won’t be able to stay in SoCal forever, I’m always interested in moving logistics. Would you care to share more about your process? Did you drive them out and if so, was climate control an issue?

Also how many tons of pumice did you bring with you to the East Coast?

 

[CWTurner]

plus a ton of variegated elm cuttings - several of which are promised already.

Oooh, I remember you posting about those "frosty"? elms. Add me to the list if you've got extras, I'll send you some azalea!
CW