Repot or not?

[Brian Van Fleet]

I think you miss the point.

I am making the point. A guy shows up here asking if he should repot a juniper in the middle of a very hot summer, and not surprisingly gets 2 very different answers.

1. He gets advice to go for it from members who have demonstrably and admittedly limited success with junipers.
2. He gets advice to wait until spring from members who have studied with the best bonsai artists in the world.

There is no way to tell if someone knows anything by font size, post count or “likes”. You have to see the results of their efforts. You may be new here, but coming off a 10-year apprenticeship under Kimura and have a different “understanding and experience” to share, or you may just be a couple months into this and sided up to a luna-tic with a high post count. Now we know.

That is why I say follow the advice of people who have trees you admire, because eventually your trees will look like their trees.

 

[bbk]

Wow.

you still miss the point.

 

[penumbra]

Wow.

you still miss the point.

Perhaps the point is not clear enough. You lost me several posts ago.
I hope you can find a way to communicate what you are trying to say.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Wow.

you still miss the point.

When you are brand new, “still learning about junipers”, “know nothing from experience” and “have killed a plant due to repotting…” I am not interested in your point.

To the OP, apparently I’ve become the @Hugh_Jaszole in this thread , but you don’t need to repot that juniper now, you can wire in the fall.

Carry on.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

Wow.

you still miss the point.

Typing "you miss the point" without providing follow up seems odd. So, what's the point?

 

[bbk]

When you are brand new, “still learning about junipers”, “know nothing from experience” and “have killed a plant due to repotting…” I am not interested in your point.

To the OP, apparently I’ve become the @Hugh_Jaszole in this thread , but you don’t need to repot that juniper now, you can wire in the fall.

Carry on.

Brian,

feel superior yet?

Someone disagreed with you, and you set out to humiliate and abuse them and the person they agreed with. Pathetic. You really are a horrible person.

You expect others to provide a long history on their right to comment, yet won’t provide one yourself.

You also then go through other peoples posts and take them out of context.

Never killed a plant? What about recently?
The posts you highlight show how pathetic you are, are entirely consistent with the original post I made.

Go back and read it and stop bullying people.

I thought people came to forums like this to be welcomed and enjoyed the discussion, not to be be bullied and abused by small minded pricks.

 

[penumbra]

Brian,

feel superior yet?

Don't be an idiot. Brian is superior in both his skills and his "point of view".
I was really trying to stay out of this but you really drew me in with your insecurity.

 

[19Mateo83]

All I’m saying is I haven’t seen any @bbk junipers yet…However…. I HAVE seen @Brian Van Fleet junipers…. Proof is in the pudding. I trust people with nice trees

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

Brian,

feel superior yet?

Someone disagreed with you, and you set out to humiliate and abuse them and the person they agreed with. Pathetic. You really are a horrible person.

You expect others to provide a long history on their right to comment, yet won’t provide one yourself.

You also then go through other peoples posts and take them out of context.

Never killed a plant? What about recently?
The posts you highlight show how pathetic you are, are entirely consistent with the original post I made.

Go back and read it and stop bullying people.

I thought people came to forums like this to be welcomed and enjoyed the discussion, not to be be bullied and abused by small minded pricks.

Advice comes with disagreements, your feelings are your own, the voice in your head is yours, no one saw, or experienced what you claim in this post except you. You also resorted to childish name calling. So..

 

[Hugh_Jaszole]

To the OP, apparently I’ve become the @Hugh_Jaszole in this thread , but you don’t need to repot that juniper now, you can wire in the fall.

Carry on.

You’re not the jaszole. Lol

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

You expect others to provide a long history on their right to comment, yet won’t provide one yourself.

You also then go through other peoples posts and take them out of context.

I thought people came to forums like this to be welcomed and enjoyed the discussion, not to be be bullied and abused by small minded pricks.

Like yours, my history is here for anyone to see, in context. Lots of history, lots of photos. Go read it for yourself.

If it’s a welcome you’re looking for, welcome, you‘ve made quite the entrance. Discussions can be great here, but they can also get diluted with bad advice. It’s important to be able to sort it all out. Sometimes that requires a few probing questions and thick skin.

 

[19Mateo83]

Like yours, my history is here for anyone to see, in context. Lots of history, lots of photos. Go read it for yourself.

If it’s a welcome you’re looking for, welcome, you‘ve made quite the entrance. Discussions can be great here, but they can also get diluted with bad advice. It’s important to be able to sort it all out. Sometimes that requires a few probing questions and thick skin.

 

[Paradox]

So.... little bonsai quiz
Whom should people listen to?

A. A newbie whom admits he has no experience, doesn't know anything about junipers, and has killed trees due to that inexperience

Or.....

B. Person with decades of experience with junipers that has won awards at major shows with junipers, whose trees have been featured in bonsai magazines and has trees most of us here drool over.

?????
The choice seems pretty clear to me.










Ps. It's not Choice A

 

[Cajunrider]

Don't be an idiot. Brian is superior in both his skills and his "point of view".
I was really trying to stay out of this but you really drew me in with your insecurity.

Agree. I didn't see anything in what Brian wrote that was haughty. The advice is earnest and true.
We can ask the internet for advice but the answers come in all flavors and level of truthfulness. Until we have the right filter to discern wheat from chaff, the advice we get are potentially harmful. Brian just gave the exact filter to use. I like his advice.
PS: I am at the Masterpiece level here and my reaction score is pretty good but they mostly came from my jokes. Unless it is about a certain species I have a chance to dig deeper, I know little about bonsai.

 

[rockm]

Brian,

feel superior yet?

Someone disagreed with you, and you set out to humiliate and abuse them and the person they agreed with. Pathetic. You really are a horrible person.

You expect others to provide a long history on their right to comment, yet won’t provide one yourself.

You also then go through other peoples posts and take them out of context.

Never killed a plant? What about recently?
The posts you highlight show how pathetic you are, are entirely consistent with the original post I made.

Go back and read it and stop bullying people.

I thought people came to forums like this to be welcomed and enjoyed the discussion, not to be be bullied and abused by small minded pricks.

I'm sorry, but no, someone who doesn't knw WTF they're actually talking about disagreed with Brian. BBK, you've probably done a search on Brian VF's name and have seen photos of his extensive work with conifers, as well as his instructive "how to" and developmental posts on several species, including, if I'm not mistaken, junipers. Having killed many junipers, some with summer repots, I can say that summer is not the time to do any major work on them. Brian is not pathetic, nor is he a bully. He is simply more knowledgeable than you and his opinion carries more weight than yours.

Being welcomed is a reciprocal thing. Being a boor as a newcomer is just as unwelcome...

 

[Fidur]

And this is why I almost never give my (uneducated) opinion. And when I ever do, I try to make it clear that I really don't know what I'm talking about, as many of the times, I'm only talking about my very short experience. Only if I'm talking about my expertise field (maths) I can be cathegorical.
When it comes to advising opinions (and maths as well) this is not a democracy.

 

[MaciekA]

In 2022, many fora (even outside of bonsai, across many fields/topics/hobbies/interests) have excellent tools to contain / restrain / ban (and even eventually reform and reintegrate!) shitposters, and minimize their ability to derail a thread. This forum doesn't seem to use those capabilities even if in principle it could. It makes me sad because some people who bring legitimately interesting debates (Walter Pall, etc) or are excellent teachers with good diplomatic skills ( @Brian Van Fleet ) or are masterful in their technique and art ( eg: Sergio Cuan ) or are straight up mad scientists ( cmeg1 ) are on this forum too, and have chosen it as the one they primarily go to, warts and shitposters and all. It also makes me sad because those fine individuals have to waste their time debating with what is probably a person who has absolutely no intent to stick around and invest in this hobby or this community. On any other forum, shitposters are nuked with an ion cannon from orbit after the first two or three bad interactions. The people you meet in bonsai gardens and at bonsai events are typically not like this (not for long anyway), or they don't show up for those things, or else they regulate their behavior in-person accordingly (even if they have weird ideas about repotting or whatever), which signals they're fully aware of what they've been doing online. I am baffled both by @bbk 's personality (unless they've created a dedicated shitposter account just for trolling, which is a thing these days) and by this forum's willingness to feed every single troll as if it's the first one they've ever encountered.

 

[rockm]

In 2022, many fora (even outside of bonsai, across many fields/topics/hobbies/interests) have excellent tools to contain / restrain / ban (and even eventually reform and reintegrate!) shitposters, and minimize their ability to derail a thread. This forum doesn't seem to use those capabilities even if in principle it could. It makes me sad because some people who bring legitimately interesting debates (Walter Pall, etc) or are excellent teachers with good diplomatic skills ( @Brian Van Fleet ) or are masterful in their technique and art ( eg: Sergio Cuan ) or are straight up mad scientists ( cmeg1 ) are on this forum too, and have chosen it as the one they primarily go to, warts and shitposters and all. It also makes me sad because those fine individuals have to waste their time debating with what is probably a person who has absolutely no intent to stick around and invest in this hobby or this community. On any other forum, shitposters are nuked with an ion cannon from orbit after the first two or three bad interactions. The people you meet in bonsai gardens and at bonsai events are typically not like this (not for long anyway), or they don't show up for those things, or else they regulate their behavior in-person accordingly (even if they have weird ideas about repotting or whatever), which signals they're fully aware of what they've been doing online. I am baffled both by @bbk 's personality (unless they've created a dedicated shitposter account just for trolling, which is a thing these days) and by this forum's willingness to feed every single troll as if it's the first one they've ever encountered.

The problem with the "nukem" option is that over the years, I have found that the people you call "shitposters" are actually not that. Some people think they can jump in a provide advice without actually having any experience (and watching vids or reading books isn't that). These "experts" have been around for a very long time and they will argue tooth and nail even though they are completely and utterly wrong, or crazy.

However, if they stick around long enough, some of them can actually add something to the discussion. Of course, Some are completely worthless, or at worst, actual criminals (we've crossed that threshold a few times with various individuals), but a couple of the biggest "shitposters" from 10-15 years ago went on to become a pretty good bonsaiists who hang out on FB.

 

[MaciekA]

However, if they stick around long enough, some of them can actually add something to the discussion. Of course, Some are completely worthless, or at worst, actual criminals (we've crossed that threshold a few times with various individuals), but a couple of the biggest "shitposters" from 10-15 years ago went on to become a pretty good bonsaiists who hang out on FB.

True, however, this is also true of other forums which do not have this problem and yet have returning former-bad-apples-turned-great-contributors. There are options available today to reduce the sheer amount of wasted time and back and forth that happens. Temporary bans, limits on which areas someone can post on, etc etc -- all sorts of useful stuff. On a forum elsewhere we routinely have temporary bans lifted because people make a polite case for their re-entry. They then rejoin the community and make a good impact, all without the intervening years of everyone waiting for their bad years to pass. Solutions exist to make this all better, even for XenForo, without suffering the problem that you're describing (i.e. perma-exile).

 

[Maiden69]

Well, the good thing is that you can simply ignore them... as I did.