Specimen Chaenomeles from Evergreen G.W.

[Mycin]

Used the last of my Trump Bucks on this Chaenomeles Japonica 'Iwai Nishiki' from Evergreen Gardenworks. This species has a special meaning for me because it's the favorite fruit of my mom, who got me into gardening in the first place. She's a badass gardener but for some reason never planted a quince tree in her yard. So anyways, I thought this would be a nice gift for her. I'll be doing all the bonsai specific stuff, she'll just have to water it and enjoy the flowers & fruit.

Anyways, it's in a shortened 8" pot right now. Per Brent's recommendations I plan to repot with minimal rootwork in a deep bonsai pot (looking at the mica Drum pots) in about a month, with the plan to root prune and pot in its final pot in about a year. For my soil I plan to use 50% pumice, 25% DE, and 25% pine bark/sphagnum moss. Our water comes from a well and is fairly hard, so I figure the moss is a good addition. I was planning on mixing a half dose of Dr Earth's organic fertilizer in with the soil .. I figure that I can avoid any drainage issues from it for the next year and I've liked what it's done for other fruiting plants of mine. Please let me know if any of this sounds like a bad idea - this is my first true older specimen tree and I want to ensure that it thrives for years to come.

I live in Chicago and our zone is 5b. In the past I have put my hardy trees in a tub filled with damp pine mulch and filled that with mulch to about a few inches up the trunk. Planning on doing that with this one, maybe even using a cold frame in the shade if our winter is gonna be really cold. Again - feedback invited.

The bigger trunk is essentally perfect to me, I just plan on carefully pruning to ramify the canopy. I'm not sure about the small trunk. Looks like it had been trained with the intent of being viewed as a whole tree, with the smaller trunk's canopy forming a line that leads to the larger trunk. I am toying with the idea of trimming the smaller trunk's canopy somewhat to make it more of it's own separate tree, if that makes sense. Not planning on touching a thing until the leaves fall off and I can really judge the branching. Of course, it'll be my mom's call to make

Anyways, I am over the moon with this tree. Looking forward to what seems like many fruiting buds bearing the wonderfully aromatic quince fruit!

 

[Mycin]

Here are some (admittedly poor) views of the smaller trunk that I'm thinking I might adjust. Not sure though. Gonna sit on this for a while.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice one. I love 'Iwai Nishiki'. That's a good one.

 

[Mycin]

Nice one. I love 'Iwai Nishiki'. That's a good one.

Thank you

We live in the same general area - do you think my plan looks sound? Is it risky to leave this tree out this winter after re-potting?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Thank you

We live in the same general area - do you think my plan looks sound? Is it risky to leave this tree out this winter after re-potting?

I would definitely do the mulch tub. THen I would set the tub in a larger styrofoam cooler, with a few holes punched in for air exchange. Or construct a styrofoam box large enough for all the trees. Be sure to add some 2 liter plastic soda bottles filled 75% with water. These will provide thermal mass to the air inside the cooler. Keeping the cooler cool during warm days and slowing down the rapid temperature drops we get in CHicago area.

Are you strictly living "above the 2nd floor", or do you have an area where you can heal these into the ground for the winter? Chicago winters have been all over the map, recently have been rather mild. Sometimes too warm in middle of winter, with extreme cold spells early and late. The more even you can keep winter temperatures the better the chances of survival.

'Iwai Nishiki' will do fine planted in the ground as a garden shrubbery plant in the Chicago area, so healing in, by burying the pot to the rim, in the ground for the winter is really a pretty good way to go.

You don't need to provide a lot of protection, but you do need to "thermally buffer" the tree from rapid, sharp changes. A tree wants to get cold once, stay cold, then thaw out once. Freeze-thaw cycling is very rough on trees.

 

[Mycin]

Well, I held off on posting an update in the fear that I’d kill it during repotting. This post will probably jinx it but it seems to be doing just fine after my early September repot.

Used 50% pumice, 25% pine bark, 25% DE all sifted to 1/8-3/8”. Layer of LECA balls for drainage layer. Topped w blended sphagnum and “Yamadori” moss. Potted in a 13” mica drum pot. If it does well, plan to repot in a final more shallow bonsai pot maybe in 2 years. Many of the roots are thick and there is a root sucker but I didn’t want to do too much root work at once.

Style wise .. I have some ideas. Thin some of the branches of course, but the pencil straight smaller trunk is the biggest style flaw to my eye. If I could wire/guy wire it to curve out somewhat that would be nice, I think. Plenty of time to consider it