summer heat/watering

[CHUCHIN]

I'll look into the window screening and maybe I'll be be able to find some shade cloth online.. So is there a percentage I should be looking for? Or it just depends?

Good question you want atleast 70pct light coming in on your Japanese maples, beams... You don't need to shield apples,kaede, pines that much....don't get me wrangles needles can burn but they love and need full sun

 

[GrimLore]

Man I am very clost to PA. My buddy and I are always running up to Doyles...We all should shake hands at some points. Love my fellow bonsai friends

James

My Wife has an Office in Doylestown 15 to 25 minutes from the house depending on time of day. We also may be going to Baltimore for the Maryland Death Festival. Look forward to meeting up sometime in the future, possibly at a Bosai event in Philly or in your area.

Grimmy

 

[fraser67]

Two things:
I had a left over piece of "pet screen" from a job ... I used it last season as a shade cloth. It worked great for my Japanese maples and Korean horn beams. You can google it...about $38 for a 5 x 8' roll. I suspended a 2x4 rectangle with the screen stapled to it, over that bench.
As for a watering system...Home Depot has some battery operated timers and the drip system in the irrigation dept. for pretty cheap. I hook mine up to a hose bib. It takes a little time and some common sense to figure out what you need. Works great for when I'm out of town. In fact I have a whole area that is wholly on auto. Of course I check it daily. Just my two cents.
Best,
Jonathan

 

[Beng]

yeah be careful with some of that stuff. Its a slippery slope trying to protect your trees from the sun. The weaker the tree gets health wise the more susceptible it is to burn damage. My friend was constantly battling winds and sun in the valley here in Southern California. He put up stuff like the tan stuff shown in the link above, that didnt work so he put towels on his soil surface, that didnt work, he misted his trees 5 times a day, that didnt work. Ultimately I think he created a very stagnant stiffling enviroment for his trees and almost lost some really nice ones. A little bit of shade from some of the lighter stuff should be more than adequate for healthy trees.

While I agree that the tan stuff in that link above is not ideal as it's 70% shade a minimum of 40% shade cloth is necessary most of the year in southern california for sensitive trees like japanese maples and satsuki. You're in a cooler zone then me, but when i was on the east coast in Brooklyn, NY I used a 40% shade cloth maybe about 2 weeks out of the year. The rest of the year I grew in full sun as the sun there is no where near as strong in here.

Here's an esample, Nuccios which as many of you know is probably one of the best sources of rare satsuki in the US is located in southern California and is in a Zone 10A climate (altadena, ca.) Satsuki's are technically only recommended for zones 4-8. Californias water is generally very alkaline and our sun here would fry a healthy satsuki in few days easily. Nuccios modifies their environment and uses the equivalent of 40-50% shade cloth over all of their trees year round.

Image from http://sazanka.org/tag/nuccios-nurseries/

They have a small selection of satsuki and camellias that they grow in full sun, however about 90 percent of them are in the shade year round. No one would go there and say there plants are weak in fact from what i've seen they're some of the healthiest around. I think a lot of what can and can't be grown depends entirely on the environment you're willing to create for your trees. Nuccios grows their satsukis in an almost entirely peat based soil to compensate for the alkaline water. If your waters alkaline are you willing to modify it and the soil significantly enough to grow acid loving plants? If your waters very acidic can you modify your soil to balance it to a more base solution? If the suns too much will you set up a shade cloth for your trees during the warm months?

In my opinion you can compensate for most environmental factors to grow the trees you wish to grow. Only a few things can not be compensated for outdoors. Cold dormancy and lack of natural sunlight can't really be compensated for outdoors, almost everything else can be modified by modifying your environment.