Thought I'd try a large pine.

[Smoke]

This will be good. I think I will post to whatever you start also. I am ready to post to another thread with a couple pictures for the guy just so we can all see what happens.

I know, I know.. the lengths I go to help out......

 

[JudyB]

Great thoughts, will be looking forward to these informative new threads. Seeing progressions are the most helpful things....
Thanks Smoke and Brian in advance...

 

[Smoke]

Ok so its candle cutting season, well at least it was about two weeks ago. I decided not to cut the candles on this pine because it seemed weak and the tufts were rather smallish.

I thought...cool I am getting this pine under control much faster than I thought.

Well that was as long as we were in spring and things were cool. Temps have been in the high 90s and over 100 for days at a time. As each day passed the tree seemed to be getting just a liiiiiiitle weaker each week. This week it seemed to be starting to lose the battle. I was in need of some help quick.

July 6th...are you kidding me? Repot now? Holy crap I don't have a chance. Will try to nurse it thru for a couple weeks and see if it makes it? Yea right...supposed to be 103 tomorrow and 105 Sunday. It will never see the end of the month!

This is an emergency! Repot at no expense.

What you are about to see is the biggest blunder in bonsai history. And from someone that should know better.

Here goes.

MISTAKE NO.1

I cut the wires and took the tree out of the pot. I had just watered. There was dry moss on top that had never been taken off the tree from spring.

MISTAKE NO.2

Under the moss I had dry soil. The water was not penetrateing the moss layer from being dry? Thats what I thought. On inspection it was noted that the moss had dried out and I was left with a layer of what seemed to be...well wood ashes. It seems that many years ago someone had cleaned the fireplace and dumped the ashes here in the side yard for a number of years. I never have since I lived here...1997. So I inspected the area where I got the moss on the side yard and sure enough the area was all wood ashes.

Wood ashes are good for bonsai right? Sure they are as long as their composted and mixed in with soil. Thats where potash comes from. You know the P part of NPK.

Here is the problem, since the wood ashes were a substantial part of the layer of moss roots in the ash holding together, I trasferred the entire layer to the pot. The ashes upon constant watering glued togther into an inpenatrable layer that could not get watered.

MISTAKE NO.3

For the life of me I have no idea how this happened. I have not used a soil mix like this for over 15 years. Two years ago I found a pallet of broken bags of turface MVP. Nine 50 lb bags in all. I bought the whole pallet for 20.00 bucks or something like that. This soil mix I used for the pine was almost entirely turface. About 1/8 aggregate. I never use soil that small. The only thing I can figure was that I was mixing some soil for shohin trees and accidentally used this.

The bottom of the pot was terrible. The ashes had soaked thru the soil and combined with the turface (which is not that stable in the first place) and made a real mushy mess in the bottom of the pot.

 

[Smoke]

In the pictures above one can see the dead patches of moss that is brown and where I lifted the moss of the layers of wood ash that is white. In winter it does not look like this. I seldom come on this side of the house in summer since there is nothing over there.

Here are some pictures of the soil mix and how small it is.

 

[Smoke]

So....I find the pot, the real pot I bought for this tree. Not the pot I potted it in, in February. I took the tree out and prepared the pot while the tree was still encased in soil. The roots were covered with this fine soil and I really didn't want to replant it back into a pot with fresh soil around those roots and the woodash that may still be in there.

I checked the roots and they were still OK with white tips and no rotten smells. That was a good thing.

I repotted it into the new pot with fresh soil that I brought back from Murayama...the mocha lava. Tree wired in, tree watered in. Now all I can do is wait.

Nice tree hope I saved it.

Some shots of the terrible foliage and weak branches.

 

[Smoke]

So here is a shot of the canopy. This is also how the tree looks in the correct pot. You may be wondering why I put the tree in this pot and not a box or a larger pot?

Thats a good question. I have a good answer.

This tree has a pretty small and compact root system. When I chose the first pot I was considering the tree. When I planted it I could see that it would have fit easily in the pot I had for it. I do not plan on repotting this tree in the spring. I am holding hope that this tree will bounce back and really look healthy by fall. If it does, I will have it in the pot I wanted anyway and I won't need to risk health again by repotting to get here.

Hope that makes sense.

wish me luck..Al

 

[Smoke]

Here it was in May...

and 60 days later.

 

[Dav4]

Al, great post...and good save, I think. The foliage is looking weak, but if the roots were healthy, as you say, I think you'll be fine. Still, good luck, it's a nice tree. I suppose you'll know where it's headed in a few months.

Dave

 

[Smoke]

Yea...I just wish the few months were March and April and not July and August!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Ouch. Good luck Al. What's the aftercare plan? Will be interesting to see how it pulls through.

 

[Smoke]

Ouch. Good luck Al. What's the aftercare plan? Will be interesting to see how it pulls through.

Welll.... the good news is, the "ouch" made me laugh. I needed that. The aftercare....hmmmm. One day at a time.

I'm not a good aftercare person. My outlook is rather survival of the fittest. If it makes it on only the repot that will be a good thing. If it succumbs it was meant to be. Thats how I live with myself.

Thats my story and I'm stickin to it!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

So, back into full sun and give it a "cowboy up!"?

 

[tmmason10]

Wow, was not expecting today's post when I read through the rest of the thread. Kudos Al, for posting not only your trees that are excellent, but also mistakes you may have made. For what it's worth, the tree looks great and I hope it pulls through.

 

[milehigh_7]

Wow thanks for posting Al. The best learning opportunities are dealing with the unusual and unexpected. Looking forward to seeing this one when it comes out of spring.

 

[Smoke]

So, back into full sun and give it a "cowboy up!"?

ROTFLMAO,

It's not in the full sun anyway. Shadecloth here for most of my trees. It will get a daily look see when I water and I probably will take a peek each morning before I go to work. Nothing really special. I am not a mister, never have been. I figure if it does not decline any further for the next couple weeks I should be OK. It really started to decline over the last two weeks. I should have done something earlier, but you know...you just keep watching and hoping it will just somehow heal itself while your at work...brother, I can't believe I just said that!

Two weeks...just give me two weeks....

 

[JudyB]

Good luck with this tree, it would be sad to see it go, as it has a distinctive look.

(FWIW, and not that you're asking.... I think I like the feel of the round pot as opposed to the square one)

But really I just hope it lives and thrives for you.

 

[Smoke]

Good luck with this tree, it would be sad to see it go, as it has a distinctive look.

(FWIW, and not that you're asking.... I think I like the feel of the round pot as opposed to the square one)

But really I just hope it lives and thrives for you.

Thats why I post them here. For concenses. Sometimes the people where let you know where you should go. No not there!

 

[jkd2572]

This tree sounds like it is taking up too much of your time. Please let me know if you want to ship it to Texas.

 

[Smoke]

This tree sounds like it is taking up too much of your time. Please let me know if you want to ship it to Texas.

I'll let you know in a couple weeks. You pay the shipping. Hope you don't mind a brown tree!

 

[berobinson82]

Smoke, as a neophyte, it's almost encouraging to see a veteran make errors. Thank you for posting not only your many successes, but also your learning experiences. Hope the pine pulls through.