Two New Pots from a Local Potter

Alex DeRuiter

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I was out visiting a friend's cabin in Whitehall, MI and found this random home-owned pottery store. The potter (Peter something) doesn't do any bonsai pots, but I found a couple usable pieces nonetheless -- or at least I think they're usable as mame pots.

Let me know what you think ;) Neither of the pots have drainage holes, so I'll need to drill a couple (carefully, of course).

Pot 1:

p11-1.jpg

p12-1.jpg

p13.jpg
 
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Alex DeRuiter

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I have a mame ficus Burtt-davyi that I was planning on putting in one of these pots. I'm having trouble deciding since the tree, by the "rules of bonsai," fits best with the second, shallower pot (pot heights should match tree base diameter -- right?); but the first pot isn't as wide. Perhaps I should get a picture of the tree in question in order to enable everyone to see what I'm talking about. ;-p
 

Brian Underwood

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What about drain holes? Also, screw the rules. Pots aren't permanent so do what you like for now and you can change the final pot later.
 

Alex DeRuiter

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Hey Brian,

Yes, I plan on addressing the drainage issue. Jkl suggested placing the pot in damp sand while drilling to avoid cracking, and I have a drill, some diamond bits, and some sand lying around that -- my schedule and energy level allowing -- I may gather up and use in the next couple days. I'll post updates on how it goes.

You do have a point -- they are only temporary. We'll see what fits best with the tree and go from there. ;)
 

Alex DeRuiter

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Here's a picture of the tree I plan on using. It's nowhere near "finished," of course, but I think it has some potential and may look nice in one of these pots.

7-2-11003.jpg
 
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Axxon, If this were my ficus, I would repot...but not into one of these, in to a larger, deeper terra-cotta or unglazed training pot. In my experience, Ficus(I have 10 or so now, at one point I had 50...sheesh) outside of the tropics and super nice lighting setups like that of Jerry, grow glacially slow when in tiny pots. If you want any kind of branch ramification or thickening in the next decade, and you need both, go for a larger pot, and put some pond plant accents in the ones you just picked up, without drilling! They'll always be there to drill if the cattails start to bore you, right?
 
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Alex DeRuiter

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Hmmmm....perhaps you have a point -- they will always be there. lol -- I didn't realize that ficus would grow so slow if I didn't have them in larger pots. From what I've heard (since I only have a few years of actual experience growing fius), they push out a lot of top growth once the roots colonize whatever pot they're in -- large or small. However, this definitely could be a characteristic of a certain type of ficus, not necessarily Burtt-davyi. I just picked up some larger terra-cotta training pots, so I guess I'll be slip-potting this for the time being. Thanks for the advice :)
 
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Smoke

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These are filled with fine sand in different colors and used to hold a stick of incense.

Any good seller of Japanese goods ( many in Cal. ) will have hundreds of colors to choose from.
 

Alex DeRuiter

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Haha, I think you hit the nail on the head...it seems like they were made to catch ash from incense or something. Either way, I think they should make for interesting bonsai pots nonetheless. I didn't pick them up because I thought they were comparable to Japanese pots or anything. It was more so because I found this little hole-in-the-wall pottery shop unexpectedly and was excited to find something that looked useable. ;-p

That's not to say, of course, that I won't one day be in the market for high quality pots. :D
 
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