What's the last thing you've learned in bonsai

john blanch

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It's tiring to have the mental map of each of my trees' and their position come to mind when I get home late and have to water them all in the dark.
 

Lorax7

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Don't immediately put your repotted bonsais back on their display stand, but put them all together cozily on the ground, sheltered from the wind. No moving/transporting for the next two months.
Why? I routinely put freshly repotted bonsai back up on stands without issue. I may move the stand into shade for a while, depending on the season when I’m doing the repot, but I don’t leave anything on the ground. I don’t want my trees to be within reach of the bunnies.
 
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Adamski77

Shohin
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wasn’t actually today but in February I did my first scion graft ever… on JBP. Started to unwrap few weeks ago and today finished removing grafting tape. Looks like it wants to work and the union is looking good. So happy as it was the first graft… place was extremely inconvenient with a lot of wire bites and scars plus scion was much smaller than receiving branch.
 

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bluone23

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Plant the small ones in the ground to fatten up more quickly, unless you want smaller bonsai
 

Linn01

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Why? I routinely put freshly repotted bonsai back up on stands without issue. I may move the stand into shade for a while, depending on the season when I’m doing the repot, but I don’t leave anything on the ground. I don’t want my trees to be within reach of the bunnies.
Preamble: repot happens in spring. I have no clue how the weather is in Michigan in spring, but here in Belgium during spring there is always the concern of temperature drops and cold wind (dries out the fine roots that still need to settle). Must admit that my garden is well protected from rodents.
 

Paradox

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Preamble: repot happens in spring. I have no clue how the weather is in Michigan in spring, but here in Belgium during spring there is always the concern of temperature drops and cold wind (dries out the fine roots that still need to settle). Must admit that my garden is well protected from rodents.

The other issue with pots on the ground is you can introduce soil nematodes to the pot which isn't good. They can wreak havoc with the root system and kill the tree.

If you need to provide protection after a repot. Putting them in a cold frame or garage for a few days works well.
 

bwaynef

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Decandling...you remove ALL Candles. Giggling...at my blunder. As Adair said...you didn't remove the candles...and I was like...ummmm yeah, I did. 🤣🤣🤣🙃 first time working pine.
There are times when you don't remove all the candles, but less often as the tree is refined.
 

Cadillactaste

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There are times when you don't remove all the candles, but less often as the tree is refined.
😉 Gotcha. I removed what I didn't think I needed. Giggling...so yeah. I laughed when my reply was...I had. When clearly not all were removed. 🤣🙃 bless Adair. He was patient and explained the why.
 

Lorax7

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Preamble: repot happens in spring. I have no clue how the weather is in Michigan in spring, but here in Belgium during spring there is always the concern of temperature drops and cold wind (dries out the fine roots that still need to settle). Must admit that my garden is well protected from rodents.
Except for tropicals, I repot almost everything in spring (occasionally, I’ll do an early fall repot, but not that often). I try to wait until I’m fairly confident that we’re out of the freeze-thaw-freeze phase of spring to get started with repotting, specifically so I won’t have to do the bonsai shuffle.
 

MSGhero

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I learned the little white dots on my willow leaf ficus' leaves can be caused by spider mites, even if you don't see any webs. Unrelated, I learned how much spider mites can wreck a WLF if you don't get rid of them immediately. Separately, I learned why you should quarantine/analyze/treat new plants. 🙃
 

ShadyStump

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I learned the little white dots on my willow leaf ficus' leaves can be caused by spider mites, even if you don't see any webs. Unrelated, I learned how much spider mites can wreck a WLF if you don't get rid of them immediately. Separately, I learned why you should quarantine/analyze/treat new plants. 🙃
There are certain little white dots on ficus that are a normal part of the leaf. Make sure you're not try to treat that.
 

MSGhero

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There are certain little white dots on ficus that are a normal part of the leaf. Make sure you're not try to treat that.
Yep, but I saw the mites and webs today after a few days away, when my only visuals before then were white dots that quickly led to dying leaves. I thought I messed up watering or my lights were too close etc, but I wasn't paying attention for bugs.
 

Gabler

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Cities intentionally change the pH of the municipal water supply from one season to the next, enough to cause nutrient deficiency even in trees that can thrive in mildly alkaline soils. I miss having a well.
 
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Cities intentionally change the pH of the municipal water supply from one season to the next, enough to cause nutrient deficiency even in trees that can thrive in mildly alkaline soils. I miss having a well.
Did not know. Maybe I need to start checking my pH on the regular. Of course - I’m sure this is city specific.
 

August

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Ive been mildly anxious about that for some time. In Denver our water is between 8.5 and 9.2 with a target of 8.8 . Probably too alkaline to be good for most things? Should I maybe invest in some pH down?
 
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Ive been mildly anxious about that for some time. In Denver our water is between 8.5 and 9.2 with a target of 8.8 . Probably too alkaline to be good for most things? Should I maybe invest in some pH down?
I think that’s pretty definitely too alkaline. You’ll want down towards 6.5-7.2 or so afaik.
 
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