Bonsai

[SkinnyGoomba]

The far corner is growing in size;

Ordering from Kaneshin in Japan is addicting, order and stuff arrives in 3 days like clockwork. Dallas Bonsai took 2 weeks….

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Hey Ed, how's your bonsai'ing going? I've been going a little wild with mine, I picked up about four JBP's and one shimpaku to add the to bunch, all pre-bonsai. I put one pine in the ground, two in big flats, and one in a large round pot. The shimpaku is in a tall pot.

Excited to put to work a good fertilizing schedule this coming season, I have a lot lined up for it.

 

[edinatlanta]

Yo Goombs,

You're pretty much set for tools. What you'll find you use more than others are your shears (and TBH, most pro bonsai pros just use $10 scissors), concave cutter, wire cutters and knob cutter--roughly in that order. Oh, and you'll want wooden chopsticks and a toothbrush. The chopsticks are useful when repotting and for a variety of other uses you'll find out. The toothbrushes are good for helping to exfoliate bark which will make your tree look older as it will have to create a new layer of bark. Also, they're good for cleaning up moss off the trunk of the tree and other quick uses.

Be careful with repotting, not sure about pines but it might be late to do that for them. Lay off on everything else until next spring. Once you see new growth, buds popping off branches etc you're good to repot. Stuff in the ground is best way to create a bonsai. Barring that, large pots will do the trick.

Just got back from the Carolina bonsai show. Got a really nice piece of bald cypress that will be ready in 3 years probably, a shohin viburnum that is just kinda nice and was a good buy and then a dawn redwood that has some potential (going to make it a shohin, I think) and what I was told was a viburnum but I don't believe that is correct. Also got some accents and a pot that I bought for my rose but now I think its too big. Will take pics if you are interested.

Here's pics of the permanent display at the Asheville Arboretum. www.reddit.com/r/Bonsai/comments/2jioah/2014_asheville_arboretum_bonsai_collection/

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Take some pics, sounds like some cool material. That collection is fantastic, good variety and some gorgeous stuff.

According to the nursery it's good to re-pot conifers in the late fall. I wasn't too intrusive however, since they were going from 6" pots to 17" flats and into the ground. So I removed the ringing roots, loosened up the root ball pretty well and put them in the pots/ground.

I have to repot my hornbeam and so I'm waiting for spring on that one.

Safe to say I've gone a bit overboard on tools (online shopping is a terrible thing);

So I have knob cutters, concave pruners, bud/small branch scissors, all purpose scissors and scissors just for pine candles, hook looking thing for roots, wire cutters (small and large), grafting knife and finally tweezers for pine needles. Also have copper wire in everything from 6ga to 14ga.

I also bought some organic fertilizers to work into the rotation, dr. Earth and green dream.

 

[edinatlanta]

Yeah I'm still learning about (everything) fertilizer in particular but those are good names. Really only need one size of wire cutters. The grafting knife is nice to have. Not to give you more stuff to buy but for deciduous you're probably going to want aluminum not copper wire but I've also heard people say wire is wire. Copper does hold better. You can unwind it and reuse it.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

My pines, the big branches on top are sacrifices, the oddly curled ones are going to approach grafted into those spots nearby (or shortened). Other than that I'm hoping these will bud back closer to the trunk this spring.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]



Yeah I'm still learning about (everything) fertilizer in particular but those are good names. Really only need one size of wire cutters. The grafting knife is nice to have. Not to give you more stuff to buy but for deciduous you're probably going to want aluminum not copper wire but I've also heard people say wire is wire. Copper does hold better. You can unwind it and reuse it.

I wired up my hornbeam in copper, it's harder to work but easier on the branch (IMO) since it work hardens to set. I don't find I need to wire a lot on them, but I did want to move a few bigger branches. The small cutters are for removing wire on the small branches, they're useful. The big ones are for everything else.

There is sooooo much info out there on fertilizer and soil it makes your head spin. I've been buried in it for weeks and weeks and finally settled on those two and a mix of lava/fir. In addition to those organics I have dyna pro for weekly application with the watering can during the growing season and a 0-10-10 for the pines in the fall. I feel like everything I have need years and years of good growing before I do anything for refinement.

 

[edinatlanta]

technically you'll always be refining. Go read Walter Pall's blog. He has a tree he just posted recently that's been profiled in magazines, won all kinds of awards and he still thinks its 10 years away from its peak

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

I love walter palls blog, he is a riot. I know exactly what you mean, takes a lot of forward planning. Speaking of Walter, what do you thinking of his soil/fertilizer situation?

Seems awesome, but I am using some organics because I can't rely on twice a day watering.

 

[edinatlanta]



I love walter palls blog, he is a riot

"Tell him to go to hell or somewhere else" is my favorite quote of his. The class I took was with a guy who has worked with him extensively and apparently Walter is brilliant. A successful businessman, he speaks six or so languages fluently, has the mental tenacity for bonsai... and just fun to be around.

Speaking of Walter, what do you thinking of his soil/fertilizer situation?

Seems awesome, but I am using some organics because I can't rely on twice a day watering.

It works but it takes a lot of work. As I said, I'm just learning more to try and develop a good/better routine so that's all I can offer. Uploading pics of stuff for you soon.

 

[edinatlanta]

I will get a photo of my cypress. You've got to see the extent of the trunk to realize how great it is and its a bit buried at the moment. Will do it tonight.

Got this pot for my rose but I think it is too big.

This is the redwood. There's not much too them young. This is about 3 feet tall.

The viburnum that I don't think is a viburnum.

some accents

Had the pot for a while (same people who made the one above) got the succulents last weekend

Now this is a viburnum

Got this grass and this pot, too. It isn't so washed out IRL. I'm debating between that pot and another, brown oval-ish one for the grass.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Nice stuff ed, I don't know much about the accent plants, but the trees look like good stuff. I like the twin redwoods a lot, there is a redwood group planting at Allshapes that I really like.

Are you into junipers at all?

Yes, I agree that Walters routine sounds like a full time job.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Started building an outdoor bench for my trees, wanted something low so that they are easy to water.

I'm building this in white oak and utilizing interlocking joinery which should allow it to survive many years in full sun. I find it important that outdoor furniture have interlocking joinery because the wood will go through many cycles of getting wet and drying.

The planks for the top have been edge jointed, glued and face jointed, they're set for finish planing next week.

The stretcher has been jointed flat on all sides and this is where the excitement starts, the outside joints are going to be captured by a dovetail key through mortise, sounds complicated, looks simple and the work is somewhere between the two.

The design is a modified version of a very early work by George Nakashima.

This is the major modification, in making this 6ft long I needed to add a center support leg, and to capture the leg in the stretcher I will be using a combination of fixed and wedged supports.

This is a process of dimensioning the lumber, I have done this for all parts involved with mainly handtools.

Shaping the fixed support.

Then Mortising for the center support:

Cutting back detail with rasp then chamfering with spokeshave

Installed.

I didn't take detailed pics of the wedged side of this, but it's very similar except that I cut it past the thickness of the center leg so it can do it's job unhindered.

This will also allow me to tighten up the center leg without disturbing the outside legs.

I will probably also pin the fixed support.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

It should start becoming clear what my design looks like in this post. The dovetailed key through tenon is completed in both sides;

Please note that the top is just resting on the base at this point, I'll be cutting joinery for that as well.

The center upright support is complete;

This is the side with a wedged support which is removable.

And here is the fixed side, and you can see I cut a groove to clock the support at 90 degrees.

The top is next and I'll be starting with the wedged through tenons very soon;

Cruising right along, this part becomes a bit difficult as the top must have everything fitted before it's applied, and since I'm splitting the tenons to wedge them I'll have to prepare that first as well. The glue up is going to be quite tricky.

These are not bad to create, I saw the sides then use two chisels for the waste, a wide one to cut the end grain and a mortising chisel to split away the waste.

These are fun...

Test fitting the tenons.

 

[edinatlanta]

Brah! Make me a bench or give me simple plans to build one.