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Jan or Feb would be ideal, put it in pure sifted pumice-available in SLO at Air Vol Block. Good luck!

I've primarily used it for help with Pest and Disease Management. For example, I wasn't sure if it makes more sense to use the same pesticides/fungicides for a year straight, then rotate to something new, or if you should rotate every time you spray. Chat GPT showed me the studies which...

Epic Tree/Pot combo!!! Congrats sir! I'm not So Cal, however in San Luis Obispo County, I've kept RMJ with no issue-super healthy.

Fun project, love the story, thanks for posting!

That’s a great point I didn’t even think about. Appreciate it!

Some really spectacular tree, great work!

Oh Awesome, I'm UCSB class of 06, lived in IV for a few years, it was epic!

You are correct, I don't know what those Europeans are doing but seems they've figured out the secret! Yours looks awesome, really well done. I will contact him, thank you so much!

Aww very nice, thank you for the info, will look into! do you feel like it's quite strong? the tree i'm planning to put on the slab is XL and very heavy.

It seems like it's more challenging to find large rock and artificial slabs for planting in the US. I'm currently looking for one, but haven't seen many for sale? The only source I know of through Mirai seems to be all sold out for now.

Did you go to UCSB? Go Gaucho's! I've seen this incredible tree many times:)

I found this interesting Sierra Juniper in the mountains last week, fascinating to wonder why it's all twisted and knotted compared with all the other trees growing up right.

Japanese Beech in particular have been notoriously challenging to source for years:( You could try European Beech, which should be much easier to find, more hardy, slightly larger leaf.

Agree. I'd add that Bjorn has some great resources on this disease and others on his Bonsai U platform, I'd highly recommend Bonsai U!

Super bummed I couldn’t make it to the 2025 US National and NA Bonsai Pottery Competition this year. I sure would love to see who won prizes along with pics of the winning Trees and Pots, thanks!

Personally I use both Bio-Gold and Osmocote. I only use a tiny amount of Osmocote and a lot of bio gold. I also use a few different liquid fertilizers. You def don't need to just stick w/ one.

My best guess is that the one's in perlite are getting under watered. That mix will dry out much much faster than the potting soil mix. Also, the particle size is quite large for that size of a plant. I'd use a much finer particle size for the little guys you have here. You would need to...

I'm glad you brought that interesting point up. I've seen a few that made me think they were Yamadori, including this tree below(stock photo, not mine), one in Andrew Robson of Rakuyo's collection and one from John Thompson. But, I don't know if they are actually collected or not. I'm...

Very true they do grow so slow. It's fun to see Eric Schrader's Valley Oak from Acorn, but they took a long time!

My first guess is a Hedge maple-Acer Campestre but I could definitely be wrong.

Eric Shrader has grown the best Valley Oak i've seen from Seed many years back. But yes, not too many of them in Bonsai and it's such a great species visually speaking. I have heard putting them in a Bonsai pot, they can be challenging from a horticultural perspective-but if they can grow...

Generally speaking, with really small cuts you can cut flush or concave, while larger cuts you'll want to leave some length, respecting and allowing the tree to die back to the branch collar, then coming back and re-addressing the cut once the branch has died back.

Issues like this will generally improve as your overall horticultural care increases. This could be from factors relating to light requirements, obtaining correct balance of water and oxygen, soil, water quality, nutrition, etc. These areas we can all continue to improve in and is part of the...

Silver Berry after defoliation

Oh awesome! I was pumped that he used a pic of one of my Sierra Junipers in that book. Have you check out his newest book-The Essential Bonsai Book? I think it’s even better!