BillsBayou
Chumono
At just over 39 inches by 24 inches (1m x 61cm) and weighing in at I-Can-Barely-Lift-It pounds, this is my largest pot. Should I be repotting this while the tree is leafing out? Most likely not.
The tree was collected in Fall of 2022. Like everything else, it was placed into a non-draining tub. In this case, it was a 36-inch in-ground aquatic pot. Plenty of deadwood that needs protecting. Since the tree appears to be healthy, I decided I FINALLY had the time to repot it.
Ideally, the roots should have been disturbed as little as possible. In reality, the damnable thing weighs too much to move. The tree was initially potted in potting soil and haydite. This makes for a very mucky soil. I re-used as much as possible. The goal, for me, is to have minimal drainage, but not a permanent swamp. To that end, raw haydite was placed in small mounds over the drainage screens.
The pot has two drain holes and four wire holes. 3.5mm wire was used to anchor the tree. When old soil from the aquatic pot ran out, haydite and two colors of lava rock were poured onto the soil. The amendments were then "chopsticked" into the soil.
Nothing about this operation is really recommended. Think of this as "Seat of Your Pants Bonsai." Another way to think of this is "I have a tree, a pot, and a goal. What I lack is a plan."
Along with its enormous deadwood, the tree has termites. Little teeny tiny bastards cutting their way around the tree. There was life on the right side last summer. Now there is one little twig for which there is no hope. I'm not sure if I can do anything to rid the tree of the termites, but I expect the EPA to come out and declare the pot a Superfund Site. A combination of Talstar granules (Befenthrin), imidocloprid, and a certain relative of DDT that has been banned by the Stockholm Convention of 2001 that may or may not be in my possession. (Bonsai or healthy children? Hmm... It might explain why my daughter's vision is 20/40 in her left eye, 20/100 in her right, and 20/80 in the center. The trees look great, but getting her the glasses she needs to see the trees is difficult.)
... blah ... blah ... lime sulfur ...
When soaking wet, I doubt this tree is less than 300lbs.
Dewalt drill for scale (I'm out of bananas)
I moved it onto a pallet AFTER I had wired the tree into the pot. It's a South Louisiana thing. Place something heavy on the ground and it starts to sink. The feet of the pot only provide an inch and a half of clearance. If I hadn't moved it to the pallet, the pot would be flush with the lawn within two days. Even with less than half the soil in the pot, lifting just one side of it was a real challenge.
Lime sulfur applied with a small paintbrush. Here, you can see that where the deadwood ends, the tree is working to reunify the left and right sides. My initial idea for the tree is to begin a flat-top apex a few inches above the deadwood. I'll have to think on this. For now, the tree will rest a year before I begin doing anything else.
The tree was collected in Fall of 2022. Like everything else, it was placed into a non-draining tub. In this case, it was a 36-inch in-ground aquatic pot. Plenty of deadwood that needs protecting. Since the tree appears to be healthy, I decided I FINALLY had the time to repot it.
Ideally, the roots should have been disturbed as little as possible. In reality, the damnable thing weighs too much to move. The tree was initially potted in potting soil and haydite. This makes for a very mucky soil. I re-used as much as possible. The goal, for me, is to have minimal drainage, but not a permanent swamp. To that end, raw haydite was placed in small mounds over the drainage screens.
The pot has two drain holes and four wire holes. 3.5mm wire was used to anchor the tree. When old soil from the aquatic pot ran out, haydite and two colors of lava rock were poured onto the soil. The amendments were then "chopsticked" into the soil.
Nothing about this operation is really recommended. Think of this as "Seat of Your Pants Bonsai." Another way to think of this is "I have a tree, a pot, and a goal. What I lack is a plan."
Along with its enormous deadwood, the tree has termites. Little teeny tiny bastards cutting their way around the tree. There was life on the right side last summer. Now there is one little twig for which there is no hope. I'm not sure if I can do anything to rid the tree of the termites, but I expect the EPA to come out and declare the pot a Superfund Site. A combination of Talstar granules (Befenthrin), imidocloprid, and a certain relative of DDT that has been banned by the Stockholm Convention of 2001 that may or may not be in my possession. (Bonsai or healthy children? Hmm... It might explain why my daughter's vision is 20/40 in her left eye, 20/100 in her right, and 20/80 in the center. The trees look great, but getting her the glasses she needs to see the trees is difficult.)
... blah ... blah ... lime sulfur ...
When soaking wet, I doubt this tree is less than 300lbs.
Dewalt drill for scale (I'm out of bananas)
I moved it onto a pallet AFTER I had wired the tree into the pot. It's a South Louisiana thing. Place something heavy on the ground and it starts to sink. The feet of the pot only provide an inch and a half of clearance. If I hadn't moved it to the pallet, the pot would be flush with the lawn within two days. Even with less than half the soil in the pot, lifting just one side of it was a real challenge.
Lime sulfur applied with a small paintbrush. Here, you can see that where the deadwood ends, the tree is working to reunify the left and right sides. My initial idea for the tree is to begin a flat-top apex a few inches above the deadwood. I'll have to think on this. For now, the tree will rest a year before I begin doing anything else.
