Cork Elm Plans

[james]

Great results, nicely presented progression...Side question, your use of Turface? Is this Turface MVP? Straight from bag, or sifted?

Thanks, James

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Great results, nicely presented progression...Side question, your use of Turface? Is this Turface MVP? Straight from bag, or sifted?

Thanks, James

I always sift it, just because it has too many fines for me. I have several garbage cans full and sift it when I take it out of the can.

 

[james]

Thanks for the feedback. I was a bit surprised myself (after buying 6 bags of Turface MVP) to find the particle size quite small. Andy Smith (South Dakota yamadori collector) offered me some alternatives he uses, one of which is Oil Dri, which I found at Ace Hardware. I just sifted a bag, and retained about 75-80%. Color is a bit less red brown, a bit more grey brown. Price is comparable, depending on where you get it, slightly less heavy per same volume.

 

[BonsaiMon]

James ... I'd check the OIL-Dri with a soak check.. put some in a cup of water and see if it disolves to a mush.. usually in a week or two.. if not mushy it may work for you.
I've seen it turn to slime years ago.. I went back to turface and lava rock 1/4 in.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Great progression Greg. I'm curious as to what kind of soil you've been growing the trees in though. Up until the last picture or so, the soil looked like plain ol' Miracle-Gro??

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Great progression Greg. I'm curious as to what kind of soil you've been growing the trees in though. Up until the last picture or so, the soil looked like plain ol' Miracle-Gro??

It depends on the tree. The bottom tree (the stump) I have never repotted since I got it - so it is in original nursery soil. I will repot (and do root work) this upcoming spring.

The top tree (the airlayer) was in almost 100% turface with a little loose soil. HOWEVER I use organic fertilizer (composted and pelletized chicken manure) and it tends to break down in the first 1/2" or so of soil (plus grow TONS of moss). The photo you see of the top tree is after I pulled moss off - but I did not yet clean the surface of the soil so it looks a lot like clay.

 

[james]

BonsaiMon,

Thanks for the words of wisdom...It has worked for Andy Smith, yet he gave me the same advice. Will set some in water for a couple of weeks, as I won't be repotting until next year. I still have Turface MVP. Turface seems to be tested by many and workable, I just thought the small particle size would result in a fair amount of sifting, and loss of yield.

Any other thoughts? Others have input, maybe I should start new thread??

James

 

[kobiespa]

Amazing work! Are there limitations to this method? I have a Japanese red maple with reverse taper that I wonder if this will work. Thanks.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Amazing work! Are there limitations to this method? I have a Japanese red maple with reverse taper that I wonder if this will work. Thanks.

Works really well with deciduous - as long as you do it in the Spring when they are growing strongest. You can usually air-layer, separate the layer, and get them to develop new growth and strong roots before the Winter.

Conifers are slower... in some cases MUCH slower (two years or longer).

 

[kobiespa]

Thank you. Looks like I'll have a spring project coming.

 

[akhater]

what happened to this tree?

 

[berobinson82]

How are the elms doing?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Has it really been 7 years? Here's where they are today...

You can see on the first one the slightest signs of buds popping, because, after all, it is Spring here in Orange County

Both trees are due for some major refinement, but they are slowly getting there. I did the root work on the stump (the top tree) last spring and it didn't miss a beat. Both trees are very strong and grow vigorously even in small pots.

 

[GrimLore]

Very nicely done and documented Thank you for the updates!

Grimmy

 

[Poink88]

Very good progression. Thanks for sharing!