Discussion of rules for 2023 ROR contest

[August]

How about instead of a genus we choose a family? A little broader and leads to an interesting final gallery, say all Fabaceae or all Aceraceae?

Edit: this opens up the floor to interesting challenges when choosing a species

 

[August]

Another thing to consider is folks who can't overwinter properly. They have a disadvantage; I myself am midway through my first winter and not sure what's going to make it and what's going to die. As a bonsai noob and long time houseplant keeper I feel a lot more comfortable keeping tropicals alive long term than temperate species!

 

[ShadyStump]

Excellent points made for both sides.
I'm mostly just waiting around to see what folks settle on.

I would like to participate, but I'm very limited where species are concerned right now. Hence I'd like a very open rule base, but I'd also like @Kievnstavick's point of similar trees with similar problems to solve as a learning tool.
I have 1 amur maple, and I'm yet to see how it's faired my first winter with it. If acers are to be the thing, then I'll have a late start if I can join at all.


I suggest we solve the question of duration of the contest first, then select a tree that fits.
Here I'm more in favor of something shorter, but that's not necessarily the most practical for ROR. I say 7 years.

 

[penumbra]

Too many rules for me. Even the title is a bit off putting for this rule breaker. But I will be watching.

 

[Kievnstavick]

As someone without much experience in this hobby, I am not really sure how long of a duration is appropriate. A time line of 6 or so years sounds good enough for me.

 

[James W.]

The biggest issue with various species (or genera) and starting material is the duration on the contest. I would expect a reasonable ROR from a trident maple layer in as little as three years. A spruce from a seedling might not look that good in 15 years.
I suppose that part of the challenge would be the choosing of an appropriate subject.
We could throw it wide open with the goal of seeing how many different kinds of trees can be made into ROR and then divide it into divisions at the time of judging. Part of it could even be a race if we wanted, although I am not sure how one would determine when they have 'finished'.
As for duration, less than 4 years is pretty quick for any ROR, much longer than that and people lose interest and/or forget about it. A three or four year contest would certainly encourage us to try to figure out how to speed the process.

 

[BrightsideB]

How about root over pebble then lol

 

[Kievnstavick]

I would expect a reasonable ROR from a trident maple layer in as little as three years. A spruce from a seedling might not look that good in 15 years.

I would stay this would be another reason for a least some limitation. If anything, to align most participants developmental time lines.

 

[Kanorin]

One compromising thought:
We could have a contest for RoR with family X (or whatever subgroup of species people agree on). And we could also have either an "other" or some "exempt from judging" category for people to make some RoRs that fall outside those restriction but still kinda play along and post along with everyone else.

 

[James W.]

What if instead of specifying a species or genus we exclude certain ones? "Anything except maples, elms, JBP or ficus"?That would encourage more variety.
Then have divisions based on climate: cold hardy, temperate and tropical?
The multiple trees per entry idea was to encourage/allow people to make multiple attempts at a single type of tree without clogging up the forum. That rule could be modified so each person could submit an entry for each species they want to try.

 

[SeanS]

What if instead of specifying a species or genus we exclude certain ones? "Anything except maples, elms, JBP or ficus"?That would encourage more variety.
Then have divisions based on climate: cold hardy, temperate and tropical?
The multiple trees per entry idea was to encourage/allow people to make multiple attempts at a single type of tree without clogging up the forum. That rule could be modified so each person could submit an entry for each species they want to try.

The thing is if you’re going to spend 5+ years starting a ROR project wouldn’t you want members to be allowed to grow species that make really good ROR bonsai (if they have have limited space/material). Saying “no maples” is a pretty harsh rule.

In terms of timelines, 5 years is a very reasonable goal for a trident. The below tater is less than 2.5 seasons old (from seed)

 

[August]

We could go with the "natives" idea and still have different categories for different climates. Limits selection, and pushes people to try a new tree.

 

[BrightsideB]

I think air layer starter material would make things spicy though.

 

[Woocash]

Blimey this is getting out of hand! It seems that the general consensus is that everybody wants something different and at risk of over complicating things, trying to come up with lots of different categories means that the fun contest for everyone means a smaller contest against certain others depending on choice and/or location, which might take the overall fun out of things.

Maybe we should just go back to basics and let everyone do whatever they like so long as it is root over rock/something. Then have an overall winner based on likes/poll in a purpose made thread with a final image of each tree (As was mentioned, several starters if people like, but with 1 final entry per person)

If people want, maybe winners in sub categories such as coniferous, deciduous, fruiting, flowering, whatever etc can be allotted after an overall winner is chosen.

The prize will be a warm glow of satisfaction along with others in the form of many funky new bonsai in the world.

Yay/nay?

 

[Kanorin]

First rule of organizing a Bonsainut contest: Not everyone will be 100% satisfied with the rules for the contest.

But if you can get a few dozen people who are mostly onboard, you are doing great. Keep up the good work @August and @James W. !
Thanks for your efforts in exploring and hashing out the options and getting this contest started up. You'll get a few likes from me with whatever final version you arrive on.

 

[August]

No limits sounds fine to me. We could have placements for deciduous, coniferous, and tropical, and an overall "best in show"

 

[James W.]

Personally, I would prefer to limit entries to something fairly narrow. If it is just wide open we might as well all just start progressions in the ROR forum. The prize would be the same and administration is easier.

 

[August]

Let's pick a family!

 

[August]

Fabaceae would be a really cool one, so would Solanaceae. A Solanaceae contest alone would actually be really intriguing

 

[LuZiKui]

I'm with @Woocash too many rules/categories etc. Apart from the JBP from seed competition (which makes sense because JBP is one of the most widely grown trees in bonsai and can grow in almost every climate), the competitions are very broad like "grow a forest".

I think you should be able to do anything ROR, and similar to the forest competition you have a "from seed" and "sapling" category and that's it. Otherwise if we get down to picking specific tree types it takes out some of the fun. I can grow ficus here but not really maple (at least I don't want to put in the effort to grow them) so lets highlight each region/climate and we can compare ROR projects in 5 years or something.