ID & General Suggestions on Next Steps

[bobreecher]

Hey all,

First attempt at bonsai and gardening in general.

I dug up this tree in early September of 2022 (was told it was likely an Eastern Red Cedar by folks over at r/Bonsai) from my family's farm in Georgia (an 8a/8b hardiness zone according to Google, currently in an identical/nearly indentical hardiness zone in GA).

Started it out in a--potentially undersized--training pot with a farily even mixture (1:1:1) of pre-mixed bonsai soil (which i found to be low quality), potting soil, and the clay like soil it was found growing in.

The following April I repotted it into a much larger pot (shown in the thumbnail) in higher quality soil, attempting to keep as much of the still intact clay-like soil it was naturally found in as i could.

It is currently still not anchored to the pot, I have done very little pruning, and have done zero wiring for fear of killing it, as I have never done this before.

Any suggestions, critiques, style ideas, advice, etc. are welcome!.


Attached are some progress pictures, starting from the day I dug it up (September 2022) to the thumbnail picture, taken late December 2023.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Welcome to the site!

I am not very good at identifying young conifers, so I'm going to pass on the ID. However your tree is young and small. If I had to work on it TODAY, I would be wiring and bending it while it is still young to put some motion into the trunk. However make sure you keep your wiring fairly loose because the tree will grow quickly at this stage and it is easy to damage/scar the trunk if you wire too tightly.

That pot is plenty large for that tree to more than double in height. I would wire it and let it grow out in all directions for at least a year before I tried pruning anything.

 

[Dav4]

I had ERC volunteers all over my yard in N. metro Atlanta (I actually have them here in MI, too). It looks like a young ERC, and given where it was collected, it probably is. I'd follow the styling advice above. While you're at it, do some research on cedar-apple rust. ERC are uber prone to it, and will take all the fun out of growing this if it develops the fungal disease.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

However make sure you keep your wiring fairly loose because the tree will grow quickly at this stage and it is easy to damage/scar the trunk if you wire too tightly.

Those scars will heal. A good juniper first wiring should be tight in my opinion because you want those cooky tight bends. Leave less space in between the winds if you do, it will help to turn the corners tightly.
Sure, it will bite in fast, but it will also set the wood fast. So there's no need to keep it on that long. On seedling material, a couple growing months is enough.

When wiring young junipers for the first time, try to start bending from the top down instead of the bottom first. This way you get a feel for the type of wood, and if you lose something by breaking it.. It can recover.
If you snap the trunk at the bottom.. That's a different story all together and it's something to avoid.

While ERC are difficult in the sense of juvenile foliage and rust, I believe there are actually resistant plants out there and there should be varieties in the wild that do behave like other junipers. We just haven't cultivated them yet because everyone leaves them be. But the grey owl cultivar comes to mind.. It has to come from somewhere and it seems to be more resistant to rust than wild varieties.

I've found RMJ to keep its juvenile foliage as long as ERC by the way. So the only distinction I know about is the smell. RMJ has some ammonia or cat piss tints in there, whereas ERC smells like regular juniper.