itoigawa juniper - in development, but no more mame trees for me

[WEI]

here’s my second juniper (i maimed the first and it's recovering) - a mame-sized, 5-inch-tall itoigawa after substantial rewiring and an angle shift.

the smaller the tree, it seems, the harder the styling decisions are. less material = less choices. I could not find any angle where I would be able to show a solid outline of foliage, the trunk, and the deadwood all at the same time. for me it was a game of sacrifices; did I value showing the deadwood to the detriment of being able to see the winding nature of the trunk as it advanced from root to crown? or did i prioritize a nice full triangle of foliage at the risk of angling all the deadwood to the back and unbalancing the tree? i ultimately settled on a design compromise, lowering a branch to reveal the trunk's sharp left angle while keeping a stately dome and *some* deadwood visible. i guess the tree will have secrets only seen when walking past.

all this said, i'm still not certain i can keep this thing alive. it's so hard to tell if the grand total of 15 bits of akadama between root and pot wall are wet, so i'll be repotting into a wider rectangle. i also bent the smaller branches about 2-3 times each, a major stress on the tree that was a result of my styling indecision. applying wire was hell. implementing what i thought was an easy design/drawn vision onto a tiny 3D tree - also hell. lesson learned, I guess: stick with bigger material when starting out

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Mame is hard for me because the difficulty of care. Between required sun and wind protection, and constant watering challenges, you almost need to keep them in a greenhouse. I like your work though!

 

[Shibui]

Both those aspects make smaller bonsai more difficult.
Care poses many problems as @Bonsai Nut has pointed out.
Styling is a much bigger challenge than those who have not tried can appreciate as @WEI has outlined. And that's just the start. Maintaining the proportions of a tiny tree over years is difficult too. They keep wanting to get bigger and it is easy to let branches get out of proportion with size and/or trunk.

Shohin and Mame look easy but are actually a real challenge to do well and maintain over time.

Congrats to @WEI on this start. Welcome to the little league. Look forward to seeing how it progresses.

 

[Maiden69]

Mame is hard for me because the difficulty of care. Between required sun and wind protection, and constant watering challenges, you almost need to keep them in a greenhouse. I like your work though!

In the case of not having a greenhouse (or the fact that a green house in TX will probably turn into a steam house if not properly vented, would shade cloth and a light windbreaker fabric help? I don't have any mame trees, but I think I will probably need this kind of protection for shohin, which I plan on making pretty soon and the idea of a mame juniper has crossed my mind several times already.

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

Very nice mame tree.

I'm trying to develop some mame trees myself and I put the small pots in a wet tray with very fine sifted akadama, pumice and lava rock to keep the moisture up.
After some time most the trees will grow their roots into the tray and from time to time I prune off the roots which have grown into the tray.

I've also seen mame trees with small pots put in a larger pot (with soil) as well to accomplice the same.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

In the case of not having a greenhouse (or the fact that a green house in TX will probably turn into a steam house if not properly vented, would shade cloth and a light windbreaker fabric help? I don't have any mame trees, but I think I will probably need this kind of protection for shohin, which I plan on making pretty soon and the idea of a mame juniper has crossed my mind several times already.

@Smoke has shared some nice images of his previous shohin setup in Fresno - where the summers can get brutally hot and dry. Basically a nice protected shelf area with shade cloth across the roof and three sides. I seem to recall he could adjust based on the seasons. He has a new setup now and you can see what he is up to here:

What's going on in Smokes NEW BACKYARD

Well...last girlfriend after my Wife died, had a heart attack during Covid and died too. Only 58 years old. Back to online dating, found the love of my life. We meshed from day one and never looked back. We got together in Sept of 2020, and did the dating thing during covid. Not an easy thing...

www.bonsainut.com

Today you have a lot more options with misters and automated watering. You can track heat, humidity, set up watering schedules, and even remotely control your watering setup via Internet and WiFi. Combine with streaming security camera and you can control your setup while you are on vacation, if you so desire. If you have an area dedicated to mame/shohin that you can automate, it takes away most of the concern.

@maria kapra (Peter Macasieb) keeps a ton of shohin as well. He has them in shelves against a concrete wall, with a shade cloth frame over the top (shade cloth can be removed in winter).

 

[Maiden69]

@Smoke has shared some nice images of his shohin setup in Fresno - where the summers can get brutally hot and dry. Basically a nice protected shelf area with shade cloth across the roof and three sides. I seem to recall he could adjust based on the seasons.

Also, today you have a lot more options with misters and automated watering. You can track heat, humidity, set up watering schedules, and even remotely control your watering setup via Internet and WiFi. Combine with streaming security camera and you can control your setup while you are on vacation, if you so desire.

I think I recall smoke's set up... going to have to dig up his posts. I bought a mister system, will be installed when I build my garden. Will look into a more sophisticated watering set up as well. I have a 4 station multi-schedule set up, but no WiFi access.

 

[Shibui]

All my shohin and smaller live on a gravel tray through summer. That seems to be the only way I can keep them alive through summers here. 50% overhead shade is erected when the days get hotter but removed through milder months.
During the cooler months I place large floor tiles over the gravel trays so the pots don't stay too wet. Obviously the pots sit on the tiles when extra water isn't required.

 

[ACooke]

Awesome little tree. I think you did a good job with the styling

I've got a few twisted little segments on a shimpaku that I've been grooming to air-layer. They'd be very suitable as mame sized trees but I'm too concerned about the maintenance. It gets quite hot where I live and I'm almost always out of the house from 6am-6pm. Setting up an automatic watering system simply isn't worth while for the few trees I have, none of which are currently even close to mame size. I might air-layer them off and throw them in the ground, or let them grow out a little further on the current tree.

Cool little trees like this certain get my mind ticking, though.

 

[WEI]

thanks for the feedback and care suggestions everyone, esp. re: shade cloth and watering. I'll keep this in a low pot with substrate to make my life a little easier.

below is an aspirational vision of where I'd like to take the tree, in a more penjing-ish style. i realize junipers traditionally pair with unglazed containers, but I believe the story this pot and tree tell together, along with the color contrast, make for a more evocative design. pot is a painted Mizuno Shikao (badly stitched/edited, i only have the seller's pics at the moment)

scholars venture from their village to a haunt under an old tree with scenic views, enjoying a game of chess and the sights and sounds of summer