My bonsai journey

[Zaratrusta]

I’ve been an avid reader of this forum on the past but last years I rarely enter to read what’s new about others people bonsai journey.
I’ve been doing bonsai on my own for almost 10 years educating myself through internet like this forum for example. I wanted to be more proactive and present in this hobby so I started this thread to share what I’m doing.

Today the repot season is open with this alder bonsai. It was rough, almost 2 h working the soil off. This specie produce tons of roots even in one growing season.
The first somewhat fancy pot for this tree. When I purchased it it looked more like a saturated ocre in the web. I think it will look good on autumn when the leaves turn yellow.
Perhaps a little too large.

Any criticism is welcomed. Have a nice day!
(English isn’t my native language so bear with me hehe)

 

[Zaratrusta]

Today in the interval between work shifts I managed to cram a little repot that was necessary giving the new foliage already setting. It’s a little rose I made through an air layer because I want to make use of the white pot that was intended for a pomegranate shohin but died 3 years ago. I saw the two trunks and the flare thought that could look good. After 6 months the roots grown alright but there is still a bald spot on the

This particular species (don’t know the name) has quite big compound leaves for shohin size for what I’ve seen so I hope as the ramification increases the problem will subdue.

Have a nice day fellas!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Nice tree! A couple things I thought about are.

Check branches with idea to give a bit more space and boost taper.

Wondering about whether the roots have been worked in the grow out process?

Also what does the leaf size measure out to be now the alder has been in the pot for awhile

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Zaratrusta]

Oops

 

[Zaratrusta]

Nice tree! A couple things I thought about are.

Check branches with idea to give a bit more space and boost taper.

Wondering about whether the roots have been worked in the grow out process?

Also what does the leaf size measure out to be now the alder has been in the pot for awhile

cheers
DSD sends

Thank you for the compliment!

Yeah it feels a little cluttered and should eliminate some branch. Sometimes also wonder if I should remove the first left branch because it’s too low but Im hesitant.
Yeah the nebari has been worked out every repot like a maple and improved a lot but it has a long way. It’s a yamadori tree and has 5 years since collection Alders endure heavy trimming perfectly

The leaf size last season was ranging from 4-6,5cm last season. Still big. I think this year with the increased density of ramification and smaller container the size will get smaller. Alders are very vigorous and in summer use tons of water. They could live submerged like a bald cypress. I think restricting the watering could help but I haven’t tried yet.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Alders are very vigorous and in summer use tons of water. They could live submerged like a bald cypress. I think restricting the watering could help but I haven’t tried yet.

I've found that pot size and water are great factors of downsizing their growth. But also leaf removal in summer will cause a second flush with smaller foliage. Nutrients seem to play a big role too, but I haven't focused on that yet.
I'm growing a couple hundred and their foliage is as big as my hands if I'm growing them in water.

 

[Colorado]

Thank you for the compliment!

Yeah it feels a little cluttered and should eliminate some branch. Sometimes also wonder if I should remove the first left branch because it’s too low but Im hesitant.
Yeah the nebari has been worked out every repot like a maple and improved a lot but it has a long way. It’s a yamadori tree and has 5 years since collection Alders endure heavy trimming perfectly

The leaf size last season was ranging from 4-6,5cm last season. Still big. I think this year with the increased density of ramification and smaller container the size will get smaller. Alders are very vigorous and in summer use tons of water. They could live submerged like a bald cypress. I think restricting the watering could help but I haven’t tried yet.

That alder is awesome! I am working with our native Rocky Mountain alder. It is one of my favorite species!

I also keep mine submerged in water in the summer, because it dries out so quick. I’m going to put it in a bigger and deeper pot this year.

 

[Zaratrusta]

I've found that pot size and water are great factors of downsizing their growth. But also leaf removal in summer will cause a second flush with smaller foliage. Nutrients seem to play a big role too, but I haven't focused on that yet.
I'm growing a couple hundred and their foliage is as big as my hands if I'm growing them in water.

I haven’t tried doing a leaf removal. Do you cut to two leaves the new flush of growth after the hardening and then remove those two?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I forgot to water and half of the leaves died. As an experiment I removed them all after they hardened off. The second flush came about a week or two later and it was pretty small. With the exception of the apex, for some reason those were still huge!

 

[Zaratrusta]

Good afternoon guys!
Since winter came back in Spain a lot of my trees stopped the bud swelling so repot season will continue in the future. Today I repotted a few seedlings of A. burgerianum. The root work was slaughter.
All for the sake of good a foundation. Next year I will attach a wood tile because I’m looking for the “pancake” nebari.

The main course was this Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) in a shohin size however to be precise it is 2 different seedling the grew together and now look fused. I know the tree is not in proportion with the pot but the plan is to grow to fill it. The last repot 2 years ago I did a poorly job and should reduced back more the thicker roots. In this one I went harder correcting issues but for the moment the nebari still look bad. Hope it make it

I love the fall colours of this species. Vibrant reds and purples intermingled. The branches sometimes grow with wings.

Have a nice day

 

[Zaratrusta]

I forgot about this Hawthorn yamadori I’m preparing
It’s too late

 

[Zaratrusta]

And this raft too!

 

[Zaratrusta]

And this hawthorn has a lot of potential. Almost 20cm trunk thickness with great movement that divides into two trunks. You could go for an expansive canopy mimicking a ancient oak.
I’m afraid of kill it to begin with so I don’t know if some day I will pull it out.

 

[Zaratrusta]

I got to play with this A. Burgerianum after eating lunch. I had 30 min to do the repot so the stakes were high haha.
This is a little maple root over rock from seed 7 years ago. Root placement was messy in the beginnings and now there are a few gaps between the rock and roots. Not ideal

The main branches are all set up so the main goal is grow the canopy wider and beef the trunk a little bit so the roots can fuse faster.

Now I need advice. Would you cut down the roots of the back side (see 4th photo). They made a strange arc before meeting the rock. My hope is in the future the gap will close and look more natural but I don’t know if it is feasible

 

[Zaratrusta]

Today I did a repot on a English Oak (Querqus Robur) yamadori. 4 years from the ground and now that is well established I put it in his ceramic pot. Tons of fine roots!
I want to grow the left trunk and make a slightly taller apex.

 

[Zaratrusta]

Bonus post!

Another alder prebonsai I’ve been developing since a pencil size seedling 6 years ago.
On the design I’m not sure what to do though. Trunk is quite straight and flavorless haha and the only salvable thing is the nebari. Time will answer me.

 

[Zaratrusta]

Photo of my shohin Ash Tree leafing out. The compounded leaves look wonderful at this stage. I feel like the photo don’t do justice and in my opinion is an underrated specie.

 

[Zaratrusta]

Phew today it was the turn to repot my biggest tree, a Japanese Maple (var. Sangokaku) in a multitrunk style. The raw material came from a nursery and graft was an eyesore so I decided to air layered 8 years ago. The first try was a failure (also my first airlayer) so in the next year I tried again and it was a succes with complete radial roots. After that, 6 years ago, I repotted improving the nebari and 2 year more( 4 y ago) I did the last repot. I should have done it last year
Today was the longest repot I’ve ever done (3 hours) because of how densely was the root ball.
The nebari looks good and somewhat wild and it’s starting to fuse. It’s 16 cm ish wide. I plan to make the tree quite more expansive canopy wise and the height remain the same so I’m pinching new fleshy shoots of the top part to restraint the growth and let the bottom branches run free so the energy is more balanced. Also eliminating buds that emerge from the crotches of branches and the trunk that are no needed. In this autumn I will select more the branches for the design because at this moment looks quite shrubby and not precise.

Happy Sunday guys