eplov90
Yamadori
After reading @Roadrunner's post in the Aeroponic Propagation of JMs thread where he shared Mark Moreland's approach to create shohin trees by rooting whole sections of trees, I decided to try my hand. I didn't have all the right pieces available so I made do with what I had and seem to have been successful. I tried it on the old apex of a Japanese Maple that I had to cut off anyways to make room for a new leader and next year, will likely try it on nicer material.
Step 1 was preparing the bottle, cutting it in half and creating the holes to let the water in the reservoir below keep the soil most. The top was inverted, filled with regular bonsai soil(Kaizen mix) and inserted into the bottom of the bottle after that had been filled with water.
I then cut off the top of the JM, trimmed it back but still left a number of leaves.
Then, inserted the JM section into the soil and placed the whole contraption into a clear plastic, zip-loc bag.
The bag was sealed and left in a shady part of the garden with a check a few weeks in that showed no roots but healthy leaves. I put it back and left it there and just today, exactly two months after the start of the experiment, I noticed a root made its way all the way down to the holes over the water!
My plan is to leave it for now and towards the end of August start to expose it progressively to more air/less humidity, before potting it up in September. @RoadManDenDron how have you handled the transition to a pot?
Next year I will probably try the approach in a propagator dome instead of the bag and also try applying rooting hormone to the stem before putting it in the soil.
Step 1 was preparing the bottle, cutting it in half and creating the holes to let the water in the reservoir below keep the soil most. The top was inverted, filled with regular bonsai soil(Kaizen mix) and inserted into the bottom of the bottle after that had been filled with water.
I then cut off the top of the JM, trimmed it back but still left a number of leaves.
Then, inserted the JM section into the soil and placed the whole contraption into a clear plastic, zip-loc bag.
The bag was sealed and left in a shady part of the garden with a check a few weeks in that showed no roots but healthy leaves. I put it back and left it there and just today, exactly two months after the start of the experiment, I noticed a root made its way all the way down to the holes over the water!
My plan is to leave it for now and towards the end of August start to expose it progressively to more air/less humidity, before potting it up in September. @RoadManDenDron how have you handled the transition to a pot?
Next year I will probably try the approach in a propagator dome instead of the bag and also try applying rooting hormone to the stem before putting it in the soil.
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