Bunjeh
Chumono
The visuals still haunt my mind.
Wonder if there is any breeding going on in the bonsai community?
- Thread starter Disgruntled_ficus
- Start date
Disgruntled_ficus
Yamadori
Im not suggesting that hobbyists take it on and especially not with trees that are difficult to reproduce... do what makes you happy with your trees
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rockm
Spuds Moyogi
Again, "breeding for bonsai" is a job that doesn't need to be taken up. Bonsaiists have been selecting and maintaining (cloning, planting and cultivating) cultivars and species that are more amenable to bonsai treatment for hundreds of years.
Do a search on "Yatsubusa" varieties of plants, look at the many different kinds of Trident maples and Japanese maples, the relatively recent adoption of a native American (and European and Southeast Asian) species as "bonsaiable," (In North America--ponderosa pine, bald cypress, buttonwood, rocky mountain juniper, cedar elm and more than a few others are recognized as ideal species to work with).
Do a search on "Yatsubusa" varieties of plants, look at the many different kinds of Trident maples and Japanese maples, the relatively recent adoption of a native American (and European and Southeast Asian) species as "bonsaiable," (In North America--ponderosa pine, bald cypress, buttonwood, rocky mountain juniper, cedar elm and more than a few others are recognized as ideal species to work with).
barrosinc
Masterpiece
Disgruntled_ficus
Yamadori
Interesting, this is the sort of information I was looking for originally.
I tend to think that there is always progress to be made,i.e., we don't just stop breeding crops because they are profitable... its a continuum not a binary outcome
Anthony
Imperial Masterpiece
With regards to the Fustic - [ Chlorophora t.] which has leaves similar to a Zelkova, and a natural broom pattern.
We found, zelkova type leaves, leaves that look as though bitten by leaf cutting ants, and extreme versions of leaf cutting shapes.
Additionally, smooth bark, and various versions of rough bark.
The smooth bark type, will grow an extreme amount of branchlets.
All we have to do is look, and variations keep showing up.
All types exhibit good surface roots, though the tree does not do this normally.
Plants will grow from cuttings 1" so far and airlayers.
So it is possible to just look around for new mutations.
Good Day
Anthony
We found, zelkova type leaves, leaves that look as though bitten by leaf cutting ants, and extreme versions of leaf cutting shapes.
Additionally, smooth bark, and various versions of rough bark.
The smooth bark type, will grow an extreme amount of branchlets.
All we have to do is look, and variations keep showing up.
All types exhibit good surface roots, though the tree does not do this normally.
Plants will grow from cuttings 1" so far and airlayers.
So it is possible to just look around for new mutations.
Good Day
Anthony
rockm
Spuds Moyogi
Original Post:
"Are you guys aware of any real efforts to to breed and select for qualities advantageous to bonsai with any species?"
Answers seem to be pretty much in the same lane. Don't know where you took that extreme right hand turn.
Smoke
Ignore-Amus
It is a pretty cool sign though....
I think a more direct answer is going to be, we can select for traits, and propagate the parts that gots what we wants. See Brent's contorted quince.
But breed? I'm a lot less sure that I have enough lifetime or space to grow out standard examples and select from them. A-n-d grow the children out for a few generations...
But breed? I'm a lot less sure that I have enough lifetime or space to grow out standard examples and select from them. A-n-d grow the children out for a few generations...
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
Everytime I see this thread it's all I can do to not jump all over this. Could have so much fun it would probably be criminal.
grouper52
Masterpiece
For whatever reason (maybe the nature of the "starting material"), it has been my observation after fifteen years in bonsai that this is probably one of the least likely hobbies to transform guys into irresistible chick-magnets.
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
That's why I took up the hobby initially. Im in it for the girls. Bonsai groupies.
Disgruntled_ficus
Yamadori
brewmeister83
Chumono
Girl - "So what do you do for fun?"
Guy - "I grow Bonsai!"
Girl - "Bonsai? You mean those little trees? Does it take a long time to grow them?"
Guy - "Yup, can take as long as twenty years or more..."
Girl - "Really?"
Guy - "Yup, but I'm not afraid of a long term commitment."
Instant points with the ladies!
Smoke
Ignore-Amus
garywood
Chumono
Mad Man,there are a few of us mad men ;-) I started 30+ yrs ago with JM's and selected for bonsai and gardens and M. Hagedorn has been crossing red to white Chojubai in experiments and I'm sure there are "few" more mad men around that aren't involved in forums ;-) Choose your subject and jump in. Coffee filters are your best friend for isolation,
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
brewmeister83
Chumono
I've always lamented the fact that there's very few if not zero cultivars of some sort of American maple species that can even come close to JMs or tridents... There's thousands of acres of red maple around me, and I've seen tons of variation in my lifetime living here... smooth bark, rough bark, thick plated bark (corky?), straight n' tall to scraggly n' sprawling, with fall colors that go from lemony yellow to dark maroon... - there's gotta be at least one mutation with small leaves/twigs/internodes... maybe I need to do what the Japanese and Chinese did a thousand years ago and start searching for that one elusive tree to propagate...
Forget the groupies! I've got some searchin' to do!
Forget the groupies! I've got some searchin' to do!
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
I've looked too. I also look real hard at white oak. I did find a naturally dwarfed Eastern White pine a couple years ago though.
It doesn't look quite like this anymore though. The largest trunk died last year. The tree is only 9" tall and the needles are under an inch.
I'll have to start a thread on it.
It doesn't look quite like this anymore though. The largest trunk died last year. The tree is only 9" tall and the needles are under an inch.I'll have to start a thread on it.
grouper52
Masterpiece
It's certainly a group planting - or maybe a grope planting of sorts - but I'm not sure it's the sort of group planting we're after for breeding purposes. The cultivars produced might be a bit prone to reverse taper or sumo style or some such, from the looks of it. A lack or taper. A certain propensity to malodorous root rot. A disposition towards basal swelling. A randy wading in the shallow end of the gene pool. A devolutionary dalliance in the retrograde trajectory of the end times, the Kali Yuga, TEOTWAWKI.
I think I'll take a bath. A long bath.
