Working on another rock pot:)

[petegreg]

I like the idea of making pots using lava rocks. And the grey coloured lava you have. Here are some lava rocks that can be found here. The colour is brown-red, similar to lava granules imported from Italy. It's so soft I can use a screwdriver to make sth out of it. The only thing that keeps me not to use it for making a pot is it's porosity. When watered with tap water it will get stained white from calcium... the same can happen if chemical ferts are used. How will you solve this?

 

[ConorDash]

I haven't trimmed it yet but here's a few pics of it today in it's new home after a re-pot and root trim

It's the long straight support like branches that get me. How they go either side of the tree and then in between the big branches. I've never seen that before, how does it do that..

 

[abqjoe]

I like the idea of making pots using lava rocks. And the grey coloured lava you have. Here are some lava rocks that can be found here. The colour is brown-red, similar to lava granules imported from Italy. It's so soft I can use a screwdriver to make sth out of it. The only thing that keeps me not to use it for making a pot is it's porosity. When watered with tap water it will get stained white from calcium... the same can happen if chemical ferts are used. How will you solve this?
View attachment 110487

Our lava rock is actually very hard! This could be due to it's age as our volcanoes are millions of years old. The state of New Mexico actually has more volcanoes than any other single place in the world to my knowledge. We have jet black lava rock, reddish lava rock, and some is so old that it's a mixture of white and black. The stuff I gather from the desert out here actually has a very interesting type of moss on it too. At first glance it looks white like a hard water stain, but, spray some water on it and after about 20-30 seconds it comes to life, turns green, and then goes back to white once the water is no more. PM me your address and I'll check to see how much it would cost to ship you a couple of smaller character lava rocks so that you can check it out. If it's not to much I'll ship them to you on my dime, that is of course if you're interested in having them?

 

[abqjoe]

It's the long straight support like branches that get me. How they go either side of the tree and then in between the big branches. I've never seen that before, how does it do that..

IDK the exact answer to your question but the points you raise are also what makes these trees interesting and appealing to me too Their super easy to care for too! I've seen quite a few nice ones for sale in Florida. Nice thing about getting one of these shipped in from Florida is that it's so darn humid out there that tree's from there have awesome aerial roots. If I were to grow one from young out here in New Mexico I could never achieve aerial roots because of how dry our climate is.

 

[jomawa]

Here's the main tools that I'm using.

Yep, those'll work, diamond tubes, diamond disk, and sledge hammer chisel. You're definately making decent divits. The 7" skill saw simply allows deeper first passes. Used a similar hammer chisel to remove the remains of a curb that I beat off the bulk of with a sledge hammer. Every bit of concrete my chisel broke loose was better for me but in your case fine controlling that chisel would seem to be rather difficult, especially with fragile lava/pumice. I don't know of any chisel tool that would only hit with say about an eigth of a pound, but the momment my brain took to ponder, it came up with the brain fart, "if one was to use a smaller Ryobi (ERH600V)hammer drill with a 1/4" to 1/2" chisel bit and voltage power reducer on the cord, maybe it would be possible to not blow out holes like the "sledge chisel" does." But good luck either way on any more of your "boring" projects. And yeah, I too like the character found in lava/pumice for bonsai, and am very glad to be surrounded by "extinct" volcanoes, er, some anyway.

 

[petegreg]

@abqjoe you are right. This volcano is really one of the youngest non active here in Europe. And it has something with the original geological architecture, types of original rocks...
Thanks for your unusual offer I appreciate it.
Here's some funny project, 2 years old zanthoxylum cutting plus lava rock. The groove was made by a screwdriver. In the bottom you can see mentioned white stains from water. Rain water would work fine...

 

[abqjoe]

@abqjoe you are right. This volcano is really one of the youngest non active here in Europe. And it has something with the original geological architecture, types of original rocks...
Thanks for your unusual offer I appreciate it.
Here's some funny project, 2 years old zanthoxylum cutting plus lava rock. The groove was made by a screwdriver. In the bottom you can see mentioned white stains from water. Rain water would work fine...
View attachment 110528 View attachment 110529

Looks very happy!

 

[AlanReynolds]

Sorry to dig up such an old thread but I saw a link from something I was searching for on google and had to throw in a feather rock planter I created a couple years ago. I still have more feather rocks to carve but they are time consuming and messy, especially when you hit like a copper vein within the rock. it takes alot longer to grind through when you hit some kind of metal vein within the feather rock your carving on. I don't know if its the rock or what but I've actually lost a juniper or 2 in this particular planter. No reason or rhyme to why I have had problems growing junipers in this particular feather rock but this juniper seems to be doing much better than the previous one. Sorry about the slightly crooked pic as I had to use my laptop camera to take the pic just now as my phone broke. I used many tools to carve this rock, in fact I specifically remember using some strange tools on this one, including and air compressor cutoff wheel, dye grinder, and a soup spoon. whatever works I guess lol But feather rock really does make an awesome bonsai planter. This is the Juniper that's being trained in that specific feather rock carving and will probably stay in it for the next couple years. When I get a new phone in a day or two, I can take a pic of the other side (as it does have a dramatic angle and I use living moss to hold the soil from washing out of it) of it if anyone is interested in it just let me know.

 

[Tieball]

View attachment 164337When I get a new phone in a day or two, I can take a pic of the other side (as it does have a dramatic angle and I use living moss to hold the soil from washing out of it) of it if anyone is interested in it just let me know.

No hurray on the photo...but I am interested in detail photos of the carving. I have a FeatherRock.....quite large right now. When set horizontal it is 12” x 18”....well it looks quite large anyway. It has a good thickness all the way around. I don’t know what to do with it yet so I’m always watching for FeatherRock use ideas and carving of the rock. I attached a couple photos of the rock I have....with it’s destiny unknown.

 

[AlanReynolds]

I don't have any actual photos of me in the process of carving it unfortunately, it was a couple years ago, but it did take me awhile to dremel out those hollows on the sides and the arch on the underneath side. I also have a couple large lime rock landscape boulders that I drilled a hole into, put a piece of re bar into, stood it upright so it stands about 3 1/2 feet -4 foot tall, and carved out the top to plant a nice cascading bonsai into it. i hid the connection between the 2 boulders with some sphagnum moss and some small ferns to hide the rebar that holds the 2 bolder together and upright. As soon as my new phone comes in the mail, I'll take a pic of that also and upload it. I may have some pictures of me building that beast also somewhere around here and that project took a couple of days as lime-rock is alot harder to carve a planter out of then feather rock does. Next time I think I am going to try pool acid to melt the lime rock instead of drill bits and chisels...

 

[AlanReynolds]

As far as your rock goes, I would use the long flat section as the bottom of the planter and take a sharpy marker and draw a planter on the top side of the rock(be careful to only mark where you are cutting off because sharpy doesn't wash off the rock very well at all but works great to design the rock). Once the planter area for the roots of the bonsai is dug out and a drainage hole is made, then the aesthetic design can happen after that like the side holes , the bottom arch, the foot to stabilize it, etc. Like I said in my previous post, i used regular air tools and dremels, but it so happened a regular grapefruit teaspoon (the spoon with the sharp notches on the tip) became very useful also.

 

[M. Frary]

No reason or rhyme to why I have had problems growing junipers in this particular feather rock

You do keep it outside?

 

[AlanReynolds]

Yes sir, I have 4500 plants in my backyard, I just brought it in for photograph. In fact, I've propagated so many plants, I had to turn my roof into a rooftop garden just to make room. It's just that particular planter for some reason, but after a couple years, whatever it was seems to be ok now.

 

[M. Frary]

Yes sir, I have 4500 plants in my backyard, I just brought it in for photograph. In fact, I've propagated so many plants, i had to turn my roof into a rooftop garden just to make room.

Awesome!
I had to check,you know.

 

[AlanReynolds]

When it happened, it definitely had me scratching my head. Go figure. if you look at my avatar photo, that is one small part of my rooftop garden.

 

[Tieball]

Yes sir, I have 4500 plants in my backyard, I just brought it in for photograph. In fact, I've propagated so many plants, I had to turn my roof into a rooftop garden just to make room. It's just that particular planter for some reason, but after a couple years, whatever it was seems to be ok now.

4500......Yikes!

 

[AlanReynolds]

Yea, I'm always selling something on craigslist just to make room in my backyard. Propagate, water, grow, sell. Doesn't cost me anything but time. So to me its extra $$. Most of my plants are geared to bonsai growth so I sell a boatload of starter bonsai to the newbies in the area, and the rest are houseplants. I'm not much of a flowery kind of guy so I don't really grow a lot of flowers.

 

[Tieball]

Yea, I'm always selling something on craigslist just to make room in my backyard. Propagate, water, grow, sell. Doesn't cost me anything but time. So to me its extra $$. Most of my plants are geared to bonsai growth so I sell a boatload of starter bonsai to the newbies in the area, and the rest are houseplants. I'm not much of a flowery kind of guy so I don't really grow a lot of flowers.

Ahhh...I get it. Nice way to keep the cash flow moving along in the right direction. Well done.

 

[abqjoe]

I've never had a problem with tree's that I've put in rock pots that I've made. In fact, they seem to do quite well