Bonsai anyone?

[maddie]

maddie I think it is always wiser to err on the size of caution. At my bonsai club the members often talk about a tree a member had that produced a huge crop of fruit one year. They say that shortly afterwards the tree died. I wasn't a member yet then, so I don't know too much about it, but if my memory serves me correctly it was a pomegranate tree.

This can happen with any tree or plant. I am not for mass production.. I don't even care if my bonsai produces fruit.. I am just happy to have the plant because i love it and enjoy it. I am only speaking about what I see with my little orange and lemon trees. Like Chanell says even a bowl of berries or nothing at all is good enough for me.
I have a pomegranate it is still too young to bear fruit.. I believe that nature has it way of handling stuff. What we are doing is feeding plants to give us more.. I think this is what is killing our plants.. I may be wrong.. anyways.. I am as I said earlier I am not for mass production.

Take a look at this beautiful specimen of bonsai .. I love this wisteria

@ Chanell, I am sorry that nature gave you a bad deal.. I hope you will have many more bowls of fruit.

 

[LindaKay]

I think bonsais are positively beautiful.

 

[Gina145]

maddie that Wisteria is really beautiful. Is it yours? How tall is it?

Chanell, bonsai don't have to be that small. Some of the members of my club have trees that need four strong men to carry them. I try to restrict myself to trees that I can move myself, but even some of my trees are more than a foot high.

 

[RoyalFeather]

I have been considering bonsai since I love the magic of miniature tree or landscape.

Would an avocado tree be a good idea? I have one that it now three years old and about 15" tall. I'd hate to kill it, though by making it miniature. They can grow to over 50 feet tall, but I have seen them pruned to 6 feet.

A friend of mine has a couple of little pines that she has been working with.

 

[maddie]

maddie that Wisteria is really beautiful. Is it yours? How tall is it?

Chanell, bonsai don't have to be that small. Some of the members of my club have trees that need four strong men to carry them. I try to restrict myself to trees that I can move myself, but even some of my trees are more than a foot high.

No, unfortunately it is not mine. I wish it was. It is just one of those pictures online. I just wanted to share the beauty of a bonsai here.

 

[Gina145]

I have been considering bonsai since I love the magic of miniature tree or landscape.

Would an avocado tree be a good idea? I have one that it now three years old and about 15" tall. I'd hate to kill it, though by making it miniature. They can grow to over 50 feet tall, but I have seen them pruned to 6 feet.

A friend of mine has a couple of little pines that she has been working with.

An avocado tree isn't really suited for bonsai because the leaves are so big. Leaf size can be reduced but I don't think the leaf size of an avocado tree can ever be reduced enough to make a convincing bonsai. Also the size of fruit can never be reduced.

While saying that, I've never let anyone tell me what I can't do. I've got a couple of young avocado trees (grown from seed) in my collection. Avocados normally grow very straight trunks, but one of mine had a mind of its own and is very bent. The other one was grown from an unusually small seed and the tree and its leaves are abnormally small. A year ago it seemed so weak I thought it was going to die, but somehow it recovered.

Pine trees on the other hand are good bonsai material, yet I don't have one.

 

[RoyalFeather]

Avocados don't fruit for 5-10 years and mine will probably be more like 10 or it may not even fruit at all unless it is grafted. It may work for the larger range of Bonsai trees just not the tiny ones. I like the charm of the giant leaves on a little tree, may not be traditional, but I like the quirk. I may just let it grow, though for fear of killing it, since I am rather attached to this tree.

I can gather some wild specimens from my grandpa's property. Pine, fir, maple, among others. That way I would know for sure they are able to survive my climate.

 

[Gina145]

My avocado trees have always grown in pots, so I've taken no risks with them so far. They take to pruning quite well, but I haven't tried cutting the roots yet, so I don't know how they would react to that. I know some species of trees can be very sensitive when it comes to root work.

Of the wild specimens you mention, the only one I've ever worked with is the maple. I've found they're less fussy than a lot of other trees in terms of both pruning and root work and they can look quite spectacular when their leaves turn red in autumn. They're one of my favorite species to work with.

 

[ChanellG]

maddie that Wisteria is really beautiful. Is it yours? How tall is it?

Chanell, bonsai don't have to be that small. Some of the members of my club have trees that need four strong men to carry them. I try to restrict myself to trees that I can move myself, but even some of my trees are more than a foot high.

Hmmmm... so any tree can be a bonsai or is it only certain varieties? My mom has quite a few food producing trees, so I don't really need a fruit producing bonsai per se, lol, but... I may have to look into this. We will have a lot of citrus this year, but the other trees are still a bit young.

 

[Gina145]

Chanell, maybe not any tree, but most varieties of trees and even some shrubs can be used for bonsai. Big trees with thick trunks are quite desirable and can be worth a lot of money, but they're not easy to work with, particularly for a woman.The problems some species present are difficulty in reducing the leaf size (as I referred to with avocados) or the risk of root pruning damaging or even killing the tree. I know of one type of oak that is very desirable but very sensitive when it comes to root work. A couple of members of my club have succeeded with them, but even some really expert growers struggle to keep them alive once root work is required. For someone new to bonsai it is important to choose a tree that is easy to keep alive.

If you're interested in creating a bonsai from a citrus tree, I recommend something like a kumquat or calamondin which naturally produces small fruit.

If you've got a particular species in mind, I might be able to tell you whether it's worth trying.

 

[RoyalFeather]

Got my first two trees yesterday! A little Shore Pine and a Madrone. They are both wild harvested specimens from the Oregon Dunes. I have them planted in a 70% sand mixture since that is what they are accustomed to.

 

[ChanellG]

The problems some species present are difficulty in reducing the leaf size (as I referred to with avocados) or the risk of root pruning damaging or even killing the tree...

If you're interested in creating a bonsai from a citrus tree, I recommend something like a kumquat or calamondin which naturally produces small fruit...

If you've got a particular species in mind, I might be able to tell you whether it's worth trying.

I don't care for kumquats and my mother already has a tree, so I would have to think about it. I have a baby lemon bush, but maybe a bonsai plum tree would be nice. Loquat trees are popular here and I've seen fruit on small trees. They don't have small leaves, but you don't need a large tree at least to get fruit.

I don't have a lot of space and the yard is already dominated by a large Japanese maple.

 

[Gina145]

I've been working with cuttings from a big plum tree in our garden, but they're not at the bonsai stage yet. I don't remember seeing a proper plum bonsai, but it's certainly worth a try. I don't know anything about Loquat trees. They are actually regarded as weeds where I live.

If you're able to do it, a cutting or air layer from that Japanese maple would be a really good candidate for bonsai.

 

[ChanellG]

I don't know anything about Loquat trees. They are actually regarded as weeds where I live.

LOL, they are considered weeds by many people where I live too! They are a bit of a nuisance, in fact, I have one growing between the side of my house and the porch in a spot I can't reach and I have no idea how it got there. I suppose a bird could have dropped a seed or maybe it got blown there in a storm, who knows?

 

[Gina145]

Chanell I have that problem with mulberries. They seem to pop up everywhere and I keep pulling the seedlings up and planting them in pots. I even had one pop up in my back yard, in a crack between the wall and the cement floor. It was impossible to dig it up, but I managed to air-layer the tree, and once it was growing on new roots I had to kill off the old roots before they did damage to the wall.