Bonsai Update

Not much is happening in my bonsai world right now. We are mid summer, and right now bonsai activity consists mostly of just trying to make sure the trees don't get fried to a crisp, and get enough water. The last week or so the heat has let up a little with highs remaining in the mid 90's to just below 100f. This Spring I dug up two trees that I had been growing out in the ground for the last few years. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the elm is going to make it... I'm a little sad (of course) because this tree was in the ground for maybe 4 years(?) and has the trunk size i was looking for. Unfortunately when I dug it up, I noticed that its trunk, below the first branch, was about twice as long as I was hoping for. The plan was to get it growing in the pot, and maybe try and air layer it next year. The tree had other ideas...

Ill keep watering it and praying for a miracle, but i think she is a gonner :(

The other tree was another 'failed' experiment. I had planted 3 small (less than pencil thick) seedlings together and through the middle of a CD. The idea was that the tiny trees would grow until the CD choked off their trunks (below the soil line), and force the trees to fuse and root above the CD- making a nice thick trunk and a flared flat root structure. Unfortunately these trees grew uncharacteristically slowly, and the CD disintegrated before it could force the trees to fuse. I saved the largest of the three trees and planted it in a pot.

can for scale

This is a volunteer from a mulberry across the street. It is doing well in its new home, and has sent out numerous long shoots.

The older wood you can see is where I had to prune it prior to digging it up. I always try to leave some foliage on the trees when I dig them up, and this is where the lowest leaves where at the time. It has back budded well, and send numerous shoots out low on the trunks. The plan for this tree today was just to reduce the length of the tallest shoots that where coming from the tallest parts of the trunks to encourage even more back budding lower down.

minimal pruning

I'm not sure what the overall plan for this tree is, but those existing trunks are obviously too long and straight to remain. The immediate plan is to get the roots healthy, and maybe do a hard cut to establish the lowest branch as the main trunk (next spring).

Proposed new trunk line

In other news, the Gunrae Satsuki is filling in quite densly:

I will have no problem compacting the branches next spring... I did prune a few areas on it today, mostly just removing what would become 'whorls' . Azaleas like to send out 5 shoots from where the flowers where. I thinned these to 2, and generally just opened up some of the canopy to let light into the interior to encourage the new branches that had sprouted closer to the trunks. Pre-spring pruning will probably see this tree reduce by about half of its current width...

more open canopy to let light in to the interior

Oh, I never mentioned; as a bonus during the initial pruning I found several of the lowest branches had touched the soil and actually rooted! So, I ended up with 4 rooted cutting from this tree. Next spring they will probably get moved into their own individual pots to grow out.

the 'nursery'

Again, I don't have the most exciting (pre)Bonsai collection, but I thought you all might be interested in seeing how my trees are doing. Documenting on Steemit should also provide for some good progression posts in the future...

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