Fall Transplanting – Timing and a Light Touch

A freshly transplanted Black pine. From our Masters’ Series Pine book. When it comes to transplanting, timing depends on your climate. Here in northern Vermont seasons can change rapidly and winters are very cold. If you live in a warmer climate fall comes later for you and there is more margin for error. One advantage to transplanting in the early fall is when the spring season starts, little or no growing time is lost. Roots grow in the fall when the soil is still warm and after diminished light and cool nights have shut top growth down. By the time … Continue reading Fall Transplanting – Timing and a Light Touch

Fall Transplanting: Timing and a Light Touch

A freshly transplanted Black pine. From our Masters’ Series Pine book. When it comes to transplanting, timing depends on your climate. This post is based on conditions here in northern Vermont where seasons can change rapidly and winters are very cold. If you live in a warmer climate, there is more margin for error. One advantage to transplanting in the early fall is that when the spring season starts, little or no growing time is lost. Roots experience strong growth in the fall while the soil is still warm and after the top has shut down. By the time the … Continue reading Fall Transplanting: Timing and a Light Touch

Fall Transplanting: Taking Full Advantage of Next Year’s Growing Season

Time to repot. Morten Albek intentionally broke the pot to show this Cork bark Japanese black pine’s dense root mass. From Morten’s book, Shohin Bonsai (Stone Lantern Publishing). Vacation ended around midnight last night. Still, in light of a whole slew of post vacation demands, I’m going to indulge in one more journey into our archives. This one is from August, 2009, which in the life of this blog, qualifies as ancient. We’ll stick with our current topic, fall transplanting. With one caveat: opinions abound on how to do most anything, and fall transplanting (really almost any bonsai task) is … Continue reading Fall Transplanting: Taking Full Advantage of Next Year’s Growing Season

Fall Color & More Bonsai Events

I found this brilliant Rockspray Cotoneaster by searching fall bonsai color. Turns out that, though I must admit that I didn’t recognize it (this doesn’t bode well), it appeared right here on Bonsai Bark way back in 2009. Anyway, not only is it striking with it’s hundreds of multi-hued little leaves, but it just so happens that it’s belongs to Bill Valavanis who is hosting a big event this weekend (see below). Not to rush things, but for some of us fall has already insinuated its way into our thoughts and conversations (last night it was 36F here). Often these … Continue reading Fall Color & More Bonsai Events

Cutting Corners: Fall Transplanting

A freshly transplanted Black pine. The photo is from our Masters’ Series Pine book. Three’s a charm Much of what follows originally appeared in 2010 and much of that reappeared in 2012. Normally that would be enough, but because this one is so seasonally pertinent and because we have so many new readers, it’s worth at least one more shot. It’s also worth mentioning that we’ve added some new text and done some editing. Fall transplanting It’s the beginning of fall transplanting season here in the north country. One advantage to transplanting in the early fall is that when the … Continue reading Cutting Corners: Fall Transplanting

Fall Transplanting: Pros & Cons

Time to repot. Morten Albek intentionally broke the pot to show this Cork bark Japanese black pine’s dense root mass. From Morten’s book, Shohin Bonsai (Stone Lantern Publishing). This post originally appeared in August 2009 (Bonsai Bark’s first year, which means we are now in year 4 going on year 5). I’m still in the midst of mid-summer semi vacation time, so we’ll continue to dig through some old posts to see if we can find anything useful. In this case, fall is just around the corner for some of us (sadly), so why not discuss fall transplanting? BTW: I’ve … Continue reading Fall Transplanting: Pros & Cons

Cutting Corners & Other Transplanting Tips

A freshly transplanted Black pine. The photo is from our Masters’ Series Pine book. Fall transplanting It’s fall transplanting season here in the north country. One advantage to transplanting in the fall is that the tree is fully recovered when the spring season starts, so no top-growth time is lost. The reason this works is that roots experience strong growth in the fall, long after the top has shut down. So by the time the tree wakes up in the spring, the roots are fully recovered. Top pruning in the fall It can be a good idea to top prune … Continue reading Cutting Corners & Other Transplanting Tips

Field Growing #9: Fall Transplanting #2

Time to go back into the ground I moved this crabapple into this Tokoname pot in the spring. I wanted to photograph it covered in fresh little red apples, but the birds ate them the morning I planned on shooting. It’s not really ready for bonsai anyway; the nebari needs more time, the scar needs to heal and more branching needs to develop, so I’m going to stick it back into the ground in a couple weeks (I’ll post a photo). As an aside, I just noticed how the companion plant’s pot (by Wendy Heller) mirrors the color and texture … Continue reading Field Growing #9: Fall Transplanting #2

Green Workshop: Fall Transplanting Pros & Cons

Time to repot. Morten Albek intentionally broke the pot to show this Cork bark Japanese black pine’s dense root mass. From Morten’s book, Shohin Bonsai (Stone Lantern Publishing). Why transplant in the fall? If you transplant in the fall your trees can take full advantage of the next growing season. If you transplant in the spring (that’s when most people do it), by the time the tree recovers, you’ve lost part of the growing season. Why not transplant in the fall? If you have an early winter and your bonsai haven’t fully recovered from transplanting, then you risk serious damage … Continue reading Green Workshop: Fall Transplanting Pros & Cons