Fish seaweed is mild and well-balanced for fall fertilizing.
Reduced nitrogen
Horticulturists, bonsai teachers and others have long been advising people to reduce nitrogen fertilizing in late summer and fall. The keyword is “reduce.” Some nitrogen is necessary when you fertilize otherwise the phosphorous, potassium and other nutrients can’t do their job properly.
Fall growing season in mild climates
Here’s what Michael Hagedorn of Crataegus Bonsai has to say about nitrogen and the fall growing season: “We might also begin thinking about fall fertilizing. I think fall fertilizing is more important for bonsai, particularly developed ones, than spring fertilizing. In Japan more fertilizer is sold for bonsai in the fall than in the spring. If you live in the Pacific Northwest or other areas with a long, mild fall, re-fertilizing the trees is very wise as it is as long and nearly as productive a growing season as spring.
Continue reading ‘Fall Fertilizing: Nitrogen’
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 on the bark on the crabapple (a fortuitous accident).
Clip and grow
The visible scar is where I cut the tree down to its current size (to about 10″ – 25cm, from about 30″ – 76cm) when it came out of the field the last time. There’s another barely visible scar lower down on the back from the first major cut five years ago. This technique is called clip and grow.
Continue reading ‘Field Growing #9: Fall Transplanting #2′
A Cole’s prostrate hemlock (Tsuga canadensis ‘Cole’s Prostrate’) that went from nursery container to my back yard and then into this growing pot (it’s now back in the ground, no photo yet). I cut off about 75% of the original. Some of the deadwood is new, but the more faded deadwood on the trunk was already there. Photo by Amy Palmer.
Old Cole’s prostrate hemlocks
A couple years ago I stumbled across eight amazing old Cole’s prostrate hemlocks in nursery pots at Palmer Koelb’s Baker Valley Nursery in New Hampshire (Palmer also owns Shin Boku Nursery). Palmer loves Okatsune tools, so we worked up a trade and I brought them home and stuck them in some landscaped areas around my house.
Continue reading ‘Field Growing #8: Old Cole’s Hemlocks’
These simple illustrations of the clip and grow technique are from a website called The Bonsai Primer. The left image shows the first cut, the next one shows the second cut, and so forth. If you go to the comments in our previous field growing post, Brian Van Fleet gives an excellent description of exactly what these illustrations are all about.
Most large Trident maples (and some other deciduous trees) are started in the field and developed using the clip and grow technique. The result is usually a heavy trunked tree with gentle curves, often in a more or less S shape. You can see this basic shape in the Trident maple in our previous field growing post. A variation of this S curve also shows up in the pine that is shown in the same post, though it was created by other means (trimming and wiring), as pines and other conifers don’t usually take to the clip and grow technique.
Continue reading ‘Field Growing #7: Clip & Grow Technique’
A pretty impressive bonsai with a modified S shape. It’s a Miyajima Japanese-Five Needle Pine (also called Japanese white pine – Pinus parviflora ‘Miyajima’) that was field grown for several years. The artist/owner is Ken Buell. The photo is from the 1st U. S. National Bonsai Exhibition Album.
Here’s the text of an email I received from Eric Killian…
I think bonsai bark has a lot of potential, but I’d love to see more on field growing. I have about 30-40 trees in the ground now but ground growing is completely new to me. Should I be giving trucks shape now? Possibly exaggerating it so in later years it will look like a nice flowing curve? I want to add character at a young age while avoiding the “S” trees that are mass produced.
Continue reading ‘Field Growing #6: What’s with S Shaped Curves?’
This Goldflame Japanese Spirea (Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’) was originally dug from a garden in the UK. It was styled by Harry Harrington. You can view it and numerous other noteworthy bonsai at bonsai4me.com.
One reason we’ve been featuring field growing so much is that the US government restrictions make importing quality stock from Asia somewhere between difficult and impossible (Europe is a whole other story – it’s easy for them to import Asian stock – which helps explain some of the differences between European and North American bonsai). This means that if we are going to develop quality bonsai stock in this country, we need to learn how to grow our own.
Continue reading ‘bonsai4me.com on Field Growing’
This Satsuki azalea (Rhododendron indicum) was originally field grown (it’s from Bonsai Today issue 40). Field growing is common for azaleas; some start as landscape plants and are later dug up for bonsai, while others are grown as bonsai stock from the beginning.
In our last field growing post we mention planting directly into native soil without digging in amendments when you plant. A friend of my points out that she has no native soil; her house and yard were built on fill. In our usage of native soil, we mean whatever soil is already there; in other words, my friend’s fill would be her native soil.
Continue reading ‘Field Growing 4: Native Soil’
Digging a field grown Japanese Black Pine. From Bonsai Today, issue 75.
In Field Growing 2 I said I just dug a hole and planted. Actually, that isn’t the whole story; when you field grow bonsai stock, you need to cut off the downward growing roots and spread the lateral roots. This encourages lateral top growth (above ground growth) and nebari development (check the top photo in Field Growing 2).
Some people put a board, or tile, or some other flat object a few inches under the roots to inhibit downward root growth and encourage lateral growth. Others, like me, just dig their plants up every couple years and prune and spread the roots each time.
Continue reading ‘Field Growing 3: Spreading Roots & More’
This impressive Trident maple’s (Acer buergeranum) massive nebari is a dead giveaway that it was field grown. The original article is in Bonsai Today issue 64.
I once read a report from Cornell University (I can’t find it; anybody?) about the advantages of planting trees directly into the native soil, rather than the common practice of digging in soil amendments, a practice that may be good for the garden center’s bottom line, but not so good for your plants.
If you think about it, it makes sense; if you create a pocket of richer soil, then the roots tend to stay in that pocket. In the not-so-long-run, this causes slower growth and increased susceptibility to drought and winter kill (this may be more relevant to landscape planting than to field growing bonsai, but in my case it works for both).
Continue reading ‘Field Growing 2: Native soil’
Have you tried field growing? You don’t need a lot of space to experiment with a small number of plants and the results will easily exceed expectations that have been conditioned by container growing.
One of the reasons the Japanese have so many well developed bonsai is field growing. In the west, we tend to grow bonsai stock in containers. In Japan, most stock is field grown; you’ve no doubt noticed the strikingly powerful Japanese Black Pines in the two photos above (from Morten Albek’s Shohin Bonsai). Though I don’t know how old those massive trunks are, my best guess is they are around fifteen or so, even though they look much, much older.
Continue reading ‘Have You Thought About Field Growing?’
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