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

In Search of the Perfect Nebari – part five

This post is a continuation of In Search of the Perfect Nebari – part four. From the bottom…. …and the top. After combing out and pruning the roots, there are still a few things to do before potting.

An Ingenious Technique: part 2

Artist’s rendition of what a nebari might look like using this technique. If you are a very quick study or an old bonsai maven (or both) you probably figured out how to use this technique using just the three images in the previous post. However, if you need more detail (can’t hurt), here’s a big hunk of the rest of the original images, which appeared in Bonsai Today issue 8.

Field Growing 3: Spreading Roots & More

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, … Continue reading Field Growing 3: Spreading Roots & More