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

Transplanting: The Happy Zone

Here’s Michael Hagedorn’s caption: “This maple in Shinji Suzuki’s tokonoma is in a pot typical of this kind of tree. It works better aesthetically, in two ways. A shallow pot will make the nebari continue spreading, and the delicacy of the trunks is enhanced by a shallower pot. But a maple is also a tree that appreciates water. And a shallow pot will retain more moisture than a deeper one, in a soil-to-soil relative way. It’s a wetter pot.” All the photos in this post are from Crataegus Bonsai. We’ve been talking about basics a lot lately. Specifically watering, fertilizing … Continue reading Transplanting: The Happy Zone

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

Trim, Wire, Feed, Transplant, Enjoy

Trident maple forest from Bonsai Today issue 14. Back issues of Bonsai Today are 75% off. We don’t often use Bonsai Bark to advertise our products, but in this case, because so many of you have been waiting for our Bonsai Aesthetics wire, we’re making a somewhat rare exception. Our famous and enormously popular Bonsai Aesthetics wire is back, and, as always, the prices are unbeatable. 1 Kilo rolls are from 14.80 to 18.50 each depending on how many you buy, and 100 gram rolls are from 2.36 to 2.95 also depending on how many you buy. Roshi Bonsai Tool … Continue reading Trim, Wire, Feed, Transplant, Enjoy

Some Silly Blog’s Tips for Repotting

A Camellia from a transplanting article in Bonsai Today issue 96. Some silly blog? Okay, it’s not really a silly blog. In fact Michael Hagedorns’ Crataegus Bonsai is one of the best blogs around. It’s just that Michael referred to it as a silly blog and it struck me as a catchy title for this post (after four years of posting 3-4 times a week, desperation sets in). Anyway, Michael’s Crataegus’ post on repotting is definitely worth a look. To peak your interest, here are two of Michael’s seven repotting tips: “2. As a general rule, don’t bare-root your trees. … Continue reading Some Silly Blog’s Tips for Repotting

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

Character, Strength & Boon’s Transplanting Tips

Though it has the raw look of yet to be refined tree, still, there’s a lot to like about this bonsai. Its massive nebari ads great strength, character and balance and the hollow in the trunk (sabamiki) provides a further touch of character and age that sets it apart from more ordinary bonsai. It belongs to Boon Manakitivipart, owner of Bonsai Boon (my mistake, see comments) and distinguished bonsai artist and teacher. Though Boon doesn’t say what it is, I’ll guess that it’s a California live oak of some sort (Quercus suber?). From a bonsai tip entitled WINTER CARE: REPOTTING, … Continue reading Character, Strength & Boon’s Transplanting Tips

Transplanting Tips: An Uncommon Technique

Mystified? If you are not familiar with the technique shown here, you just might be. All the photos in this post are from Bonsai Today issue 39. Keeping some roots undisturbed The technique shown here is particularly good if you want to replenish the soil while leaving some of the roots undisturbed. Doing this lessens stress and hastens recovery. Pot sizes and shapes The technique is useful when you want move a tree from a larger to a smaller pot, or into a pot that has a different shape. It also works when you want to replenish some of the … Continue reading Transplanting Tips: An Uncommon Technique