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Text of the page (random words):
re lucky to have such a depth of knowledge with people such as kenji miyata kathy shaner ryan neil michael hagedorn and so very many others on the east coast you have such talented artists as bill valavanis suthin sukosolvisit bjorn bjorvala and the list goes on and on as an aside any of you who haven t purchased bill valavanis s album classical bonsai art had better get it quick as it is awe inspiring to look at what he has achieved over the 50 years that he has been studying and teaching the art of bonsai do we consider ourselves as bonsai artists in training or is this hobby just something to do when were not watching tv i remember reading an editorial by john palmer the editor of bonsai today with the same thoughts 25 years ago do we support the local bonsai nurseries and vendors with our dollars i remember at the last shohin convention in santa nella one of the participants was complaining about the prices that some of the vendors had on some of their plants in looking at the pre bonsai that she was complaining about i could see that this particular vendor had spent probably 12 to 15 years growing this type of material keeping it healthy repotting it every few years trimming it to keep the foliage tight and he had the audaciousness to ask 300 dollars for it so i promptly told this young lady that she was correct that there was no way that she should purchase that plant if she couldn t see the value of 15 years of labor then the material would be wasted on her i promptly purchased the tree in question and feel that i received a real bargain how many of us look for nothing but the bargain and overlook the best if we are to continue to grow personally in bonsai we need to improve our understanding of what will be a good bonsai and what will not how many of us have that very first bonsai that we started with i know that my first attempts have been donated to club raffles as i have tried to improve my own collection if we keep every tree that we have ever owned we wouldn t be able to expand our collection and acquire better and better material so this is enough ranting i just want to implore all of you to support your local club by volunteering to help in any way that you can take a class improve your skills visit your local bonsai nursery and purchase something that you can turn into something wonderful some photos of the gsbf convention a wonderful time was had by all bonsai vision work cart in the raffle suthin and mel ikada demo on californis juniper a little further along my favorite tree in the show a very elegant san jose juniper a beauitiful bunjin style silverberry ted matson s foemina forest a wonderful shohin ivy old friends the final winner of the bonsai vision work station posted by unknown at 12 18 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday november 27 2013 bonsai tools specialised tools for bonsai s special tasks http www bonsaivision com category s 1833 htm ashinaga shears stainless steel trimming shears with a fine point used to cut branches and leaves growing in small spots it can cut branches up to 3 16 diameter the bonsai vision brand shears are available in high carbon steel and stainless steel the high carbon steel version is strong and holds an edge a long time the stainless steel version resists rust and requires less maintenance these shears have a bowed handle to help prevent crushing leaves and twigs when trimming ashinaga shears carbon steel satsuki shears stainless steel the satsuki shears have a very fine point and are the ideal shears for trimming satsuki azalea s but are also indispensable in working on shohin and chuhin size bonsai the shears are 7 25 inch and can cut branches up to 1 16 inch these shears come in stainless steel and carbon steel satsuki shears carbon steel kiri shears stainless steel the kiri shear with its long narrow body is a fine shear for trimming buds and reaching deep into your bonsai with minimum disturbance to the surrounding foliage its finger ring are also well suited to a wide variety of finger sizes its 8 to 9 inch length provides you with precise control when you are needing to trim inside your bonsai both the stainless steel and carbon steel tools will provide you with a lifetime of service if maintained properly kiri shears carbon steel ohkubo shears stainless steel the ohkubo shear is a heavy duty shear that is a versatile shear that can be used for a variety of gardening work it makes an excellent flower shear and is perfect for trimming small branches the design of the blades make it the tool of choice for trimming hair roots when repotting ohkubo shears carbon steel concave cutter stainless steel one of the single most important bonsai tool is the concave cutter its main function is to remove branches in a manner that promotes rapid and smooth healing of the wound its name comes from the shape of the cut and wound left on the woody trunk or branch when properly used the concave pruner leaves a wound on the trunk that is taller than it is wide and slightly concave the characteristic shape of the concave pruner wound makes use of the fact that wounds on the trunk of trees heal in from the sides rather than from the top and bottom the concave depression into the trunk allows the wound to callous over without creating an undesirable bump on the trunk concave cutter carbon steel posted by unknown at 12 49 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday october 30 2013 the magic and mystery of bonsai soil the most important aspect of growing bonsai is the horticultural requirements that the different species require a japanese maple requires a completely different environment than a juniper and even within the same genus the cultural requirements can be vastly different a chinese juniper such as a shimpaku will need different growing conditions when compared to a california juniper or a procumbens nana the strength of any tree starts with the root system and improving the root system needs to be the first goal in turning a possible bonsai into a truly great bonsai so how do we improve the root system so that we can supercharge the growth and start our tree on the road to a bonsai the proper soil mix is the first item that we need to look at what are the climatic conditions that our trees are subject to how often are we watering how hot does it get what are the humidity levels how about the prevailing winds how fast will our trees dry out do we grow shohin size trees or do we prefer to grow the larger trees or do we have both medium size soil mix shohin size soil mix bonsai masters in japan prepare a soil mix specifically for each tree and we need to be looking to the masters for instruction and try to follow their lead on horticultural practices when we can many of us use a premixed soil that we can purchase and this is a good starting point most premixed soil from japan will come with 60 to 65 akadama 30 to 35 pumice with 5 scoria cinders and 5 to 10 kiryu which is a course sand similar to decomposed granite for pine and junipers the 60 akadama is good but with deciduous trees you might want to add to it and have a ratio of 65 to 70 akadama now the cec cationic exchange capacity rate of this mix is very poor and we will need to add some items that will increase the ability of this soil mix to hold and disperse the nutrients rather than having them flush through the soil and onto our benches where it s not doing anybody any good one of the best soil components that we can add is vermiculite this has a very high cec rate but is very light so will need to be added at the last minute and mixed in well 5 percent is a good quantity to use and will improve root growth i started using vermiculite about three years ago mainly because my teacher kenji miyata was complaining about how they quit using it in japan because they had to transplant more often because the roots were filling the pot to quickly i decided that was a problem that i could live with and i have noticed that i am getting better root growth when mixing in 5 vermiculite there are other components that you can use certain zeolites have a very high cec rate but they are difficult to find in sizes that are economically suitable or they are impossible to find in a lot of areas mitsuya san preparing a pot for repotting one problem that i see a lot of is people repotting their trees too often repotting is a major surgical act to perform on a tree and will often set the tree back and produce a slower growth rate for a season until the tree reestablishes a root system however the opposite is also true if we postpone repotting until after the tree is root bound that can have disastrous consequences also so we need to know what to look for to determine when to repot one thing that we can be doing is picking up the pot and looking at the drainage holes do you see roots growing through is the soil above the drain holes full of roots when you push down on the soil on the top of the pot is it hard or can you push you finger into the soil do you see roots growing out of the soil on top of the pot these are all indicators that we need to be looking at time to repot one of the things that bonsai masters will say when they come to the us for conventions or shows is that we don t fertilize enough if you use the soil mix above you will need to be using an organic fertilizer there are more and more high quality organic fertilizers on the market at your local garden shop many with added mycorrhiza and beneficial bacteria in looking for a quality fertilizer consider the delivery mode are you top dressing are you using fertilizer baskets how do you prevent the fertilizer from caking over and compromising that beautiful soil that you worked so hard to make so that you had good drainage and air exchange i ve used fertilizer baskets for the last ten years or so and find for myself that this is the best may for me to be able to control the application of the fertilizer without compromising my soil you might have other means to do so some people use tea bags that they fill with their fertilizer you can buy the empty tea bags online or at many oriental markets i ve tried this also and it works marvelously until the birds take off with them and you have empty tea bags all over your yard in looking at fertilizers try to make sure that it is a balanced blend and that it contains the micro nutrients that all plant life needs to truly flourish here you will find a list of micro nutrients that your plants will need iron molybdenum boron manganese sodium zinc nickel chlorine cobalt and aluminium try to make sure that your fertilizer provides these elements or you can purchase trace element frits that you can add to you fertilizers using tea bags for fertilizing the next thing that we need to consider is the climatic conditions that we are trying to grow our trees in what we need to embrace is climate change not for the whole world but only for that part of our yard that we are trying to grow our bonsai in now where i live it will hit 100 degrees around the first to second week of may and never drop below 100 degrees until the end of september and sometimes into the first week or so of october this last summer we had 20 days in a row where the highs for the day were 115 plus tough bonsai weather using shade cloth will protect your trees from the worst of the midday sun and by keeping your benches and surrounding areas wet you can increase the humidity levels and this will decrease the transpiration load on your trees and slow down leaf burn by enclosing as much of our bonsai garden as we can it will also help protect the trees from the drying winds and for some of you hail storms for those of you that live in an area where you can grow your trees out in the open without any shade or protection from the weather we envy you bonsai nursery with shade cloth and wind protection so lets be looking at our growing conditions from the roots up we will never be able to complete our vision of what we want to achieve with our bonsai if we don t have healthy trees and the very best growing conditions that we can provide will help us reach that goal posted by unknown at 6 06 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday september 3 2013 bonsai pots choosing the right pot for your tree it is very important to choose just the right bonsai pot for your tree as your tree matures and is beginning to reach a level that you can consider entering it in a show or just for your own enjoyment you have to consider not only the artistic points of a pot but also the horticultural aspects of what your bonsai will need to continue to flourish the proper bonsai pot needs to act as a picture frame for your finished bonsai and not detract from the overall composition that you are trying to achieve the correct pot should be no more than 20 to 25 percent of the visual weight of the finished bonsai this holds true with trees in the range of 12 inches and larger with shohin and chuhin the rules are a little more relaxed and you can use bonsai pots of vibrant colors such as yellows reds and blues when picking pots for your larger trees the general consensus is that you use unglazed pots for your pines and junipers and glazed pots for your deciduous trees an old black pine in a nice blue pot is a little jarring there are exceptions to these ideas but these are just general guidelines when choosing a glazed pot look for glazes that are muted and have an appearance of age you want the pot to have a certain patina that only use and age will provide if you place your new bonsai pots under your benches for a season or two you can begin the process of aging and seasoning your containers one of the problems many of us have is buying a pot that we like and then trying to make a tree that we already have fit the container that we just spent a lot of money on this is the wrong approach as we should be looking for a bonsai pot that suits the tree and not the other way around the old adage in bonsai is that you can never have enough pots and you never have the right pot for that special tree when it comes time to repot so it s time to buy a new one this is okay and sound judgment since i sell pots however spend the needed time to decide what that special pot should be a general rule of thumb is that the pot s depth should be 1 to 2 times the thickness of the trunk and the length should be 2 3 of the height however as this is just a rule of thumb we can ignore it if need be to make sure that the tree remains healthy and continues to thrive this style of bonsai pot is often used for bunjin style trees or trees with thin trunks when using the shallow type container and is appropriate to use in a cascade style with heavier trunked trees here you see a bonsai pot in the mokko shape these pots can be used for trees that are a little more feminine i...