I’m Neil, and I've been happily pottering with bonsai trees since the 90's. I will share with you the art of bonsai to help cultivate personal growth, resilience, and inner peace. Join me on this journey of self-discovery and create your own miniature masterpiece of life.
Visit my website for more information: bonsaiguidetolife.co.uk/
P.S. Dive deeper with my book, "The Bonsai Guide to Life," available now on Amazon
And for those who just criticise technique / content etc you’re missing the point of the channel! Read the above description.
Thanks for this Neil. I lost a beautiful little white pine very suddenly in spring this year - it very quickly started turning yellow/brown and I wasn’t sure what to do to rescue it. I suspect the soil held too much water over winter and killed the roots. What soil are you growing your tree in?
I remember seeing that video of yours, I’ve always been aware of them disliking ‘wet feet’. And whether there’s much difference with putting them on black pine rootstock to negate the wet is up to the experts to determine. So I’ve used equal parts akadama, pumice & lava rock. I did pop some charcoal in just because I had some spare. That tree had been so compacted over the past 7 years the water wasn’t penetrating so it was naturally kept relatively dry. I think you can see from the video the akadama had disintegrated over those 7 years. He’s now going through his autumnal yellowing of previous years needles, and likely accelerated from having been repotted. He’s a beast of chunky old boy to manhandle!
It’s a step change, as my pine also desperately needed a repot. As you might tell, it was quite a job getting it out of the pot. I know many do successfully repot end of summer so I have no concerns about this time of year. Personally I can see the benefit being better weather 😬 I’m sure it will be fine 👍🏻
So nice of you to say so Xav, it’s a much more pleasant time of the year to do it too. I did the Scot’s pine on the slab too, but didn’t record that one. I do think as we age, our ability to work on them gets a bit more challenging! I can’t see myself managing to do that again when I’m a pensioner.
@@BonsaiGuidetoLife-op7dw I felt your pain. I have several trees which I can only move with my son's help. I dread to think how I will manage the repotting of my 3ft oak in another few years :)
Thanks for sharing the video Neil. I was really amazed to see how dry the root ball was. Bearing this in mind, I think I need to cut down on the watering of my White Pines.
I last repotted it 7 years ago and think you should be able to see that any akadama that was in the mix had pretty much disintegrated into powder. Yes it was dry, water penetration wasn’t happening recently so it really needed a change of soil. White pines generally don’t like wet feet, but this one was grafted onto a black pine rootstock.
Thank you, this is a new approach for me too. I’m aware of late summer / early autumn being a good alternative to spring repots for conifers for a while now but only now taken the plunge. If you look up Harry Harrington he’s an advocate for doing it now. Hope that helps, I guess I’ll know soon whether this old pine likes it or not 😀
@@BonsaiGuidetoLife-op7dw Indeed I saw it on Harry’s blog but see little people actually doing it 😅 I’ll wait for your update on this pine next spring !
@@snejinka_inI only ever take about 30% of the roots anyway. I find doing it in the late summer optimises new root growth and allows much more growing time in the following spring
Thank you so much @Foxtrot1967 that’s really kind of you. I hope I can bring it back to plenty of new growth and build those pads. I can’t emphasise just how sharp the needles are though. Glad you enjoy the edit of hours of footage, not easy but there’s always closed captions for those who do appreciate some extra info.
I would guess overwatering. The real issue caused by the overwatering is drowning the roots which will reduce water transport. When that happens, the tree responds quickly (for survival) by aborting leaves, or possibly a combo of that and fungal infection, but still that root cause of too much water. From what I have read the UK would have a hard time getting too sunny for Japanese maples. You might try adding a felt/cloth discs to cover the surface in rainy weather. Best of luck with your tree! 🙏🪴🍁
I’ve never felt it was ever to do with overwatering over the years but there’s definitely a consensus amongst many including you. Next year I will try and keep it under cover until May. That should prevent excess rain from spoiling things, and any watering I do will be only what it needs. Have to say it’s the most overly sensitive plant I have, I guess that’s the price you pay for the crimson pink colours. Thank you for your time and commenting it’s very appreciated 👍🏻
@@BonsaiGuidetoLife-op7dwby any chance is your tree grafted or grown from a clone? I don’t yet have a seigen on its own roots, but will be cloning mine next year, so don’t have personal experience on that.
@acer_p_bonsai I can’t see that it’s a graft. Although if it is it’s well hidden. Bought it from a bonsai nursery got a date of 1979 on it back in the 1990s. I remember the owner saying it probably needs to be kept out of the rain
My Katsura maple bonsai got similar “scorched” looking leaves this spring. In my case it was a combo of being way too wet (Pacific Northwest) and a sudden spike in sun over a few days. My weather app forecast is TERRIBLE!! I leave for work at 4am and don’t get back home till 5-5:30pm. I sorta place my bonsai according to the weather during spring. Also happened to my Deshojo maple. Interestingly, it only showed on my older nicer bonsais. FML!!
I think it’s a case of high maintenance isn’t it 😆 you’d think trees would be capable of managing weather better than us humans by now. Those weather apps all tend to say different things so I can relate to how inaccurate they can be at times.
Is it getting scorched in the early Spring sun? It can be quite strong at that time of year and the emerging leaves are so delicate. My Deshojo does the same if I’m not careful.
I know the leaves are just sooo delicate, but it just seems so ridiculous for a plant that can’t cope with sunshine in spring. I’ve seen another example where they’ve kept their plant under cover all the way until May without any damage. Could be right 👍🏻
@@BonsaiGuidetoLife-op7dw If it is scorching, picking the scorched leaves off will encourage a new crop of leaves to grow. Mine has done exactly that and is now in a shadier spot doing well. If it’s root rot, that’s another matter!
if i had to guess i would say over watering. you already pruned the dead/infected parts, try watering less and if that does not help perhaps a fungicide?
Thank you John, I’ve always felt there’s chance fungal infection could be present. Although I have no proof. Would you recommend something? I’m in the UK
Thanks Xavier, yes they're rather small aren't they, I do use the longer pieces too but as you probably know, filming can be very onerous! Hence, just a few were filmed. I'd say about 80% success over the years, who doesn't love those elms :)
Have you ever visited Herons Bonsai Nursery? If I lived or visited the UK it would be on my must do list, same with Greenwood Bonsai Studio…….. Deshojo, not shin Deshojo, is a top 5 maple for bonsai in my own opinion. Arakawa, Shishigashira, Katsura and regular old green acer palmatum round out my top five in no particular order.
First comment!!………. Your bonsai garden looks serene and beautiful. I’m jealous of your Seigen maple!! I’ve been looking for an ungrafted one for a while. Do you have a favorite bonsai or maybe a favorite species to grow? I’m a maple guy mostly but have been expanding my garden AND knowledge recently to several other species. Great video, thank you for sharing!!
Thank you, that seigen is so delicate, slightest hint of wind or cooler temps and those delicate leaves curl up and go black. Very tricky! I would say my favourite are the larches. It’s the bright fresh green in spring and then the autumn colours. They don’t give me much trouble so far, but those maples are worth the effort aren’t they. Next video will feature my larch so keep your eyes peeled.
Ordinarily I’d be using some camellia oil but you’ll probably be surprised to hear it was just a dish cloth and some warm water. I think the pot was probably very mucky to start with. Hence the difference. Watch for some new content coming in the next few days..that will show you what I usually do for cleaning up my pots.
That's a beautiful tree. Might I suggest you change the angle of the tree next repot? in your video, the tree has a wonderful silhouette, branches are visible and you get this sense of walking underneath a majestic old tree thats gonna give you shelter. all you would need to do is adjust the apex to it feels like its starting to cover you up as you walk underneath
Thank you so much for your kind comments. Always open to suggestions on how others interpret its future direction, so yes I will no doubt be looking at the apex and its foliage going forward. Very little work has been completed on this plant for some time, so it will be good to see how the mature foliage reacts. Im expecting the more needle like juvenile to make an appearance once any pruning is undertaken.
@@BonsaiGuidetoLife-op7dw I meant to add, The angle I like is in your video at 2:39. Something like that angle lets you see the structure really well. That tilt might be too aggressive, but I love that you can see all the curving branches and like you could walk under its canopy
Bonsai brings me such quiet joy and sense of strength. I’m happy to hear that it affects people in a similar way. Beautiful narrative. Poetry actually.
This was a very basic free draining mix, so equal parts grit, perlite, pine bark, gravel. There was some extra top dressing applied which would have been a mix of akadama & some pumice. I use Bio-Gold fertiliser a month after repotting. Considering the amount of rain we've had, there was no requirement for any watering. This juniper has been lacking in new growth over the last year or so, it's a case of waiting for improvement. Plenty of hot sunshine and fertiliser going forward.
Did you see the bit where I couldn’t get the tree out of the pot? It took ages, had to cut a lot of the footage or it would have got a bit comical seeing me struggling for so long. Thanks for the support 👍🏻
Hi Vince thanks for the observation. This foliage hasn't been pruned (for quite a long time) and what you're seeing is the mature foliage. There are some remains of the spiky juvenile foliage if you look closely. Hopefully this year, I will get the chance to start working on pruning and that will likely start producing more needle foliage of the Procumbens type (spiky). Always open to anyone who can confirm the exact variety though if I am mistaken. Definitely a juniper though :)
@@BonsaiGuidetoLife-op7dw I utilize RU-vid as a learning platform and I think it is important from a teaching and learning point of view that we try and be as accurate as possible. I understand that the taxonomy of all plant material can be challenging at times especially when it comes to Junipers. That being said it is my understanding that Juniper procumbens mature foliage is "spikey" throughout it's lifecycle and never becomes a "scale" type foliage. I can say, that I do not know what type of juniper you have but from the research I've done I am comfortable is stating that it is not a procumbens variety.
@@vincesartain9290 The tree in this video is most definitely a Procumbens 'Nana'. As the author clearly states "what you're seeing is the mature foliage".
