Bonsai Field Growing | 14 tips 

Thank you, glad it was helpful Benjamin

Find a suitable bud or branch and cut it back to that point then pull that branch up and let it go for a while then repeat

@@MikeHunt-lz2hq certainly, if there is one. What if there isn’t?

Thanks Jasper, I will see if I can do one of those this year on a tree which needs to be lifted next season so there is time for the roots to develop. I think it would be best done in late spring same an air layering.

Thanks DCM! Glad you found me too. I have lots of plans for more content in the future, so hopefully you will enjoy those too.

Thanks so much Luke 🙇🏼‍♂️ we’ll that’s the good thing about RU-vid, you can always watch it again. Hope you had a good dinner/breakfast! 😃

Thank you Vaughan.

Thank you for watching and for your compliment! Much appreciated

Wow, thank you! I have more coming. Have you seen the playlist I created for this subject: ru-vid.com/group/PL07aoEnuQCWNIr9XNFYRoVSTFzrLbB-TR

Yeah that one took me a few years to figure out too! Glad I could share it

Glad it helped!

Thanks John!

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.

Thank you so much and for watching too!

Awesome, thank you!

Great suggestion Calvin! I will try to get to doing that sometime soon.

Thanks so much Mike!

Thanks so much for the compliment. It’s possible to develop the branches in the field. The problems I have are that the trees are around 45min drive from me so I don’t get there often enough. I have around 40 trees in the ground (and a LOT more trees to care for at my nursery). If you want to develop branches in the ground with wire you will need to check on them very frequently or the wire will be so embedded you’ll need to cut off the branch.

Thanks Terry, I’ll keep on it👍🏻

Great stuff 👍🏻

I am so glad it’s helpful. Many thanks.

Thank you kindly Jack!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Best of luck!

That’s great to know, thank you.

Thank you very much!

That sounds like fun! Enjoy it. Sure, I hope to put more videos on the platform showing this process.

Thank you for watching!

Thank you so much Royale!

Thank you Tito!

Thanks so much! I think it is important to see the technique, the product used (if applicable) and the result. If its possible to show all this in a single video I think that can really drive home the information. Thanks for noticing and for taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.

Glad it was helpful!

You are so welcome!

Thank you very much, Riya!

Thanks so much!

Thank you! Cheers!

Many thanks 😁

Thank you Palash, I appreciate the positive feedback!

Thank you for your comments and thank you for subscribing! :)

You should have been guiding them to being bonsai the entire time don't just plant and forget bc that's 3 or 4 years of development that you can't get back instead you will have to wait 3 or 4 more years to guide them into being bonsai and not just a regular full sized tree with no character or movement or taper

@@MikeHunt-lz2hq you're 100% correct. Thanks for commenting. I am not sure if @rikdah meant they have done nothing to their trees though, we might be assuming they have just left them but lets hope they have been doing something and just wish to know more.

Is this translation correct? "The video is shit. Thank you very much." I am not sure how to respond if so :)

@@TerryErasmusbonsai of course not, una pasada is amazing, great, insane, gorgeous..... something like that in an informal way..... sometimes I comment in spanish, when I want to support but im bussy, its my native language....its easier, faster.... on the other hand, I would never say this to someone, its easier not to leave a comment and obviously, not the case of this channel... I wanna encourage you to make more videos and lastly, sorry for my english!!! 😅😅

@@BONSAIenCORTO that’s what I thought. I was sure you would not say that. Stupid Google translate!!! 😤

Hahahaha!!! Greetings from Spain too! Terry, this is your best video, so far!!!

Thank you, Mr.Jahid!

Thank you, Abdullah! Glad you enjoyed it.

That’s wonderful! So glad it will be of use to you.

👍🏻

Thanks for commenting. Thats an interesting idea and I shall give it some though. I dont usually do maintenance pruning on field growing trees as I am usually just letting them run. Do you perhaps mean how I handle sacrifice branches which have served their purpose?

@@TerryErasmusbonsai yes for me on that ;)

@@TerryErasmusbonsai What I was refering to is small trimming operations during the growing season such as keeping unwanted branches to take off as leaders or cutting off greedy suckers from taking up too much energy.

@@OddBonsai I see. That’s a good question which I did not cover at all. There so much to say about this stage of bonsai development. Yes I do such pruning in the season however such branches can often assist in healing scars. Many can contribute to interest in the surface texture of the trunk (ie let them grow, prune them and the resulting callous creates some interest on an otherwise smooth trunk). I don’t worry about suckers there is plenty of energy to go round. However I do remove reduce multiple branches which grow together to avoid unwanted swelling etc.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai That's eactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thank you for the useful insights!

Thanks for the compliment. I don’t need more material, I have a lot more of these in the ground so no need to air layer. However if I wanted to increase my amount of stock, air layering would definitely be an option.

I agree that we have so much potential with indigenous trees. The problem I see is that although there are people trying to figure these out (I am working on some incredible Galpinii transvaalica which I field grew) these people are not sharing the information with anyone other than perhaps their local group. I try to get these people to write for me but it is for some reason very difficult to make progress with this so I end up usually doing it myself but I am CERTAINLY not an expert

Thank you Kamrul.

Thanks for watching and commenting! Great, I will do more like this then. I am not sure how thrilled I am to know that I have a strong SA accent, but I suppose it could be worse (I could have another) :)

@@TerryErasmusbonsai haha nah it's not that strong, but unmistakable ;). The rest of the world like our accents much more than we do anyway. Keep it up!

Sure Chris. You can do that if you’d like more stock. I have so many though it’s not something I’ve considered doing though. It would certainly save time and start you off with some great roots. Good idea though, thanks.

Love that sort of feedback! Thanks so much.

No because I’ve never grown them that way only in containers of one way or the other.

Thank you!

Hi Koen. Actually if all your are doing is digging a hole and putting the bonsai in the ground or even on top do the ground and mounding soil up around it, then any time is ok.

Thanks Matt. Well it would depend on the species. In this case the trees I am growing are trident maple and hackberry. Both are capable of being collected as yamadori and I’ve never lost one. With field grown trees, they are if healthy, full of energy so collecting them is usually not a concern (please read my blogs on the subject and you will see I have lifted these trees several times over the years and usually use a chainsaw to flat cut the base, I’ve never lost a tree). However as more years have passed and more effort has been put into them I would be slightly nervous of losing one now even though I think the risk is low. So one can prepare them some years in advance for instance ground layering them or simply cutting roots on opposite sides then then a year later on the opposite sides then the following year lift the tree.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai Fantastic thanks for the follow up Terry. I'll take a look at your blogs now - I didn't realise you blogged. Thank you.

Hope you don’t get caught 😂 It’s called Top Jin Sealer: www.bonsaitree.co.za/collections/sealers/products/top-jin-m-paste-200g

Thank you @@TerryErasmusbonsai for your time. And If I get caught I will have the time to watch all your videos 😂😂

I discard it. I don’t need more material. Too many trees already.

Well done! Sorry but I don’t have an award for that 😀

Not a bad idea with the guy wires but to be honest I VERY seldom wire trees in the field, I think this was more an experiment rather than anything else. Guy wires should work better from a wire bite perspective as you suggest but at the same time I hate working on my belly so I doubt I will use either wiring or guy wires while still training the trees in the field. I used to lift them every few years but then I stopped as each time you do that you lose a full growing season while the trees recover. Additionally you need to chop the trunks short too and if you are using them to callous wounds then this is counter productive. In my experience, when working with deciduous material which has been field grown you can be extremely brutal on the roots when you lift the tree eventually and the tree will produce new roots without a problem. Thank you very much for watching and for the compliment - I am glad the explanations make sense!

Thanks for commenting. No I don’t field grow olives as they usually easy enough to collect. I’ve never myself seen a taproot on an olive, I don’t believe they produce them. You will find an extensive post collection care guide on my blog for olives. You should get 100% success or close to it if you follow those steps.

Thanks for that vote of confidence Frank. This is my favorite sealer for big jobs: www.bonsaitree.co.za/collections/sealers/products/top-jin-m-paste-200g What do you use?

Unfortunately I cannot see how I can add an image in this comment so perhaps checkout this blog post which features a hackberry I developed in this way. It’s a few old now, the post and the tree has developed a fair amount since then however it’s still representative. www.bonsaitree.co.za/blogs/tree-talk/seasonal-work-on-an-upright-hackberry

Sure, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d7GR8M9eUDY.html

Yes, assuming it is late spring it would be a good idea to cut those trunks and start developing some movement and taper by doing so. I don't know oaks well so be sure to not cut too short so you allow for dieback. If you cut back to some strong branches it should be fine as these will ensure sapflow to that area. You can cut the birch trees now, there would be a massive imbalance between the roots and canopy and so plentiful shoots should be produced as a result, these will be useful in the coming years. I cannot imagine what the science would be behind slitting a trunk to stimulate it. I have not seen the video you refer to, but what I would suggest is that you ask the person who did that for a followup to see whether what the person claimed would happen. As a RU-vid creator I can tell you that its easy to make claims and perform techniques which don't turn out as they are meant to and I think this does not prepare the viewer for the possible outcomes accurately - which is why in many of my videos I feature content in the same video showing what happened some months later (or I try to re-feature the same tree to show the results)

Thanks for watching Andrew. Quite possibly yes but I cannot say when as I will first need to dig the respective tree out and then grow it for a season to be sure its made the transition from the field to a container. Only then could I sell it.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai ok, thanks. When they become available, I will be waiting!

@@andrewbulman2288 Likewise!

The paver is placed on the soil or just under it. Then the tree is placed directly onto that and the roots covered with soil.

Yes you could have if you wanted more material certainly. Just a little planning is required. I don’t need or want more as I have too many already so it was not something I wanted to do. Thanks for asking though.

Thanks for watching and commenting. Conifers are a bit different than deciduous when it comes to digging them from the ground. You need to preserve as much of the roots as possible. Even preparing the tree beforehand to produce finer roots close to the trunk is high advisable. You can do this at your leisure seeing as the tree is on your property. Collect when the buds are just swelling and then you need to protect the tree from too much sun but mostly drying winds. That is about as much details as I can go into write now without writing a whole new article on collecting conifers! 😀

@@TerryErasmusbonsai thank you for your time and expertise! So, from your reply, I assume you recommend moving the little tree and putting it in a pot while it is still young? Or should I replant it in the ground in a shaded area that is more accessible? Right now it is growing underneath a huge fallen redwood. To work on it I would have to be kneeling and almost upside down🤣😂

@@grannypantsification if the tree is close to the size of trunk you want it to have you can collect it this coming autumn or winter when the tree is dormant . But it's best to plan ahead and draw a circle on the ground around the tree 3 feet across or more depending on size of the tree then take a shovel and push it into the roots but skip one shovel width in between where you press the shovel in . This will sever some roots and force the tree into putting out newer finer roots . Then the following season you go and push the shovel in all the way around the circle take it home with dirt intact then bare root the tree and plant it into either a big nursery pot just big enough for the roots to be burried but not too big . Then begin the trees life as a bonsai or you can put it directly into a training pot . But id go nursery pot if it was me . Training pots and bonsai soil are more for refinement of the trees balance like roots and branches

I've collected a few junipers this past spring and they are all growing nicely new fuller growth all around . They are on their way to being trained later this year . If you want some practice now you can always go to a local nursery and find a tree that's been in a container all it's life and is well use to being in a pot . Then repot it and do some minor styling just make sure it's not a tree that is real finicky and something that can take a beating before anything bad will start to happen

@@MikeHunt-lz2hq thank you so much for this very detailed and helpful reply!💕

Thanks for the suggestion. Please read this until I bring out a video on it: www.bonsaitree.co.za/blogs/tree-talk/layering-of-a-hackberry-part-1

Hi Mark. I don't use pond baskets so I am not the right person perhaps to ask. From what I have heard they have the potential to work really well if you use the right soil, placement of the planting is correct and watering/fertilizing is good. However nothing beats growing in the ground.

Air layering does not work any different in South Africa to how it does elsewhere in the world. Late spring is usually a good time after leaves have hardened off. There are various techniques for which the description is beyond the scope of this comment but nobody is successful 100% of the time, when you fail you repeat.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai sorry I learned a lot more this past year I swear 🤣

I don’t know. Cement is typical. If you want to use foam then give it a try but I’m going to stick to the cement. Would be keen to know the outcome of your experiments though. Just curious, why use foam? What do you expect to gain over cement?

No.

We are in the Southern Hemisphere in South Africa. I am in the Western Cape. Summer for us is from around December to March. The highs are around 35 deg C.

Compost heap! But I assume your question would have been whether it could not have been layered and the answer would have been yes. Except these trees are planted on a farm about 30min drive from me. I don’t have the time to tend to the needs of an air layering. However if it were in my backyard, sure, air layering would have been a good way to go.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai Would that big piece also be suitable to get cuttings from?

@@SecularSoutherner504 yes if taken at the right time.

You can dig it out and flat cut if you prefer but then you start with no roots. Not really a problem for Celtis. Ground layering will produce roots before collecting so you improve your chances of success. Also depends on the tree was grown. I recently dug out one of the tridents there and did not ground layer first as it was grown on a tile so all the roots were already flat. If you can ground layer yamadori in preparation for digging it out that would be great however most times you don’t want to come back later, you want to take the tree now. But in certain circumstances like when you know the tree does not have sufficient roots to collect, ground layering is a recommended option.

Very good question! Well there are 2 ways to lift the trees. You can simply dig them out and dramatically reduce the root system with a chainsaw or saw. However some might not have a good enough nebari so you could ground layer them a year a more prior. I didn’t use the term ground layering as people don’t seem to understand what I mean. I will do a video on it in the future but essentially you remove soil around the existing nebari and then ring bark the roots, backfill with a fast draining media to encourage roots. When sufficient roots have formed you can dig a deeper hole around the tree and sever the old roots and lift the tree. This is a safer way to lift trees from the ground. As a third alternative you could dig down around the tree and cut some roots then cover them up, repeat some time later at other points and then when you’ve moved right round the tree it should have sufficient roots to pose little risk of its demise when lifted.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai, thank you for the explanation! I look forward to more videos!

Late spring or Autumn. My suggestion is late spring as it will give you lots of back budding.

Thanks Ty. Very kind of you to say. I’m in Somerset West. I didn’t really grow all these trees for selling purposes but I won’t be able to keep all of them. Have you visited my website yet: www.bonsaitree.co.za

Okay that's good to know. I understand your motivation so maybe when I'm in town at the least come and have a look around. Currently in mossel Bay, so not too far off. Yes I have, currently all my bonsai needs are met by your site and was happy to see the connection of you with it

Indeed Buks. Somerset West. You?

@@TerryErasmusbonsai Ek het met kantoor gepraat Gaan bestel

Do you think the material was worth layering?

You definitely can. Usually it’s done as a ground layering. I’ve done it with Celtis many time and they work great. Read this: www.bonsaitree.co.za/blogs/tree-talk/layering-a-hackberry-part-2

Please teach me seeing as you are clearly of far superior ability to myself.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai cant teach a bellend

I am sorry but I don’t understand your comment. Please elaborate.

No it means plant in container . But if you learn from watching nature vs watching your tiny tree grow very very slowly in a container for 5 or 10 years you will realize that planting a tree in a pot and planting a tree in the ground is very opposite . If you planted the same cloned tree at the same time one in a pot and one in the ground and fast forward five years the potted tree will still have hardly any trunk diameter and the tree in the ground will be 5 or more winches wide . It'd take the potted tree 20 years to catch up to the five year old in the ground meanwhile the ground tree already grew 20 more inches in diameter. It's no shortcut it's thinking with your head and having patience .

Use nature to your advantage .It's there for everyone

Don't normally plant bonsai in trays unless it's a ishitsubuki

Sorry I’m so wasteful. I won’t do it again.

You can do it Rebecca! Thanks for watching and good luck. Provided you make something beautiful with the trunk then the top which you removed was not wasted but rather part of the process.

@@TerryErasmusbonsai I'll give it my best shot, thank you!