Lol - I don't think you'll find a rock in Tony's stovepipe spruce. See video " Exposed root bonsai technique - Spruce". Looks like Tony gathered the long roots from 2 spruce and gave them an interesting twist with wire. He then potted them up in the stove pipe. I think the idea was to gradually push up the tree and reveal an interesting root structure until it was self-supporting. Either way, great fun watching the progress! Love the work you've done with your other spruce as well!
Really liking Tony's "Root-Over-Grit" style 😛 I'm somewhat newer to Spruce as bonsai myself but I am quite familiar with Spruce as a species. Best suggestion I have is to wire ASAP as the branches like to just spring back even after a really long time of being held in place.
Thanks Phillip - it is almost impossible to guess which species will be more popular. I was convinced the Cedar would be the better choice for RU-vid :)
How beautiful those trees can be… 😍 Congratulations Xavier. 👍❤️ I managed to kill my 1st, 2nd and (probably worst) my mum‘s big picea… 🫣 My 3rd one is doing well without treatment. 😅 Enjoy you’re video and don’t touch my picea ist my best option in case of this tree. 😄😘 Cheers 🙋♀️
Just another softwood variety we need to watch out for. They take so many years for wire to be effective that it is better to look at clip and grow techniques I think.
Tony's video is titled "Exposed root bonsai technique - Spruce" and I found it at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jjPSgnOw_sc.html. It's been a while since I watched it, but I think he was adding root movement with wire rather than a rock. Either way, it'll be great to see the results some day.
Is it possible that there isn’t a rock in Tony’s stovepipe pot? I just went over to his channel and two stovepipe pots were used for a future exposed root with wire applied to the roots without any rocks. Not sure if I was looking at the correct video though…
It appears I mistook what he was trying to do - it has been so long since I last saw that video. I will definitely leave the second one alone for a few more years