Hi Nigel ,After I see this video I go back to look for the one 9 months ago (I just see your video 2 months ago and I start trying to grow bonsai)Very interesting to see what a difference from part 1 to part2 . Always learn something from u .Thank you so much .
Wow, I love how this is developing. Beautiful! Might want to shade that plastic bag, though... I'd be concerned that the sun is going to steam that root! :)
Fascinating watching you work through your root selection and training. I’m curious why you like to get the arial roots to be as straight and vertical as possible.
Nice update on the roots, looks like the strategy worked. This is definitely one of your most unique trees. Can't believe it's already been 9 months since you covered the roots, I remember watching that video like it was only around 4-5 months ago.
@Nigel Saunders, the bonsai zone Hi Nigel, i have been watching you a little while now and as i am a newbie with bonsai although I do have a 53year old horse chestnut bonsai I planted from seed in 1968. I have always been interested but life I’m afraid never left me much time to spend on it but now I am retired and can play. If you don’t mind I need some of your advice, I have purchase a red oak sapling, it arrived today, I’m guessing it’s about 12-14 months old - still green flexi stem. It is about 3 ft tall, which is too tall for what I want. There are buds nodules along the stem, i will at some point want to cut the growing tip off to reduce its height. Please when would be the best time to do this? Like you we are going into fall here so it will eventually become dormant. So, do i cut it now?, during dormancy, or just before spring budding? Hope you don’t mind my asking. Take care
For schefflera do you defoliate before bringing outside AND before bringing back indoors? I did on mine when I brought it outdoors but I'm debating if I should now that I need to bring it back indoors. The longer story: I have a Schefflera forest that I got in May of this year. In mid June I fully defoliated and brought outdoors and the trees since have refoliated but with smaller leaves much tighter to the trunks/branches - I think it's a dwarf schefflera. Now I'm considering bringing it back indoors, living in zone 5a, and I don't know if I should defoliate again or just leave the current (smaller/tighter) foliage and let it adjust how it will to the indoor light.
Do you think putting a larger sized inorganic mix in the cups then just watering the cups infrequently would have produced more thick aerial roots? My thinking is that watering the bottom well ( like submerging the pot only) and infrequently watering the cups would have tricked the tree into focusing growth into thicker roots searching for water through the cups. I hope I worded my thoughts well. All this is Slightly complicated.
Not sure about this one. The incipient aerial roots you started with naturally just put out lots of fine feeders once they were encased in compost, rather than extending to the original soil level. Following the Reveal I would have simply fastened the roots into the desired positions with wire hoops to let the unviable feeders die off and the main aerials to thicken. The radical change to the top would have been better next year...
what's the point of taking 9 months to grow all those fabulous jungle-y aerial roots just to cut them off and make it look like "normal" temperate tree? 😆
