Alberta Spruce Bonsai Forrest Question

[MujiRyan]

I want to make a forrest out of Alberta Spruces this spring (the cheap $10 ones from Walmart which are pretty small). I was wondering, should i grow each tree separately in their own containers and put them in a pot together a few years from now? I made this "pot" last week to place them together, but I'm worried the trunks won't develop as thick as I want. Would it work to make the pot I made twice as tall to encourage trunk thickening? The wall's are 4 inches tall.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Well, unfortunately there isn’t a quick and easy way to achieve your goal.
1- if you desire thicker trunks, then yes, growing them in the ground or large containers is needed. You still need thinner trees. Try to purchase as much of a size variety as possible. The bigger ones you could ground grow, and the thinner ones leave in containers.
2- if you choose to grow trees out, root reduction will be necessary -probably in stages- in order to fit trees close enough together in your group.
3- your container should be great after that process, maybe 5 years down the line.

That would be my plan.
On the other hand, I may also buy 9 or so,, prune them, half bare root them, pot them up, and hope they don’t die

 

[MujiRyan]

Well, unfortunately there isn’t a quick and easy way to achieve your goal.
1- if you desire thicker trunks, then yes, growing them in the ground or large containers is needed. You still need thinner trees. Try to purchase as much of a size variety as possible. The bigger ones you could ground grow, and the thinner ones leave in containers.
2- if you choose to grow trees out, root reduction will be necessary -probably in stages- in order to fit trees close enough together in your group.
3- your container should be great after that process, maybe 5 years down the line.

That would be my plan.
On the other hand, I may also buy 9 or so,, prune them, half bare root them, pot them up, and hope they don’t die

Thanks for the advice! Yeah I may not be patient enough to go through all that right now lol, but we'll see I guess. I suppose a lot of it will depend on the trees I buy.

 

[Adamski77]

your container should be great after that process, maybe 5 years down the line.

don't forget to drill some holes

 

[MujiRyan]

don't forget to drill some holes

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned I havn't done that yet. I'm going to drill quite a few of them...

 

[Cruiser]

I want to make a forrest out of Alberta Spruces this spring (the cheap $10 ones from Walmart which are pretty small). I was wondering, should i grow each tree separately in their own containers and put them in a pot together a few years from now? I made this "pot" last week to place them together, but I'm worried the trunks won't develop as thick as I want. Would it work to make the pot I made twice as tall to encourage trunk thickening? The wall's are 4 inches tall.
View attachment 474598

- Growing them separately… It depends on how many you have and how you want the composition to look down the road. It will be much easier to wire if the trees are separate. You could also vary the tree positions in the pots and the pot sizes so that when the group comes together they are not as uniformly spaced.

I have a “forest” of 14 Alberta spruces in an Anderson flat. They were not developed in separate pots (once purchased) or wired. The canopies blend together to give the overall look of a Douglas-fir plantation. Individually they would probably not look as good.

You’ve probably heard that Alberta spruce do not hold wired shapes very well in their branches. This has been my experience and what lead me to not wire. But to each their own. If you do wire, give the branches a little more play (damage) to increase scarring in the branch junctions and promote staying power once wire gets removed…

I butchered mine in April. Two were lost. They seem fairly hardy.

 

[MujiRyan]

- Growing them separately… It depends on how many you have and how you want the composition to look down the road. It will be much easier to wire if the trees are separate. You could also vary the tree positions in the pots and the pot sizes so that when the group comes together they are not as uniformly spaced.

I have a “forest” of 14 Alberta spruces in an Anderson flat. They were not developed in separate pots (once purchased) or wired. The canopies blend together to give the overall look of a Douglas-fir plantation. Individually they would probably not look as good.

You’ve probably heard that Alberta spruce do not hold wired shapes very well in their branches. This has been my experience and what lead me to not wire. But to each their own. If you do wire, give the branches a little more play (damage) to increase scarring in the branch junctions and promote staying power once wire gets removed…

I butchered mine in April. Two were lost. They seem fairly hardy.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Bob Hunter]

Just buy bigger ones in a couple weeks Home depot and lowes will have plenty.

Hey MujiRyan fill in your location and Zone

 

[rockm]

FWIW, Alberta Spruce SUX for bonsai. I started out with them making a forest of a few 30 years ago. They were difficult to deal with, but they were extremely tough. Couldn't kill them, even smashing the tops of trunks, not watering, or repotting regularly, etc. They mostly looked pathetic after 10 years of me hacking away at them, but they wouldn't die. I finally had to pitch them about ten years ago. I just couldn't look at them anymore.

IF you have to use Alberta spruce, I'd plant all of them together in the same container. Allow them to grow in the container for five years or so, then begin working the trunks. Alberta spruce won't thicken all that fast, so might as well start them together--BTW plant them as closely together as possible for the design. Growing together will merge their root systems over time, which makes the planting visually more cohesive and easier to repot at repotting time since it's easier to prune and clean the single root mass they will make.

If you grow them out in the ground for the time necessary to do any good--5-10 years at least--you will have to collect them. They will come with substantial root masses you will have to reduce over a period of years. Those larger root masses will be harder to make into a decently designed planting, since you won't be able to place the trees close together for the needed visual interrelationship that make forest bonsai "work."

 

[MujiRyan]

Well, unfortunately there isn’t a quick and easy way to achieve your goal.
1- if you desire thicker trunks, then yes, growing them in the ground or large containers is needed. You still need thinner trees. Try to purchase as much of a size variety as possible. The bigger ones you could ground grow, and the thinner ones leave in containers.
2- if you choose to grow trees out, root reduction will be necessary -probably in stages- in order to fit trees close enough together in your group.
3- your container should be great after that process, maybe 5 years down the line.

That would be my plan.
On the other hand, I may also buy 9 or so,, prune them, half bare root them, pot them up, and hope they don’t die

What if I were to make the container twice as tall by adding another board. Would I then be able to plant them right away and still get thicker trunks? It would be 8inches deep then instead of 4.

 

[rockm]

What if I were to make the container twice as tall by adding another board. Would I then be able to plant them right away and still get thicker trunks? It would be 8inches deep then instead of 4.

Deeper won't really add much and could wind up costing you more in time, since the deeper roots will take more time to reduce to get into a shallower container. Any container is going to restrict root run, which slows thickening. Fastest way to get thicker trunks is to start with them,