Can anyone give me any tips regarding Atlas cedar?

[Carapace]

So this autumn I will order a lot of trees for a forest I want to plant and a few of those trees will be really young (4 y.o) atlas cedars grown from seed. I want to take one of these and start it's journey into bonsai.

I was wondering if there are any niche things about this species that I have to watch out for, or do in order to keep it healthy, I have never worked with these trees before.

 

[RomanticShears]

Blue Atlas Cedar Bonsai

Blue atlas cedar—Cedrus atlantica 'glauca'—offers some of the most spectacular foliage colors in all the bonsai practice.Its stunning baby blue color gives it significant ornamental and visual appeal.But color isn't the only characteristic that lends merit to blue atlas cedar bonsai. The tree’s…...

bonsaimirai.com

 

[Carapace]

thanks

 

[snowman04]

Eric at Bonsify has done an amazing job with one that inspired me to start one this spring. Here is his...

 

[snowman04]

I will get some pics of mine tomorrow. It's a few years old in a plastic pot from a local nursery. It is a very strong tree that does well in full sun.

 

[MaciekA]

I'm working on a similar project. I have 5 c. atlantica seedlings that I collected from the ground last year (2022, seedlings under a neighborhood giant) and that I plan to pot up next year into a forest, then maybe wire later that year. They're some of the healthiest seedlings I have and did not skip a beat after late collection. Potting them in a small, tall AND skinny container with mostly pumice (+ a little bit of lava and akadama) has worked out really well. I've been careful to protect them from overly intense light during heat waves and that has been worth it.

So in a nutshell:

- 100% inorganic volcanic media
- small, tally skinny container
- protect from intense light during heat waves

I also had the roots on bottom heat (while fully outdoors in cold/snow/etc) for some periods of the winter, and they responded very well to that (container feels more stiff with root growth, some roots popped out the bottom).

 

[snowman04]

I grabbed a few fotos of my project. Will prune back this fall...

 

[snowman04]

Guess I won't prune back this fall (wrong time).

 

[MichaelS]

Eric at Bonsify has done an amazing job with one that inspired me to start one this spring. Here is his...

How to turn a cedar into a Japanese white pine. Why do people do this to the majestic cedars? They are completely different to pines.
To begin with, their growth is concentrated at the top of the tree which is usually flat, not domed.

 

[b3bowen]

Here is mine. Ive had it for 3-4 years. Its a horstmann, so its dwarf but grafted. Takes full sun in 7b without a problem. Mine is in 1-1-1 akadama pumice lava. Im just growing it out slowly. For the right or wrong I cut out long extensions to maintain a silhouette in the late fall and have had no trouble. Be extremely careful repotting. Nearly Killed this one this spring repotting in early spring apparently too soon based on mirai article above, though It was not exposed to any freezing temps post repot. Dropped probably half its needles but I got it healthy again.

 

[snowman04]

How to turn a cedar into a Japanese white pine. Why do people do this to the majestic cedars? They are completely different to pines.
To begin with, their growth is concentrated at the top of the tree which is usually flat, not domed.
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These are very inspiring. Looks like I will re-think my approach.

 

[snowman04]

How to turn a cedar into a Japanese white pine. Why do people do this to the majestic cedars? They are completely different to pines.
To begin with, their growth is concentrated at the top of the tree which is usually flat, not domed.
View attachment 503492View attachment 503493View attachment 503494View attachment 503495View attachment 503496