CM BONSAI——-My Garden Activities

EVERYTHING IS SO LUSH THIS TIME OF YEAR!!

Dropped nitrogen and upped potassium some…..Trees are great.Very full and budded.I am happy with this feed regime….If only a tray big enough for permanent placement all growing season…….It is very handy to set these in the flood table and flush them very thouroghly once in awhile….or often.The trees appreciate it for sure.And with the addition of powdered enzymes the media should be leaching any salt residue quite effectively.

The Siberian Elm should be very nice when the trunk swells up next season.A fine specimen in the making.The air-layered trunk will fatten up …….can already see this……probably moreso than shown ,as is usually the case in a stonewool Delta block or the Grow wool.

The 2nd season pines are outstanding…growthwise……they get a three month head start in the co2 in their first season only.This explains the gigantic growth!!!
They are quite full all the way to the base and I envision a more straight style JBP bonsai than anything…….Will be fun when I am at this stage.I will have to start maintaining lower growth and thinning topmost leaders, but at the same time the kelp foliar feeds may keep this lower growth quite fine.It looks very stable and healthy.
And with these the trunk is very noticably getting big under the media in the 3” Delta Block.Should be quite fantastic when I see the next couple seasons results…..should be huge…already 1.25” just into the Delta Block.Awesome 2nd growing season for sure.

The Delta Blocks and the increased air-pruning will definately save these……they have dried down completely about 3 times!!! Duhhh🤔
I did notice some cell damage on the pine leaves after a customer notified me the same on his purchased cuttings that almost resembled the start of needlecast or something from this mistake,but they recovered very quickly.I was glad he notified me of this.There is totally no signs of needlecast.I got a little lazy with the watering.……..I never treat these pines with fungicide…..just some natural yucca powder and very increased calcium……Bio-Fungicide method…( experimental ).

These pines recovered very quickly from the drought damage.This could be in part to the large amounts of vitamin B and magnesium sulphate I add to the resevoir….apparently puts the plants on high alert for cell damage….like an anti biotic….ADP or something its called? Vitamin B on a magnesium sulphate carrier.

The 3 first season JBP seedling cuttings are looking great!
They are in 3” Delts blocks and will go into Rootpouch next Spring……should be amazingly big next season.I’m very happy with them.


The little Zelkovas have very high brix leaves….a good sign.And growing in full sunshine!

All and all the growth seems fine with the stonewool and perlite medias…along with the Rootpouch ,which I prefer, so no media gets into my resevoir.
The big Delta blocks do fine frozen solid too as mine definately were……At night I did shut the wooden cold frame though when below freezing…..Still frozen solid for weeks and weeks with no loss of roots.
Had 18” candles growing in the Spring!!!
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I didn't believe in the magical powers of kelp until I started foliar feeding my stuff. My trees respond with such incredible amounts of buds now that I do
 
I didn't believe in the magical powers of kelp until I started foliar feeding my stuff. My trees respond with such incredible amounts of buds now that I do
Now I know somebody sees what I’m talking about!!!
 
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@cmeg1 you're the reason I started doing it. But I know the feeling, I've been hyping up myco-powders for a long time. It's definitely an invite for nay saying
 
I didn't believe in the magical powers of kelp until I started foliar feeding my stuff. My trees respond with such incredible amounts of buds now that I do
My kelp powder has weird chunks in it, do you guys strain or sift it first?
 
I got like a 50 pound bag of kelp from Kalix it’s more of a pure or form with a lot less andN PK ……potassium if anything ….there is teeny chunks but they dissolve just fine I’m a little leery of putting too much NPK on the leaves especially if it’s nitrogen nitrate nitrogen is very rough on the leaves ammonium nitrate is best and very small amounts
 
TAXUS X MEDIA ‘ HICKSII’

This is a nice cultivar.I tried propogating by cuttings,but had leass than 5% rooting.I attribute this to all the years of unbalanced fertilizer…….the tree I have is at least 5 years old or more.
Michael Dirr states in his referance manual that yew propogates fairly easily from cuttings so my plan is to propogate some motherplants from seed selections of my ‘Hicksii’.Luckily It had over 300 seeds this season,as I just bought this plant at a nursery this Summer.I can also plant this in the ground and collect seed in the coming years for seedling propogation!
Michael Dirr also states that seeds collected from the Hicksii’ cultivar will produce a rather uniform crop of plants that are full and bushy with inherent traits of the donor plant.
If I’m correct this first order seed collection will priduce hybrid seed whereas any seeds collected from plants I grow from these will have a varied outcome and seedling variability……not neccesarily a bad thing.

Michael Dirr also states in his manual…..fresh seed is of utmost importance as most seed on the market is not viable or mature.

This is a fun project.He states I am to macerate the fleshy aril off the seed in water…. The aril has been known to have tannin that actually can inhibit germination.I will soak for 24 hours to remove the squashed aril and then clean and soak another day in kelp before 4-7 mnths warm stratification followed by 2-4 mnths cold stratification.

Yew makes a great little Bonsai especially when you can start from your own starters in a very controlled environment and if I’ll be able co2 fertilize an increase growth will be very very fun and rewarding , but I got to have a properly prepared motherplant that will produce cuttings very readily with increased calcium ,amino acids, lower nutrient @ 1:1 N/K ratio and higher biostimulants so they will propogate very quickly.

Wish me luck, this will take patience!!!
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My kelp powder has weird chunks in it, do you guys strain or sift it first?
Which brand? RAW? I have a bunch of 2oz bags, Kelp, Cal/Mag, Humic, Full Up, and Yucca and I haven't had an issue with clumping. Did your bag didn't zip properly or maybe left it close to a humid place?
 
SIBERIAN ELM —-Autumn colors starting!!!
***ALSO INCREASED CALCIUM IS EVIDENT***


My favorite elm for Autumn.When the sacrifice branching is changing I will remove them back to a basic structure for the Autumn.Which will be very soon.
Can see a definate transformation going.
The leaves are very durable too with the increased calcium.Can see increased amounts of calcium pectate….which is rather a rare event…..normally leaf cells are full of water.I increase calcium way bigtime by use of particular amino acids.
The calcium pectate and high brix gives a sheen to the leaves and makes them much more pest resistent and durable…….more resistent to airborne mols spores too.Can see this shiny effect in the pictures….very pronounced.B0D2D691-AA9D-4F5F-86BD-155FFB1CB88D.jpeg67DECF52-DCC5-4D89-8819-8ECB58BFF9D0.jpegA6DA9248-CC6E-4272-A3AA-ABBC570947E7.jpeg1D3A9A88-C8D3-4E7B-9C81-8C3286CA8682.jpeg1B457677-1029-4BAC-B1BF-D2461C809FEC.jpeg630CD38F-2249-4C10-9CF0-817C0982853C.jpeg
 
PINES GREEN UP IN A SOAKING WINTER RAIN!!!


It’s been typical Winter temperatures…..no snow at all around here.

There has been rain for a day or so and it has actually got the pines greened up and the potting media has un-frozen.

My trees stay about a foot and a half below soil level in an open box…earth floor w/gravel.

I only shut the lid when way below freezing such as 26 degrees F or less.
The two big ones go under the mobile home since they are taller.

The pines do so much better in open air and out of direct sun in the Winter and out of wind also. And also open to rain and snow….If heavy snow I will shelter them so they don’t get burried for so long.

It is nice to see the trees at this time of season in the open.598A5AC1-958B-46F0-BC38-2F95026C033A.jpeg7486BC9F-F1D3-4324-859C-3A4CFE786961.jpegD6924C29-A02E-4C80-915F-C1AD9E173448.jpeg8BA85BE0-1049-423C-810F-6F6A95E2D020.jpeg2AB69AB8-D6D9-417C-A792-5B79A312BB24.jpeg
 
Those ones on the tray in the first pic look like some of mine did when I left them out during out recent hard freeze, thinking they would hold up better. Do you think they will recover?
 
Those ones on the tray in the first pic look like some of mine did when I left them out during out recent hard freeze, thinking they would hold up better. Do you think they will recover?
Immature pine trees sometimes do that……not sure why…….change to a red and purple……… It is definitely a protection of anthocyanins or something and turpines and oils possibly ,but it will protect them from freeze. In the warm spring they revert completely back to green.
 
Immature pine trees sometimes do that……not sure why…….change to a red and purple……… It is definitely a protection of anthocyanins or something and turpines and oils possibly ,but it will protect them from freeze. In the warm spring they revert completely back to green.
This may help explain it!

The reason why the leaves turn purple is 〇〇, so there is no problem! [Management of bonsai]

 
SIBERIAN ELM GOING INTO A POT AFTER 1 YEARS GROWTH!!!!

So I could not resist.This Siberian Elm was an air-layer of a 2-3 mnth old seedling.I layered ground layered it essentially with a 3 mnth early start indoors in a co2 fertilized grow tent.Layered extremely fast.

Such a head start that I could not resist potting it up.It is in the tent now again with a 3 mnth head start….that way can get the root pruning out of the way.Its been growing in an Rootpouch.

I am excited to use some ideas I developed from my experiance using stonewool and grade #3 perlite and Rootpouch brand …entrapment/ self pruning fabric.I used the 2 year fabric to line the pot….should self prune completely with zero circling roots…..Yay!!!!!!!

The perlite is soaking in some black Humic acid powder…after several waterings it atually stains the perlite a nice brownish color….sort of an akadama coloring and appearance.

I also will remove some extremely fine layers of stonewool mini-blocks to have layers of this volcanic wool placed throughout the bonsai media for moisture retention and a bit of balance and solidity…..since perlite is rather lightweight.

We’ll see how all these ideas work!!!
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You are a mad scientist. I love it. I'm gonna buy some of your stuff this year:)
 
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