Help! As a newbie, how do I stop myself from going to deep down the rabbit hole?

KKBonsai

KKBonsai

Seedling
Messages
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Location
South Africa
USDA Zone
5
I will be honest and say that I have only payed attention to Bonsai about 6 months ago. It's been a great experience reading and learning so much about this wonderful world of Bonsai. One day when I'm old and done with life, I want to wake up next to lake and spend my last years attending to my Bonsai trees.

All is good and all but how do I stop myself from going down the rabbit hole? I'm starting to have pots piling up, I am rooting and cutting everything, I am becoming that guy that walks around examining trees and of course the collection is slowly growing and I can slowly feel that if I don't stop my pockets won't be nice to me.

How do I stop? Help
 
Rooting and cutting helps you understand those particular and important processes, so keep it up; eventually as you gain more experience you'll become more selective as to what species and how many trees you'll work on.

For me, the number of trees in my collection is influenced by:1) the time I can put into individual trees (repotting, wiring, running, etc.), and 2) the space I have available.

With time you'll find that not all trees will need and/or deserve the same amount of attention. As you grow your collection you'll learn that the more trees you have the less time you'll have for individual care.

You should reach a point in which you have a manageable number of trees at different stages of development, so that you are constantly "entertained" but not overwhelmed. You should stop at this point.

You'll know you have too many trees, if your collection grows to point in which you start neglecting good trees due to having too many not so good trees to look after, then you should reduce your collection accordingly.
 
As far as your pockets keep them eyes in nature instead of the nursery lol have fun its a great passion and great work/life balance tool to use in your free time. Its my meditation and im glad I have it
 
Enjoy the propagation. Use them to trade / sell and get better material. And.. Set yourself a limit. You might have an hour a day on average during the year. That dictates how much time you can spend on your collection. Young saplings need, besides watering, maybe an hour a year. Repot, wire, trime two or three times. Done. An hour per day means 365 hours means 365 trees.

As the trees get better and the canopy more refined the work may increase to 4 sessions of 2-4 hours per tree, per year. So not you are at 16 hours per tree per year. Which means you can keep 25 trees max.

My wake-up moment was when a friend walked into the garden and asked me what I had done for a specific tree over the last 2 years. When I did not have a concrete answer he said: The tree shows it.
I now have the max number of benches I can care for. Roughly 22 metres / 66 feet of shelves. So 44 big trees. Or 250 saplings. I have pots standing on the ground so I need to sell. Before the new growing season starts I am selling off 10 trees.

Slowly through selecting best / worst favorite / unloved pots you know: These can go. When you reach the point you have too many the question becomes: If I add this plant to my collection, will it improve my collection overall? If not, no reason to bring it home because it would be selected out next round of thinning.
 
You got me concerned with your zone. I'm sure there is no zone 5 in S.A....:)
Welcome to the best bonsai hotspot anywhere...
Grow trees that grow well in your climate.
 
Yup. Thanks for the links. I used the SA version, not USDA.
 
Any places you can recommend to big up good materials around Gauteng?
 
KKBonsai said:
I will be honest and say that I have only payed attention to Bonsai about 6 months ago. It's been a great experience reading and learning so much about this wonderful world of Bonsai. One day when I'm old and done with life, I want to wake up next to lake and spend my last years attending to my Bonsai trees.

All is good and all but how do I stop myself from going down the rabbit hole? I'm starting to have pots piling up, I am rooting and cutting everything, I am becoming that guy that walks around examining trees and of course the collection is slowly growing and I can slowly feel that if I don't stop my pockets won't be nice to me.

How do I stop? Help
Click to expand...
You are in too deep already, there is no stopping it. Just find someone who can come water for you when you go out of town and hold on for the ride!
 
Plain old self control. Just admire and work with what you have now. You're at the point where bonsai is actually becoming secondary and you’re enjoying the thrill of more, more, more.
You just need to take a break from “more” and enjoy only what you have.
 
If you have a lot now, just stop buying things. You can go down rabbit holes without spending money. And if you feel you aren't spending your time/resources/space efficiently, then try to focus on a select number of species.
 
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