Need Guidance on a Blue Atlas Cedar

[Jetson1950]

I got a tree I’m probably not smart enough to handle yet, so I’m looking for guidance.

I picked up a Blue Atlas Cedar last month. Wanted to see if I can work with it to get it into shape for bonsai. It is grafted and not a very clean graft, but I’m hoping that after a few years, it will start looking a bit better as I make tiny trimming shaves to smooth out its roughness. It was like a 24” whip but has branching starting all the way up. After letting it settle in for a couple of weeks, it started putting out new growth so I gave it a few curves in the trunk. I tried to do that with a good branch on the outside of each turn. It’s in a one gallon garden pot with a mix of potting soil, cactus mix, perlite and a bit of kanuma for ph. I’m thinking I would leave it in this pot and soil mix till next spring and then give it a bigger pot with a bonsai mix. The other option is to find a clean area in one of my flowerbeds to plant it for a couple of years. Soil here is mostly sand.

Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

 

[penumbra]

Looks good but let it rest a year now. It needs to regain its vigor and that will take awhile since it has so little foliage.

 

[TomP]

They need more water than most conifers
The limbs snap unexpectedly when wiring once they have some girth
They are otherwise very easy to care for

 

[Jetson1950]

Looks good but let it rest a year now. It needs to regain its vigor and that will take awhile since it has so little foliage.

They need more water than most conifers
The limbs snap unexpectedly when wiring once they have some girth
They are otherwise very easy to care for

Being a southern boy, I never really had seen them up close until last year. My daughters in laws have a good acreage up in Pennsylvania and they have two full grown ones (20’ tall) close to their house. Couldn’t help but want one when I saw them.

 

[TomP]

Being a southern boy, I never really had seen them up close until last year. My daughters in laws have a good acreage up in Pennsylvania and they have two full grown ones (20’ tall) close to their house. Couldn’t help but want one when I saw them.

They do well in northern Alabama. I have one in the landscape and one as a bonsai

 

[Shibui]

Cedrus atlantica grows quite slow. I hope you are in for the long haul. I have a couple that are around 10 years and still not advanced enough to go in a bonsai pot. I've used sacrifice branches to help thicken the trunk.
Don't pot too big too soon. Cedrus roots may not fill a bigger pot and empty soil can cause root problems. The pot it is in should suffice to get good growth if you manage water and fertiliser well.

 

[Jetson1950]

Cedrus atlantica grows quite slow. I hope you are in for the long haul. I have a couple that are around 10 years and still not advanced enough to go in a bonsai pot. I've used sacrifice branches to help thicken the trunk.
Don't pot too big too soon. Cedrus roots may not fill a bigger pot and empty soil can cause root problems. The pot it is in should suffice to get good growth if you manage water and fertiliser well.

Great advise. With my limited experience, I tend to think I should go ahead and put them in a bigger pot so they have room to grow. That may be why I’ve lost a couple of trees to root rot because they never dry out. I know I did that with my desert roses and bougainvillea. As long as the cedar is showing new growth and happy, I’ll be happy as well.

As far as having time to wait, pretty sure I’ve got that covered. You know they say that one of the biggest killers of old people is running out of things to do. I pass my 75th birthday in September and making bonsai my primary focus forces me to keep on cranking for the long haul. I actually think about that quite often. I may never achieve a perfect looking bonsai, but this is one of those things where the journey is a lot more fun than just reaching the destination.

My other retirement hobby. It takes a lot of time and patience.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Great advise. With my limited experience, I tend to think I should go ahead and put them in a bigger pot so they have room to grow. That may be why I’ve lost a couple of trees to root rot because they never dry out. I know I did that with my desert roses and bougainvillea. As long as the cedar is showing new growth and happy, I’ll be happy as well.

As far as having time to wait, pretty sure I’ve got that covered. You know they say that one of the biggest killers of old people is running out of things to do. I pass my 75th birthday in September and making bonsai my primary focus forces me to keep on cranking for the long haul. I actually think about that quite often. I may never achieve a perfect looking bonsai, but this is one of those things where the journey is a lot more fun than just reaching the destination.

My other retirement hobby. It takes a lot of time and patience.

Beautiful reef and impressive growth on those corals! My daughter and I built a reef tank for a couple years, and it’s way more effort than bonsai. Rewarding, and very demanding.

On the OP Atlas cedar, good luck, they can make some really nice bonsai over time.

 

[Jetson1950]

Beautiful reef and impressive growth on those corals! My daughter and I built a reef tank for a couple years, and it’s way more effort than bonsai. Rewarding, and very demanding.

On the OP Atlas cedar, good luck, they can make some really nice bonsai over time.

Thanks. The reef tank was really fun, but expensive and you are a prisoner to it. You can’t go anywhere for fear it will crash. I gave it up last year and put all my effort into the bonsai hobby. Got a granddaughter now I have to go spoil her a lot.

A few of my critters. They all went to good homes.

 

[penumbra]

two full grown ones (20’ tall)

Still young trees. Typically they mature at 40 to 60 feet tall and can grow to 100 feet in ideal conditions. Though pyramidal when young, they eventually become flat topped.

 

[Jetson1950]

Still young trees. Typically they mature at 40 to 60 feet tall and can grow to 100 feet in ideal conditions. Though pyramidal when young, they eventually become flat topped.

I fell in love with the color. You don’t find many things in nature that can actually appear blue, but theirs did. Knew I had to have one.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Nice! This was ours…

 

[Jetson1950]

Nice! This was ours…
View attachment 604224View attachment 604225View attachment 604226View attachment 604227

Very nice. You went total mixed reef. Softies, LPS and SPS. That’s the hardest thing to manage. Everything needs different light, flow and food source. Love your Jason Fox Hot Pink Rim Monti. A great grower. Here is mine.