New to bonsai and site

[Gray_Panther]

Hi all!
Not sure what came over me this past year or two but I suddenly have a desire to grow trees. Maybe I reached a certain age and this hobby takes up far less time than previous hobbies that I had to sacrifice.
I started out this spring by doing multiple air layers after watching many videos on youtube the past few months and taking mental notes.
In early April, I did air layers on 3 apple trees (honeycrisp and golden delicious) and 1 pear tree.
This May I did air layers on 2 branches of a bloodgood JM, 1 branch of a crimson queen JM, 1 english pear tree and 1 tree I like but don’t know the name of. I also received permission to do air layers on more bloodgood JM trees.

I definitely want to bonsai the air layers on the JM and english pear trees. Looking forward to reading up and practicing. Hopefully all air layers are successful!

 

[ERClover]

Welcome! I have had a similar experience over the last few years, though got my start in collected and nursery trees vs jumping straight into air layering, impressive by you!

Enjoy all of your early experiments, you will learn a lot.

One thing of note on what you said, your air layered fruit trees are likely varieties grafted onto a different root stock so your air layers will be the varieties you mentioned growing on their own roots which typically are not as strong. Could be the case with the JM cultivars as well. Absolutely does not mean it isn’t worth trying but there is a reason those in the fruit trade do it. Just something to be aware of.

Have fun poking around the forum there are some awesome threads that go back years documenting progress on trees. It’s such a valuable resource.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Welcome aboard. Tons of great people and information here. Learning to air layer is a good move - you can't beat free material and the ability to take little trees off larger ones.

 

[bwaynef]

Maybe I reached a certain age and this hobby takes up far less time than previous hobbies that I had to sacrifice.

Should we tell him?

 

[pandacular]

Should we tell him?

Shhh…they’ll find out soon enough.

Welcome! Lots of great resources on this site .

 

[Paradox]

Hi2U
Welcome to the BNut house

 

[Gray_Panther]

Should we tell him?

I’ve stepped into again, haven’t I?

 

[dbonsaiw]

I’ve stepped into again, haven’t I?

LOL, you did. It's a very deceiving rabbit hole.

 

[Gray_Panther]

LOL, you did. It's a very deceiving rabbit hole.

Great. Here I was thinking 20min a week tops…

 

[RODERLO]

Great. Here I was thinking 20min a week tops…

More like 30 min a day + 2 hours in the weekend when you hit the 10 tree mark

 

[dbonsaiw]

20min a week tops

20 minutes? I need at least that on the daily to just stare at my trees. Truth is a lot comes down to how many trees you have and what stage of development they are in. Trees in the beginning stages are basically just growing out and much of our time is spent on watering and fert, with the occasional repot. Even once you have more trees, I find the work is otherwise pretty seasonal. Spring is crazy getting everything out of their winter homes and getting work done, but then it kind of slows down again for me.

 

[Paradox]

Great. Here I was thinking 20min a week tops…

Bonsai is very seasonal. There is more work that needs to be done during spring and fall especially.

Summer doesn't need so much work unless you have tropicals.

Watering and fertilizing are the main thing.
You can set up an automatic system to save some time and work. But you still need to check on your trees every few days to make sure they are good and to notice issues.

Also, the more trees you have, the more work you'll have to do. You've been warned

 

[Bonsai Forest]

Bonsai is very seasonal. There is more work that needs to be done during spring and fall especially.

Summer doesn't need so much work unless you have tropicals.

Watering and fertilizing are the main thing.
You can set up an automatic system to save some time and work. But you still need to check on your trees every few days to make sure they are good and to notice issues.

Also, the more trees you have, the more work you'll have to do. You've been warned

I’m realizing this now. What have I gotten myself into?