Orion_metalhead
Masterpiece
This book was recommended in our club a few years back as well. Might need to find a copy.
tanlu
Shohin
Which I very much do….
tanlu
Shohin
Ah, it seems the key to keeping the trunk and branches thin is bonsai pot culture. All my pines are still in Japanese terracotta training pots, and with probably too much bonsai soil.
Relic37
Yamadori
Vincent Tanner
Shohin
Update on this…
Repotted into a wood fired nanban from Red Mountain Bonsai.
Fertilized heavily since then, and it’s growing strong. I cut off the top branch and added another small jin.
This pic is what I thought was a good front:
But Suthin is strongly advocating for this to be the front:
Then wire the top branch up and out to reveal the Jin and continue the line.
Hard to disagree with him.
tanlu
Shohin
Shogun610
Masterpiece
Decent start but brother you gotta take the sphagnum off , it’s anaerobic algae green
Vincent Tanner
Shohin
Can you elaborate on the problems/risks? My teacher had me do this because we mounted the tree during repotting.
Wood
Chumono
I'm also interested in hearing specifics about this. Basically every single tree in Andrew Robson's garden either looks like this or is covered with moss and liverwort
JesseKane
Sapling
I just looked into this since many of my trees have the same algae growing on the top dressing. From what I gathered, the algae growth is a sign that the top dressing and thus the rest of the soil is maintaining a very high moisture content. The top dressing should be a thin layer so that you can still see bits of soil through it and it should be ground and sifted to the same size as your soil particles. This is the happy balance between protecting the soil from evaporation and still providing oxygen to the roots. Mine was caked on pretty thickly and I'm sure it's keeping air from penetrating into the soil at all, and I've seen the result in the form of root rot on one of my maples in development. That particular tree would stay wet for a few days between waterings even on hot dry days.
Shogun610
Masterpiece
Rains a lot in Oregon so expected… Liverwort is overwatering sign… green sphagnum is too much watering or time to take the moss off as it’s preventing oxygen from getting in so all you gotta do is just remove the top dressing if no fine moss is taking over the top dressing as substrate … I use a thin layer or sphagnum and dried moss from collecting spores .. eventually it will take over the sphagnum top dressing .. but algae green is anaerobic and sing it’s too thick and no oxygen penetration… an alternative is to remove the moss after a bit after repot.. for conifers I’ve also found it fun to replace top dressing with sedums
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Shogun610
Masterpiece
Rains a lot in Oregon so expected… Liverwort is overwatering sign… green sphagnum is too much watering or time to take the moss off as it’s preventing oxygen from getting in so all you gotta do is just remove the top dressing if no fine moss is taking over the top dressing as substrate … I use a thin layer or sphagnum and dried moss from collecting spores .. eventually it will take over the sphagnum top dressing .. but algae green is anaerobic and sing it’s too thick and no oxygen penetration… an alternative is to remove the moss after a bit after repot.. for conifers I’ve also found it fun to replace top dressing with sedums
Wood
Chumono
If the moss layer has water penetration even if it's green, how is it anaerobic?
Shogun610
Masterpiece
Sphagnum moss not moss moss.. some algae grows in anaerobic low dissolved oxygen
Wood
Chumono
Some but not necessarily all. The pictures sphagnum moss is not one compacted layer and has air gaps throughout it. If I had to guess, I think water flowing through soil media would pull more air into the rootball than a layer of algae could consume.
River's Edge
Imperial Masterpiece
SIMPLE, ITS NOT! THE FACT THAT THE TOP DRESSING IS STAYING TOO WET DOES NOT INDICATE THE SUBSTRATE IS TOO WET! If the drainage is working well, it is working well!
River's Edge
Imperial Masterpiece
Thanks for posing the question. A good reminder that one needs to think through the implications before accepting broad statements as fact.
Shogun610
Masterpiece
I never accepted broad statements as fact all I said that the green algae indicates no oxygen absorption and it also could be a sign of poor drainage .. in my experience when top dressing was green it mean root rot or poor drainage or the top dressing was too thick.. but I’m happy to be corrected not too proud for that. And liverwort is definitely a sign of high water retention
Wood
Chumono
Idk man there's not much nuance to the way you phrased that. Also we're talking specifically about a Thuja, which is a bog tree. It grows waterlogged by default
shohin_branches
Omono
You owe Ryan Niel $50!
