Trunk Thickening questions, specifically for indoor bonsai; Fukien and Brush Cherry

[Lovatoj44]

Greetings and salutations, to start off I must say I am very new to the art of Bonsai, I have been interested in the subject for years and over the course of those years I have tried to learn as much as possible before actually getting my hands dirty. That being said I have finally taken my first steps into the art form. I have purchased two small starter trees, approx 6" in height; a Fukien Tea and what I believe is an Australian Brush Cherry. Both trees are currently in 4" diameter pots with what appears to be a general potting soil. I have not attempted to look at the root ball, if one even exsists for these trees yet. I have no plans to start hacking at my new trees but I would like to get the trees in the correct medium as quickly as possible to begin the trunk thickening process. This is where I started to have some questions that I could not recall or seem to find the answer too on the internet or in the few books I actually own. My first question is should I wait until next spring to repot theses new trees into an appropriately sized pot? The second question would be should I immediately repot into a soil that is closer in composition to what one would see in a finished bonsai or should I continue and use a soil that is more like a common potting soil? Third, should I go with a Shohin size training pot or just a cheap circular style pot that I can purchase from a garden center, I don't think this would make much of a diffrence but I wanted to get the communities opinion?

 

[bonsaibp]

I think the safest and most economical thing to do now is to get maybe a 6" bulb pan if you can find one and plant them without disrupting the roots too much.You can use bonsai mix but I'll suggest cactus mix- it's cheap and readily available and drains pretty good in these sized pots. Then the way to get the trunk bigger is to let them grow. Don't worry about shaping ( other than to keep lower branches strong) and let them grow while you learn their needs and study more. A suggestion though- if you start out with bigger sized trees-I like at least 5 gal.- you speed up the process. You'll usually have more to work with which means more options. It's easier to make a bigger tree small than it is to make a small tree big.

 

[Bill S]

You won't get much growth from now to next summer, wait until then, and do a proper root prune and pot up. Otherwise Bob is right.

 

[stacy allen muse]

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[Lovatoj44]

Thank you all for the excellent advice!

Hopefully I will be able to get these trees to survive the winter, and then I shall proceed with the suggestions provided.

Stacy, Arvada is a suburb northwest of Denver, fairly close to the foothills; it’s actually a pretty nice place to live.

Joshua Lovato

 

[stacy allen muse]

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