What NOT to do thread.

[Johnathan]

First year into bonsai. Got a apple pre bonsai.

Went to Home Depot to get fertilizer. Found one that was for "trees".

Got home, opened the box and saw these bigass fert spikes! It was for REAL grown ass trees!

Decided I'm not going to waste these, I hammered them into granules and spread them around the surface.

The End

Hey my mom gave me some of those! Soooooooo you're saying don't do it, right?

 

[_#1_]

Hey my mom gave me some of those! Soooooooo you're saying don't do it, right?

If you haven't opened it yet, re-gift it back to your mom on Christmas. . Ooooor use them for the big trees outside the house lol.

My rationale at the time was that since a couple big spikes are for big trees, little chunks should be good for small trees. Nope! The tree declined rather quickly. Like the next day

Whatever them spikes consists of, I thought you can't over fert if in inorganic. Those fert spikes still haunts me till this day cause that was my first real tree

 

[Johnathan]

If you haven't opened it yet, re-gift it back to your mom on Christmas. . Ooooor use them for the big trees outside the house lol.

My rationale at the time was that since a couple big spikes are for big trees, little chunks should be good for small trees. Nope! The tree declined rather quickly. Like the next day

Whatever them spikes consists of, I thought you can't over fert if in inorganic. Those fert spikes still haunts me till this day cause that was my first real tree

She gave me 3 of them out of her box, that was my thinking too. Just break em up like fert cakes .... guess not lol

 

[AZbonsai]

Spent way too much on a juniper in California that I thought I could nurse back to health. I killed that thing off! Kept the carcass in my back yard for a year and a half and called myself an idiot every time I walked past it.

 

[PiñonJ]

Living in Colorado’s Front Range in a rural area in prime habitat. I was at times a little complacent about checking for rattlers when outside. One day I was out messing with my trees on the benches. Kept a full water can under the bench for spot watering as needed. A few trees needed it. So I would water, put the can back, water, put the can back. About the 4th time I looked under the bench when I reached for the can and noticed a rattler lying quietly 6” from the can I kept grabbing. I found out then that I still had pretty good hops even past middle age! The snake was encouraged to find another place to nap. After that, I always...AWAYS looked under the benches first. Here is a different one that visited the bonsai area another day. View attachment 204881

Hey, those guys are valuable for keeping the rodents and birds away!
After six years without any trees blowing off of the bench, I got complacent and didn't think about the fact that if a tree got overgrown, the excess foliage would act as a sail, and even a heavy pot/tree combination could be blown over. That happened to three of my trees this year. Luckily, no significant damage to the trees and just a crack in one pot.

 

[Gsquared]

Cascade pots are my green Kryptonite. I've got one cascading juniper that has gone through 4 rather pricey pots. The problem is the top heaviness in any kind of wind. Have I learned to wire them to a heavier base...? No! Instead I have tried balancing the thing and wedging bricks around it etc. but I never took the proactive step of doing tie downs with the pot. Some day I will learn...

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Italian Stone Pine.
First tree I threw out because it simply was impossible to work with.

Mailordering japanese quince.. And getting fuchsia.

Putting pots near the walkway and catapulting them by stepping on the edge of the pot.
Putting iron wire mesh over my seedlings and ripping them out of the pot because the mesh stuck to my shirt.

But most of all: Slapping pots off of benches with the hose and/or losing my balance.

 

[Adair M]

Cascade pots are my green Kryptonite. I've got one cascading juniper that has gone through 4 rather pricey pots. The problem is the top heaviness in any kind of wind. Have I learned to wire them to a heavier base...? No! Instead I have tried balancing the thing and wedging bricks around it etc. but I never took the proactive step of doing tie downs with the pot. Some day I will learn...

Then don’t use the tall pots. Use shorter square or round pots that are about as tall as they are wide. If you have foliage that extends down below the bottom of the pot, then set the pot up on a brick or concrete block. And tie the pot to it.

Not only are the tall pots unstable, they’re awkward to repot because they’re deeper than most repotting sycles, the top may be dry, but the soil at the bottom may be wet, or vice versa, but it’s really hard to know!

 

[Lorax7]

Cascade pots are my green Kryptonite. I've got one cascading juniper that has gone through 4 rather pricey pots. The problem is the top heaviness in any kind of wind. Have I learned to wire them to a heavier base...? No! Instead I have tried balancing the thing and wedging bricks around it etc. but I never took the proactive step of doing tie downs with the pot. Some day I will learn...

I use bungee cords to tie all my pots to the bench. It works really well and is conveniently removed whenever I want to pull it tree off the bench to do some work on it.

 

[Silentrunning]

Biggest mistake? Thinking that bonsai and cats can co-exist in the same house.

 

[rockm]

Repotted my initial prize imported Korean Hornbeam to death. I repotted it every spring for ten years. Yeah, that weakens a tree, it finally collapsed one spring.

Also I have learned to wear my glasses when out watering trees. One spring after a small thunderstorm, I left them on the bench for one reason or another. I started doing a bit of clean up of fallen twigs and branches lying on my trees. Reached out and grabbed a "stick" that was lying on top of a juniper. The "stick" was a baby black snake which wasn't to pleased with being handled. The little thing bit me, three or four time. No big deal, but it could just as well have been a copperhead--which aren't uncommon around here.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Cascade pots are my green Kryptonite. I've got one cascading juniper that has gone through 4 rather pricey pots. The problem is the top heaviness in any kind of wind. Have I learned to wire them to a heavier base...? No! Instead I have tried balancing the thing and wedging bricks around it etc. but I never took the proactive step of doing tie downs with the pot. Some day I will learn...

I bungee cord trees down using eye hooks to attach to the bench. I do this to my higher end pots and favored trees. To ensure if a nasty storm blows in they are secure. Easy removal by just unhooking the bungee cord if I need to move the pot for whatever reason.

 

[Tentakelaertje]

LOL! Y'all got me cracking up, sorry!!
My biggest mistake was not watering well enough my 4-week repotted Acer after feeding it with inorganics... Yeh, I kinda had that coming...
There's also some times when I repot a tree, get hungry and come back an hour later to find I had left my tree with the roots unprotected. Now I just toss them into the pond and fish them out when my tummy is all filled up again.

 

[Ohmy222]

I had a chain saw and was trunk chopping a bunch of trees in my in-ground growing area in late winter. I was in a zone and before I knew it I sawed off a Jbp with a trunk of probably 2-3”. Tried the most ridiculous graft to try to save it but that was just to make me look stupid twice. Not a rookie mistake either just not paying enough attention.

 

[Lorax7]

I had a chain saw and was trunk chopping a bunch of trees in my in-ground growing area in late winter. I was in a zone and before I knew it I sawed off a Jbp with a trunk of probably 2-3”. Tried the most ridiculous graft to try to save it but that was just to make me look stupid twice. Not a rookie mistake either just not paying enough attention.

Yikes! I hope it wasn’t yamadori.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Repotted a previously air-layered bottle brush. Didn't bother to check the root ball too closely. Cut off the bottom third along with ALL of the roots. The trunk came out of the soil like a clean broomstick. :^ {

 

[It's Kev]

I’m still struggling emotionally with my recent tree apocalypse. I have a few survivors. But remember, if you leave your hose for an extended period of time, leave tour trees in the care of tree people and not just anyone who lives close by thinking it will be more convenient.

 

[barrosinc]

Trusting automatic watering over vacations

 

[Adamantium]

Trusting automatic watering over vacations

I'm about to do this..... Fingers crossed ?

I've been running it for a week and a half now, and so far, so good.

 

[amatbrewer]

I'm about to do this..... Fingers crossed ?

I've been running it for a week and a half now, and so far, so good.

Not to stress you out, but I built my own homemade water/heat controller. It has run virtually flawless for the better part of 2 years. I say virtually because one of the few times it did not work correctly was while I was away for a week (thanks Murphy!).
I am currently working on an new version that has more redundancy and gives me a better indication when it may not be working correctly, and possibly allow me to adjust/reset it remotely.

Hope your trip goes well and you return to happy/healthy plants.