Anthony
Imperial Masterpiece
hee hee - Scott,
what's the Marky part then ?
Good Day
Anthony
what's the Marky part then ?
Good Day
Anthony
hee hee - Scott,
what's the Marky part then ?
Good Day
Anthony
Bonsai Hunter,
I have already admitted I havent worked with ceramic pots but who in this forum has worked with a ceramic bonsai pot with multiple holes of the the type i illustrated ? Is there even one person ?
...Now, I'd like to explain the concept of ''field capacity'' and ''pot capacity''. When it rains or when you water the ground, some water will be retained in the soil. When the soil can no longer hold any more water, it begins to drain. The field capacity of a soil is the water which is left behind immediately after drainage has stopped. Of course this doesn't last very long because plants and evaporation begin to remove it right away. Also, the water in the ground will drain more efficiently than from pots because there is nothing to stop it. Under a pot there is air. There is nothing to ''pull'' the water down further. This is the main reason we cannot use normal field soil in pots. It will hold more water and have less air in it than if it where in the ground. The more water held, the less air available to the roots. We therefore need to make our potting soil of a coarser structure to compensate for this fact.
Pot capacity or container capacity is the amount of water held in the potting mix immediately after drainage has stopped from the pot. The aeration (or the amount of air available to roots) of the potting mix is directly related to the amount of water held between the particles of soil. If we use coarse particles, more air and less water will be available. If we use fine particles, more water and less air will be available. The speed with which water is drained from the pot is of very little significance as long as the structure of the media in the pot is of the correct type for the plant. You seem to be obsessed with the speed of drainage. Let me give an example to help explain the irrelevance of this. Take a dry pot plant and put it in a bucket of water completely submerged...
...''Air pruning''. This concept was started in the advanced tree growing industry many years ago. There where containers designed with small cones all over the surface and a small hole at it's tip. Roots would enter the cone, reach the end and stop when coming in contact with the air. This would stimulate branching further back in the root system and the whole thing starts again. The reason behind this pot design was entirely to stop the circling of roots inside the container. This meant that the trees could be transplanted into the field without the coiled roots which are so much of a problem in the landscaping industry. It was a very good concept and it meant better and faster tree establishment and no root pruning needed.
Let's be clear though, air pruning has no practical advantage when it comes to the speed of growth in the short term. Anything that disrupts the growth of roots will inevitably slow the growth rate of the plant. In the long term, the advantage of potting a tree in a mesh pot means that it can be removed and potted on without needing to trim roots. This can be an advantage in training. Once a tree is in a display container there is no longer any need to air prune because we are no longer moving it up in pot size but maintaining and even reducing the root mass. The whole concept of bonsai maintenance is root pruning. It's this that keeps the tree going. Therefore air pruning at this stage is useless because we need to prune the roots regularly anyway.
I hope this clears thing up a bit for you..
Thank you all for your inputs.
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I still feel the pot with multiple holes is a superior design & very practical. Any pot makers here ? What is your take on this ?
This is a very nice Fukien tea, but there is nothing similar between these two root systems.Yes, very nice!!
We get similar with our trees.
Good Day
Anthony
* Not meaning to boast but our yearly repot usually comes out the shape of the pot and has to be cut back.
View attachment 124012
That's because Brian, it's a solid mass [ fukien tea ] and has not been combed like Scott's.
See his background.
Good Day
Anthony
Scott, Brian, to help clarify.
thinking about it, the fukien tea is about 18 inches tall and the pot's internal is 3.5 inches and
after a year we can lift the tree out of the pot. With no soil loss.
We cut off an 1" to 1.5" all around and then comb out for another 1 inch cut. Then repot for
new soil [ we reuse the inorganic ]
This year we tried all aged compost - dumb idea - shrub needs a % of peat moss in the mix for water
retention.
AND no stupid ideas like compost tea -------- back to 1/3 lawn fertiliser, one a week into moist soil.
Here it is when some of the IBC members suggested a shallow pot.
AND we [ as we say ] caught our tail by April to keep it watered properly.
By April in the deeper pot it takes a day to dry out, by October 1/2 a day and the rains save us.
By the way our soils are built on similar ideas to your notes on Bnut.
As I have tried to explain milder climate - No growth from Christmas to middle February.
Then the tree starts to master the pot and with short and these days few extensions of 4 inches.
Temp - 90 to 70 deg.F - highest 93 for less than half an hr and 66 on some days in January/February.
Almost all of our trees come out of the pot rootbound yearly [ like clock work ] Save for the Malphigia e.
it has to be dug out and will only have roots.
Will send images to Bnut after 2nd January, when repotting starts every year.
Good Day
Anthony
2008 and a great learning experience.
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