Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

Witnessed in a recent workshop

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I know that life is good when I wake up and have only to attend a bonsai workshop for the day. I’m guaranteed an opportunity to work on my trees, and I’ll get a chance to observe what others are working on around me. Some of these projects are quite intriguing. A few weeks ago, I caught Jeff and Boon working on the following grafting project.

Drilling hole for new root

Drilling the trunk – Japanese maple

Drilling hole for new root

Drilling the trunk – note location in gap between larger roots

Inserting seedling

Inserting seedling

Seedling inserted

Seedling in place

Grafted seedlings

Grafted seedlings from below

Protecting graft unions with cut paste

Cut paste protects graft unions

In progress

Branch work will come later

Grafts from above

Two new roots!

The branches have a ways to go

Ready for a new pot

In the new pot

Preparing to tie the tree in the pot

Repotting complete

Repotting complete

Covering the surface of the soil with sphagnum moss

Sphagnum moss on the surface of the soil to preserve moisture

Funny thing is, I so enjoyed watching this process that I acquired an old Japanese maple that needs even more work a few days later.

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Comments

  1. Jonas,

    Thank you so much for posting this. Very inspiring to a young artist. I love seeing these in-depth tutorials. Wish I lived closer to you guys. Keep it up. I love your blog.

    Have a great weekend
    Sam

  2. Why do you want branches to come out from the outside of the base of the tree like this?

  3. Kathy, these “branches” are the trunks of the grafted seedlings – they will be removed once the root grafts take.

  4. Hello Jonas,
    I just wanted to say thank you for having the best bonsai blog on the internet. I subscribe to more than 130 bonsai blogs worldwide and it is your posts that I always look forward to the most and learn the most!!! Thank you again for the quality of your work.
    John

  5. Many Thanks for sharing this! How timely for me, as I was looking to do some root grafting on my Maples.
    Have you tried this method on Junipers and/or Pines yet?

  6. Forgive me for my dumb question but is it possible to root graft conifers? (I lived in brazil for the last 17years so I basically only have experience with deciduous)

  7. Thanks for all of the comments! Tom, Justin – root grafting works for pines and junipers, although the technique is a bit different. I don’t think I have any photos of this, so I’ll be sure to get some the next time I can.

  8. Thanks Jonas,
    I’ve seen slip grafting roots on conifers done, but not this technique.
    It would be interesting to see if the seedings that stick-up might also spring new roots, so as to have another tree from the cutting off of the graft.

  9. Thanks xwires, Yes this would not be the technique I would use on the conifers I have, but now I have the comfort of knowing that it can work. if you ever get pictures of that would be amazing, I mean Bonsaitonight is one of the best, highest quality of bonsai sites/blog that I’ve found so far.
    Thanks a lot.

  10. Jonas, do you have to use saplings of the same kind of maple? Can you use palmatum for trident?

  11. Good question Rusty – I don’t know. While grafting trident onto palmatum or vice versa may work, I’d likely keep palmatum with palmatum to avoid differences in the bark/roots/nebari area to a minimum.