If you had asked me, two weeks ago, if my bonsai were healthy and insect free, I would have said yes. At a glance, they all looked great. Looking closer, however, I discovered that one of my pines looked dirty. Some dirt on the needles – this must mean… Aphids! Aphids are most commonly found […]
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Bonsai fertilizer – follow-up
Last month I began using tea bags filled with fertilizer to feed my bonsai. Unfortunately, it only took a few days for me to realize that this technique didn’t work well as implemented. The bags started disappearing immediately. Critters tore through some of the bags and carried others away completely, leaving behind the toothpicks that […]
From landscape tree to bonsai – part 2
There are only so many ways to make a bonsai smaller – and cutting and bending seem to do most of the work. As my newest pine was almost two meters tall, some cutting was in order. Although I have yet to decide on the future of the tree, it’s clear that I don’t need […]
From landscape tree to bonsai
As most of you know, it can be hard to find good material for black pine bonsai outside of Japan. This forces a certain level of creativity. Growing seeds is one good approach. Another is converting landscape trees to bonsai. I recently purchased a couple of black pines developed as landscape trees in the hope […]
Fertilizer technique
A simple and tidy way to apply bonsai fertilizer? Tea bags. I’ve seen a number of folks use tea bags to hold fertilizer, but I hadn’t tried the technique until this year. I typically pour mounds of cottonseed meal on the surface of the soil, but much of the fertilizer washes away, and the rest […]