My Bonsai projects for 2020
Hello everybody!
This week I want to talk about something else than music. Which is one of my other passions : bonsai.
I am lacking a lot of knowledge in this area but I love growing plants (and trees)! So I want to learn it.
Currently, I have 3 trees that I will briefly present in this post, and then I will make three more posts (one for each), in order to make a detailed description of the corresponding bonsai, talk about my plans, ask specific questions and show you different shots of them.
Basically these posts are kind of a guideline for me, for the year of 2020, that I want to share with you to:
1- learn from you guys (don't hesitate to comment and give advice).
2- show you this beautiful activity.
So, here they are!
1 - Lychee
The first one is a very young lychee tree. It's from a lychee I ate for new year's day! So right now it is 61 days old :D
Link to its post [coming soon]
2 - Lemon
The second one is a lemon tree and also come from a fruit I ate, but is a little older as it is 407 days old :)
Link to its post [coming soon]
3 - Ficus
Finally this one is a ficus, and it is much older as you can tell. It's a gift from my grandmother and unfortunately we don't know its exact age.
Link to its post [coming soon]
Thank you!
Thanks for taking this journey with me,
I still need a name for each of them! Any suggestion is appreciated ^_^
And as I said, any advice is encouraged :D You'll find more details in the oncoming posts.
These look really good!
Welcome to our small group of bonsai enthusiasts. There is a handful of us.
I love the little fruit icons you used. Where did you find these?
The Ficus and Lemon are two that I am also growing as bonsai.
Ficus, everyone seems to say to be ultra careful if you ever decide to repot. Keep as much soil and roots undisturbed as possible, or the whole thing might have a meltdown. I took a cutting from the ficus and stuck it inside a glass jar with a cup over the top (terrarium), and it grew very fast, and loves the high humidity. It's not forming the thick roots like the mother plant, so I have no idea how the fat roots are made. Possibly grafted.
Lemon can be tricky. I keep my outdoors in the Summer, where they do very well. When I move them indoors for winter, they usually struggle after a few months. I think the indoor heaters dry the air out too much. Then I struggle with knowing if they are receiving too much water, not enough water, or if I should cover them or not in plastic to increase humidity. Bright lights, warm water baths, and spritzing water on them seem to help restore them slightly, but it does not always work once the leaves shrivel up. If I'm lucky the root will regrow a new shoot.
Recently, I've heard experts say that it is best not to trim young fruit trees too much. Let them grow tall to form a thick trunk as soon as possible, and it will improve the life health of the tree. It needs lots of leaves to develop a strong root system. I think this is why a lot of fruit growers are unhappy with turning fruit-bearing trees into bonsai, because they know the tree is less likely to survive.
Not sure what names are best. Quill is a random name that jumped into my name for the Lychee. It has four leaves (Quad), and thin, upright stems. I like to nickname my trees too.
Thank you so much! This is very helpful :)
I'm glad there are other bonsai lovers out there!
Oh and the icons are from flaticon.com :) I use it very often!