Top Tips – Expressions of Grace Bonsai

KEY Bonsai Tasks for Feb / Mar

Xavier Martinez — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 12:37:30 +0000

5 Things happening right now:

Three days ago I uploaded this video to YouTube, and guess what? I have done nothing from that long list of tasks! The wind has been howling around the bonsai garden and rain has also made an appearance. The best thing about it, is that it stopped ‘drill man’ from featuring on my next video soundtrack

Seriously, I did spend all weekend breaking up the rotting benches and also cutting up and clearing away a lot of last years dead branches – left kindly by my very expensive Tree Surgeons (not sure that is the best description). Then I had the joy of meeting our very well paid ‘Rubbish Disposal Technicians’ who were happy to watch me struggle with a diverse range of rubbish. Why do they have to be so rude and unhelpful!

Cutting up the Branches left last year!

I was actually told, bluntly, that I had to hold my rotting pieces of wood and NOT put them on the ground – whilst waiting for the current load to be compacted. Now I know I’m not exactly feeble but I did struggle to understand why he was so adament I could not put them on the ground whilst waiting!

I started to become a wee bit uppity and then stopped myself as he suddenly spurted out some **** about ‘Health & Safety’ rules! These council departments have so much power and the last thing I needed was to be slapped with a Tip Ban for being ‘aggresive or confrontational’…

So of the 5 Things I should be doing now, I can definitely mark myself with a big green tick. Dry and ignored Dawn Redwoods watered, benches removed, majority of trees are happily dormant AND everything is safely tucked away from the wind. I even moved my little Forsythia into the coldframe for some additional protection due to unwanted bud swelling. I suppose I now need to let you know how I have got on with the 10 Tasks for Winter (or not)…

Deadwood Work.

Andy’s Tanuki Stump Challenge

Do you know how cold it is right now? I mean, I did look at a few Bonsai with deadwood but then the rain hit hard and I had to run away inside and comfort myself with a hot chocolate. By the time the rain had stopped, my enthusiasm had waned. So I reminded myself that there is always summer to do this job. After all, why do something now when you can enjoy it much more in 6 months time! A bit like cleaning dirty bonsai pots…

I did plug the dremmel in to a power socket and set my studio up with Andy’s lump of wood. And I did even look at it for several minutes. I tutted and mused over different ideas and drew all over it with my HB pencil. Not sure why, because I have never followed any pre-planned cutting lines in the past.

Having decided where I was going to start channeling out this piece of trunk I realised I needed my safety glasses and gloves. Although I didnt find the left glove I did manage to find a packet of Doritos instead…perhaps a sign that this job should be done another time too

Clean up your Pine Bonsai.

If you watched the video you will already know that I did my Pine clean up work in Autumn. I did find a few dead needles and one or two terminal buds to remove but I am happy these can be left for a good few months yet. The next bit of work will not be till late spring when the candles have elongated.

Bonsai Bench & Garden Clear-up.

I spent all Friday with my serrated saw blade and branch loppers to reduce everything into easy to handle pieces that I could pack into my old ‘skip’ bag. The benches themselves fell apart as soon as I showed them a picture of my hammer. It appears the only things keeping them standing were the wood louse. I can happily report that I achieved this momentous task without injury – a definite first for me

As for the Tip run…well, enough said at the beginning of this article.

Create Rock Structures for plantings.

I have the glue ready and the lava rock ready but unfortunately my studio lights have decided to blow their bulbs, making it impossible for me to film. I suppose that means I need to get some more hot chocolate instead…

Building my new Website Pages.

I am loving this task and my biggest fear is it will distract me from my Bonsai Channel too much. At High School I majored in Journalism and Literature. I love nothing better than spending a day just creating articles or starting ‘another’ prize winnning novel. Needless to say, they remain unfinished – like most of my creative projects. I really do need to learn to commit to something and stop getting bored and distracted.

There is so much work to do to make this website really useful and so many of the pages need lots of work. The calendar may be the biggest issue with the volume of entries I need to start putting in it.

Update my Bonsai Workflow App.

Lexi’s Brilliant Bonsai App

The day after this video was released 8 people asked to try the app from various parts of the world. Since then, I have sent out another 7 files. Lexi and I are absolutely blown away with the interest and pray that there are no major issues using this product. It has worked so well for me during the last 4 years AND the first group to use it have also reported postive results.

If you have taken advantage of this offer then please provide postive feedback in either the comments here or on the tuition videos uploaded to YouTube. You are of course more than welcome to send a Gift Donation via Paypal to help me spoil Lexi for her hardwork

Bonsai Soil / Wire & Pots.

Pond baskets and Cutting Mix

You all know that I have 29 bags of Zeolite and Pumice thanks to an order put in by my good friend Alex. I also still have another 4 bags of Kitty Friend, 100 litres of vermiculite and a little bit of Pine Bark. So I don’t forsee any issues with repots this spring. I do need to order in a few rolls of 2.5mm and 3mm aluminum wire but that can wait for a few more weeks. The price has remained pretty constant at £12.50 for 500g.

I did order over £100 worth of Pond Baskets for my Japanese Maples and last years succesful seedlings. That is going to take a lot of time and this will be subject of one of my repotting videos. Everything gets more expensive each year!

Cleaning Pots:

Everay day I step outside and then shudder in fear as I look at the piles of dirty and uncared for bonsai pots. They litter most areas of my Nursery and have been the biggest thing ignored over the past 4 years. I think the idea is good – but it is a little too cold right now!!!

Establish Bonsai Repots and Pruning Lists:

This is an ongoing nightmare. I already have three A4 pages full of URGENT repots and the top of that list involves my Chinese Elms. Some of these imported bonsai have not seen new soil in over 5 years – might also explain the occasional deaths. Since starting a YouTube channel I have definitely found it impossible to keep up with this important job and my trees have suffered. I think someone once accused me of ‘Tree Cruelty’ in one of my early videos. I may not agree with the tone of the comment but I cannot argue with the sentiment. I have too many trees to be able to care for them properly.

Managing your winter watering.

In truth, this doesnt present much of an issue. The Dawn Redwoods missed out because I had stacked bags of bonsai soil on the bench above them – DOH!!!

I have visited the coldframe a couple of times this month and found most of the bonsai are happy and ‘refusing’ free drinks from me right now.

ANYWAY…

I have just spent another 2 hours writing this blog so I shall sign off here with a reminder of my biggest Bonsai fear: False Spring

Every year I wait as long as possible before starting repots on my Trident Maples, knowing that we always get a dramatic return to freezing nights (for about a week). This has put my Bonsai back over the past two years and my Tridents are without a lot of their branches as a result of this. Fingers crossed this year will be a mild entry into spring and the dreaded False Spring will stay away for once

God Bless & Happy Bonsaiing

Xavier

Time to prune that Scots Pine

Xavier Martinez — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:30:33 +0000

In early 2017 I decided to purchase a batch of 20 Scots Pine two-year-old saplings from eBay. They arrived bare-rooted and at the time I had no true understanding of the necessity of mycorrhizal fungi. I potted them up in a standard garden centre mix and left them to ‘thrive’. The short story is that they didn’t! Of the original twenty, only three managed to establish a healthy roots system by 2019.

When I examined the ‘deaduns’ it was clear that no beneficial fungus had developed whereas in the three healthy plants there were obvious signs of the white ‘powdery like’ mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. I did a lot more research and am now looking to purchase some for my next set of bare-rooted saplings.

This is a classic example of ‘on the job’ learning. Looking back I wish I had understood the requirements for succesful potting of a bare rooted pine. Perhaps then, I would now be dealing with twenty thriving potensai subjects

What I also learnt was how difficult it was to identify that the young saplings were struggling for those years. Yet, if I had considered their progress, I would have identified that the majority were not producing new healthy candles – as they should AND this would have told me their was probably a root issue.

So hopefully, if you are new to pines, you will take this crucial bit of knowledge and use it wisely. Key point for pines – do not bare root them. You want to keep a good amount of that beneficial fungus from the old soil to keep the exchange of nutrients process going.

Early summer pruning:

Around this period of summer it is a good time to start looking at your Scots Pines. This is when we can clearly see all of the new growth and make decisions on what to keep and what to lose. As with all pruning we must ask ourselves what stage the tree is at and what we wish to achieve. This is explained in greater detail in the first series of ‘pruning’ posts started June 2021.

In this case, I have three four-year-old potensai that have had wire applied to them in 2020 and are now ready for further styling and development. I will only be using one of the three for this post and I apologise now if some of the information is a little repeitive.

In this image I have tried to capture several of the branches each showing numerous new healthy shoots. Our first task is to reduce any groups of shoots to just ‘two’. This ensures we reduce the risk of unwanted swelling and also allows us to establish directionality to our design.

If their are any yellowing needles then these can be removed

You are able to see that near the tip there are three shoots growing from one junction – one of these must be removed.

As an observation, I also notice that lower down the branch there are smaller single shoots growing. This is great news because it means I may eventually be able to cut back to this growth in the future.

There are no hard and fast rules about which candle you should remove in this trio. However it does help to have a design idea already in mind. This way you can easily identify which of the shoots is growing in the wrong direction.

Generally it is best practice to maintain acute angles (less than 90 degrees)

I always cut right back to the junction to leave a flush transition to the remaining shoots. In my experience it has not been necessary to seal these size wounds with cut paste.

This operation should be repeated across the entirity of the tree – even on branches you wish to grow out. (We must always be careful of junctions swelling)

We then shorten candles as shown in the image. This should encourage back budding from the site of the cut and also further down the branch. Hence we aim to achieve 2 new shoots at each cut site and thereby establish ramification for next years growth.

These pines are classified as ‘single flush’ which means what we do now sets up the growth for next spring.

This is the branch after pruning is completed. I have two growing tips at the end which will produce further buds for next year.

I also have two weaker juvenile buds pushing out further back down the branch. These are key for my design and I am hoping that next year I can chose to either cut completely back to these OR remove the one on the inside and leave the outside one to develop the pad.

I do also wire my pines at this time and will generally leave this in position for up to 9 months. I have set a reminder on my phone for 6 months to check for wire bite. It is important to already know where and in which direction you are going to be wiring your branches before pruning.

I have included one of my latest Scots Pines Collaboration videos. This was a very difficult young tree that had been growing in my nursery bed for several years. A fellow YouTuber (Kennet de Bonde) suggested a completely radical over haul…

It is really worth taking the time to look back over some of his earlier videos – he is extremely clear in his explanations and visually makes it much easier to know what ‘you’ should be doing next.

It is also fun to see the various ways his hair is styled

Be ready for my shop page to appear soon(ish) – it will still be centred on ‘collections only’ but I am now able to take card payments.

Keep smiling…

How to keep your Bonsai Tools Sharp

Xavier Martinez — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 17:56:33 +0000

If you want to get an edge in bonsai then you need to have a look and see how I sharpen my tools…even the difficult ones like concave cutters.

A Bonsai Basics ‘must’ for anyone wanting see how I use: grit blocks, multisharps and oilstone. If your tools fail you then your bonsai will too…

Sharpening my Bonsai Shears on an Oil Stone

Topics Covered:

What edge am I talking about?
What equipment do I need for sharpening bonsai tools?
How and why I use a grit block.
How and why I use a multisharpe.
How I use an oilstone
A bit of oil.
Sharpening difficult tools like concave cutters.

God Bless & Happy Bonsaiing for 2023
Xavier

Dawn Redwood Bonsai

Xavier Martinez — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:34:39 +0000

Find out my KEY dates and Bonsai Care Tips for Dawn Redwood. A short and simple guide that is ideal for beginners. Pruning dates, Wiring, Potting, Disease, Fertilising and a bit of history too…

God Bless & Happy Bonsaiing
Xavier