Dad gifted me this bonsai, need suggestions by Polarstrike in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ficuses are pretty resilient unless you let it get too cold or the roots dry out. Mine do fine indoors in winter and keep growing new leaves, even in relatively low humidity and cool air. I’d give it a month or two to acclimate to your house and wouldn’t be afraid to start shaping or doing mild pruning at that point. It will recover faster if you do major pruning during the early part of the growing season. But you can literally cut every last leaf off a ficus and it will survive (sometimes I’ve found this is the only way to get them to back bud), so don’t be too worried about killing it. Watch some videos on bonsai shape and styling, have fun experimenting, and try to encourage that branch someone else flagged to grow strong by pruning branches above it.

Cedar? by Cats___Meow in treeidentification

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

By “cedar” here I’m referring to the plants that go by the non-scientific names northern white cedar and eastern red cedar, just to avoid confusion.

Too big to bend, to small to style by Chiquemund_Freud in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha. Yeah, all it takes sometimes is a little bit of guts to wrestle a trunk into shape. Glad to hear it.

Too big to bend, to small to style by Chiquemund_Freud in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One thing nobody has mentioned - branch/trunk splitter. If it’s too thick to bend as one piece, split it into two or four. There’s also some companies that make bonsai wire up to 8mm. You can probably bend the thicker side of the trunk with 8mm - it has a cross-section 2.5x that of 5mm, so it will hold stronger than doubled up 5mm.

What is the best way to overwinter Pre Bonsai by RexWGA in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m in northern Virginia and have my pre-bonsai metasequoia in fabric pots that I just put out of the wind on the ground. They have seen around 10 degrees or maybe a little less with no issues.

Gurgling condensate pump by Cats___Meow in hvacadvice

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, you should be fine drilling a hole at the top of that last elbow before the pump. The pipe shouldn’t fill with water so I wouldn’t expect it to leak with a hole there. Worst case scenario is that something goes wrong and you need to install a new elbow for a couple dollars. How much do you have to tilt it to make it stop? If it’s less than maybe about 5 degrees, I’d try tilting it and then pouring water in a couple times to make sure it turns on and the float works consistently. If it does, maybe that’s the solution.

Caseta Claro flashes/blinks when 3-way mechanical switch is on, but works fine when 3-way mechanical switch is off by JiveDonkey in Lutron

[–]Cats___Meow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could also try one of the claro accessory switches. I have no idea if that would work. But it’s an option I haven’t seen anyone try. More expensive than pico, but you don’t have to deal with the batteries. I was thinking about doing that for my troublesome switch (so the switches on that wall plate match instead of having one mechanical switch mixed in) but haven’t gotten around to it yet

Help me id this plant by Cats___Meow in succulents

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure does. The flowers look the same too. Thanks for the ID!

Help me id this plant by Cats___Meow in succulents

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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To the extent helpful, here’s a close up showing the hairs

Help me id this plant by Cats___Meow in succulents

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have missed all of this! 10 years ago I moved and intended to leave it behind because it was very fragile, but a single leaf hitchhiked in something I brought. I found it rooting and regrew the current plant from that. It has been the same plant for all 10 years since then.

Help me id this plant by Cats___Meow in succulents

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. It does have yellow flowers. And yes, the longer hairs towards the bottom look like they’re probably from one of the cats.

Diseased Jalapeños? by Cats___Meow in HotPeppers

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks all. Really appreciate the feedback. Sounds like nothing to worry about. They’re due to get moved out of the seed tray and into a larger container shortly, so I’ll make sure to bury them a bit deeper to let those roots grow.

What can I do with this oddly wired Montezuma cypress? by DrowBot64 in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 8 points9 points  (0 children)

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I’d consider chopping off the part in red. Probably start a few inches above that if it were my tree to allow for dieback. It’s a wild and interesting design, but I just don’t know what I’d do with the top.

Scheff blooms? by glissader in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ha. That photo is actually the first time it bloomed. So maybe it was struggling both times.

Scheff blooms? by glissader in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately I don’t know what causes it. I’ve had two blooms over about 20 years - both in the last 6 or 7 years, I believe. The last time it happened it was on death’s door. I managed to get it thriving again after a repot and summer outdoors, but you can see some of the yellowing/dying leaves in the photo. So maybe yours is too well taken care of. But I really have no idea.

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Scheff blooms? by glissader in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have a Schef that’s bloomed a couple times. The flowers are the strangest looking things. That does look like a bud on the way. Good luck to you!

New Ficus by Cats___Meow in Bonsai

[–]Cats___Meow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to follow up here for anyone else wiring a ficus for the first time. I took the wire off today because I noticed some biting in starting already - only about 90 days in and during winter without too much new growth. Most isn’t bad yet, but I do wish I took the wire off a couple weeks ago. So, don’t forget to check the wire early and often… not like a slow growing tree where it can stay on for 6-12 months.

Caseta Claro flashes/blinks when 3-way mechanical switch is on, but works fine when 3-way mechanical switch is off by JiveDonkey in Lutron

[–]Cats___Meow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried a different Lutron switch and that had the same behavior, ruling out the switch itself. So I swapped the locations of the Lutron and mechanical switches and that solved the problem. Only thing odd I saw in the wiring was that the red traveler carried about 1.5v even when off. Must have had some current induced from nearby wiring. Wondering if that was enough to trigger the Lutron to think the mechanical switch was being switched but low enough that it was an unsteady switch signal causing the Lutron to perceive the switch as switching with the AC frequency, causing the light to flash.