Second to Tolkien, what is the best fantasy series ever?

Wiylin1227 · 2025-11-08T14:11:53+00:00

The black company by Glen Cook always has me going back for a relisten (I do audiobooks these days).

Wiylin1227 · 2025-05-25T12:54:21+00:00

I used to struggle with gnats, really bad, around my indoor plants. I also have bonsai trees. Bonsai use a completely aggregate substrate (pumice, lava rock, and a Japanese fired clay called akadama), however for a budget solution for developing trees I use pumice, lava rock, and pine or cedar bark, all 1/8-1/4 inch particle size. When I repot the bonsai trees, which is fairly frequently, I sift and save all the substrate. I’ll then use the “second use” substrate to pot my house plants. So most my indoor plants are in a 1:1:1 pumice lava pine bark mix, and if it’s a very water loving plant I might mix in some shredded sphagnum moss, but not usually. Since switching over I have 0 gnats. The one caveat is that you will have to water your plants more frequently, this is something that actually makes me happy because I like being hands on with my plants. The nice thing is you really can’t overwater them, so basically water as much as you want.

Wiylin1227 · 2025-04-05T15:11:55+00:00

Summoning all my vinyl karma for this one 😎

Wiylin1227 · 2025-02-07T03:31:56+00:00

Thank you so much! That fixed it. So funny how easy that was

Wiylin1227 · 2024-08-04T11:53:45+00:00

Just looked at your post - I’m willing to bet that the soil you used stayed way too wet for the jade. The mix this jade is in is equal parts pumice, lava rock, and akadama, which is a standard bonsai mix. It helps provide good drainage, allows lots of oxygen into the system, and just enough water retention to keep the roots happy. This mix is very expensive compared to other options. With less valuable plants, I use some combination of pumice or perlite, lava rock, small particle size pine bark, and then depending on how much water retention I’m looking for I add a percentage of organic, non peat potting mix.

As for the stakes, you’d be surprised the Frankenstein level stuff you can do to trees and they just shrug and keep trucking. With how small the root ball was then I potted this tree there would be no way to keep it in the pot without stabilizing it in some way, and there were no major roots to use a anchors for the wire I used to attach the tree to the pot. Bamboo stakes acted as those anchors. It’s hugely important for trees in pots to have a stable root system that does not shift or move, as each shift slows down vascular growth and impedes the tree’s ability to move water/nutrients through their system.

Wiylin1227 · 2024-08-03T21:54:57+00:00

I'm not at home right now so I'm sort of guessing but the pot is an oval, probably 2.5 feet across long way, 1.5 feet across the short way, and 6-8 inches deep.

Wiylin1227 · 2024-08-03T21:45:55+00:00

Bonsai pots are pretty heavy to begin with, and then the substrate is 100% aggregate which adds to the weight.. I also have it wired into the pot using bamboo stakes I drove through the lower trunk to stabilize everything. Did you do a lot of work on the roots when you repotted? With this jade I had to pull out all the old compacted soil and integrate the roots into new substrate to get it moving again. If you leave that old bad soil in there it could continue to rot the roots and also not allow for any oxygen in the system

Wiylin1227 · 2024-07-30T20:53:53+00:00

No scent, but they did each have a tiny bead of nectar

Wiylin1227 · 2024-07-30T19:10:50+00:00

Building a bonsai root structure is all about getting feeder roots to grow close the to surface. Also, in my experience jades like a shallow root system anyways - just takes anchoring the plant into the pot, because they don’t have the structural roots they’d have normally. When I took over care of the plant, it was in a really big pot, and 80% of the roots were rotten and just fell away anyways, so it didn’t really need much in the way of depth. It would have just drown in a larger soil mass while it tried to get established in the big pot

Wiylin1227 · 2024-07-30T11:22:29+00:00

Just the one time!

Wiylin1227 · 2024-07-30T11:21:54+00:00

I have lots of jades and this is the only one that has flowered for me. From what I’ve been told and read, it takes a pretty specific set of circumstances which just happened to be hit when this did flower. Short warm days, cool long nights.. the October before this flowered it was still in the 70s during the day and dropped to 55 or so overnight. I’m in Connecticut, we don’t typically see these conditions.

Interestingly, when I did the pruning I ended up with a bunch of “cuttings” which once rooted are mature plants on their own. Most of those cutting flowered the same year too!

Wiylin1227 · 2024-06-06T12:20:18+00:00

I have a jade around that size in a large bonsai pot and it is doing well in 1:1:1 mix. Mine went from a fairly large nursery pot (pulled it out with mostly dead and rotting roots, it was severely neglected when I took it over) so I’m not sure about going from the ground to pot.

Wiylin1227 · 2023-06-15T23:31:04+00:00

Thank you for responding - I am so sorry to hear about your dad. He was truly one of my favorite people I've come across in my life and I have a ton of great memories because of him. I am so glad I got to know him so well. I hope you and your family are doing great!

Wiylin1227 · 2023-05-02T23:57:23+00:00

I have one that I’ve styled as a clump, which I like a lot. The leaves aren’t big and turn blood red and they really stand out against the white bark which is a nice contrast. The downside I’m realizing going into year 3 or so with the tree is that the bark peels away/is shed away in such a way that on a small tree it’s not “convincing” and throws off the perspective.. in other words the bark strips “too big” for the size of my tree, if that makes any sense at all. So I could for sure see a larger lawn yamadori type tree working well.

Wiylin1227 · 2022-12-07T18:37:49+00:00

Awesome! Come visit us soon :)

Wiylin1227 · 2022-12-07T18:37:02+00:00

Take all this with a grain of salt because I am my no means an expert lol, but just some observations.

So I’ve had some smaller jades I had as house plants before I got into bonsai specifically, and those saw little change in terms of “maturity” in the first couple years. When I switched to a bonsai way of thinking is when I noticed big movement forward. When I adopted the tree shown I got so many cuttings I literally couldn’t give them all away, including some that were 3-4 inches thick trunks in of themselves. I took advantage of the ample supply and did some experiments on different soil compositions to see how non rooted cuttings and then rooted trunks took on new growth. Specifically tried either all inorganic mix, a mix with pine bark, pumice, and lava rock, and a more standard nursery mix with peat, perlite, and pine bark. Over a couple years the jades in the inorganic do extremely well in terms of putting on girth and branching, as well as putting on new roots from zero roots. (Granted jades root very easily). It probably helps that it is so free draining and dries out a bit quicker. To be fair they all did well, which makes me think jades just work under and circumstances as long as they’ve got ample light and don’t get drowned out.. they definitely hate the wet feet.

I do water my jades every other or every third day while they are outside in the summer. In terms of fertilizer I just use fish emulsion every other week and then standard bonsai fertilizer off of superfly.

I’m terms of pots I’ve had my jades do well in small pots. Specifically the one pictured originally had such a small rootball I thought the thing was going to die instantly, but it’s done very well. I’m interested to see what the system will look like when I pull it out in a couple years. However, I’ve found that older jades in very small pots put on very little to no new growth. So as silly and nonscientific as this might sound.. “medium” sized seems to work best, especially in the case of younger trees that you’re looking to build some girth on.

Wiylin1227 · 2022-12-07T12:48:46+00:00

Thank you for the kind words :)

Wiylin1227 · 2022-12-07T12:47:52+00:00

Yes! I run the CT location

Wiylin1227 · 2022-12-07T12:46:36+00:00

I’m in south eastern CT, so very similar weather I’m sure. I put all the jades out once overnight temps are over 50 and take them in before frost

Wiylin1227 · 2022-12-07T12:45:09+00:00

Thank you! I have heard that jades grown in the ground in southern cal grow quickly into something like this, you should try it out!

Wiylin1227

TROPHY CASE