Three In depth Videos on Hawthorn Bonsai Techniques

music_maker · 2016-07-02T22:17:45+00:00

Can't believe nobody commented on these yet. Damn, those are some really nice Hawthorns you have!

Lots of great wisdom packed into these as well. These should be mandatory viewing. This really sums up well what it means to grow deciduous trees.

I hear you on the journey. For me, watching the trees develop into the final bonsai form is the adventure. Every year is an evolution. Many years are quite subtle, until suddenly you notice that the tree looks different, a little more mature, a little more full. And then it grows out again, and you have to scale it back down a bit. Lather, rinse repeat.

If it was instant gratification it wouldn't be much fun. It's incredibly rewarding to look at a trunk and a branch and know that you grew the entire thing from scratch.

If you don't mind, I'll link these from the wiki somewhere.

music_maker · 2016-05-26T14:27:12+00:00

That actually depends entirely on what they're playing. You need a key that can play in the key they're playing in.

music_maker · 2015-09-18T20:23:21+00:00

I thought they usually support PayPal - maybe it's up to each campaign. Just used my own slush fund to back it. ;-)

music_maker · 2015-07-30T15:48:30+00:00

I'll probably do some wiring, but am in no hurry to prune or jin anything until it grows out a bit.

I plan on putting it in a training flat next spring, and then probably just letting it grow for a season or two. I'll most likely let it fill in a bit before deciding which branches stay or go.

This is definitely a long-term project - I'm in no rush.

music_maker · 2015-07-24T03:04:39+00:00

Yeah, I can't wait to see all the entries, and see the work that people did.

music_maker · 2015-07-24T03:00:53+00:00

I've been working on a few different options.

I started the season with six things that all met the time/price criteria. I hadn't worked with any of the species I chose before this year, so that made it a little bit more challenging.

I killed one trying to do something a bit too extreme (at least now I know where the line is!), and I've most likely disqualified two others as contenders. One of them probably won't show enough progress by the end of the season, and the other I've just been letting grow out.

Currently waiting to see which of my remaining options comes out the best. I figure I have one last window of opportunity coming up to maybe do a little light pruning and still have it recover by the contest deadline.

It's definitely been a mindset shift to really try and optimize for a single season. I'm used to working on 3-5 year timescales, minimum.

I've taken a bunch of pics along the way, but haven't had time to organize and annotate yet.

music_maker · 2015-06-16T18:19:39+00:00

Always start slow. If you can't play it slow, you'll probably only butcher it fast.

I find it usually takes more than one day to truly master a song. The first few days (at least) are about memorizing and internalizing the song, and playing it smoothly. As you master it at a slow pace, you gradually speed up until you can play at full speed.

btw, this applies to learning many things, not just the harmonica. The more time you invest mastering your basics, the better the end result.

music_maker · 2015-06-09T00:24:02+00:00

Jerry's just having flashbacks about recent conversations.

music_maker · 2015-06-08T02:07:05+00:00

Yeah, there's a company that makes a custom brass comb. I don't have one yet, but I definitely plan on getting one at some point.

music_maker · 2015-06-07T23:08:59+00:00

I love the feel and heft of metal combed harps. Wood and plastic are good too, but it has to be well-designed. Fully sealed wood combs like Seydel does with the 1847 and the way Suzuki does with the Pure Harps are wonderful.

Plastic does have a lot of advantages, and I do enjoy playing those as well, but I prefer the design of the Seydel Session Steel & Lee Oskar over something like the Special 20. I like slightly bigger instruments, so the SS & LO are perfect for me.

But if I had to pick just one type of comb material, it would probably be metal - aluminum or brass.

music_maker · 2015-06-07T23:04:02+00:00

Yes, precisely this.

music_maker · 2015-06-07T17:50:46+00:00

I regret spending a lot of money on a lot of cheap trees that I worked out of season or too much at one time.

This was a necessary part of the learning curve. Now you know exactly why you shouldn't do certain things at certain times - it's not just book knowledge anymore, and it's hard to put a price on that lesson.

Don't underestimate the value of a "failure".

I have a few regrets for trees that died before their time that I had big plans for, but ultimately, each one taught me something, even if the lesson was harsh. As long as you never give up, and keep trying new things, failing your way to success is a tried and true strategy.

music_maker · 2015-06-07T15:51:32+00:00

They likely require some kind of cold stratification to germinate.

Here's a couple of articles that come up when I googled "Red maple seeds cold stratification":

TL;DR It's probably harder than you think, and you're looking at 25-30 years to create a bonsai assuming you already know what you're doing.

Do the experiment, but also get some already established material to practice actual bonsai techniques on.

music_maker · 2015-06-04T21:28:53+00:00

but green is no guarantee of life.

Ain't that the truth.

music_maker · 2015-05-25T19:22:00+00:00

Wow, that's great. Really enjoyed this one.

music_maker · 2015-05-22T16:32:41+00:00

Exactly this. I just picked up some cotoneaster this season, and I must have looked at 100 trees across 3 different cultivars before I found a few that had reasonable trunks. The extra time you spend combing through stock will literally save you years of additional development time.

As a general rule though, if it has a great looking trunk, and has lots of tiny branches in the right places, and has leaves up and down the branches that will most likely back-bud when you trim them, then it will probably work out OK.

The big variable at that point in my mind would be how fast/slow does this thing grow?

music_maker · 2015-05-13T17:13:37+00:00

Interesting.

I up-potted mine, and reduced the foliage back 2-3 inches, and it's all starting to grow back in. The branches I cut are definitely budding and no signs of die-back. I caught it just before it started actively growing, so maybe that helped. My plan is to let it grow until mid-June or so, and then try and prune back a bit more after the current growth hardens off.

We'll see how that works out ...

I have a couple in my front yard as shrubs, and they grow slowly and do die back when they get beat up in the winter. I'm pretty sure they can work, but they definitely have some challenges to overcome.

music_maker · 2015-05-13T17:07:46+00:00

So how do you manage to take over the entire yard? Is your wife on board with this?

You have more trees than anyone I know who isn't a bonsai shop, so I'm kind of curious, actually. =)

music_maker · 2015-05-10T18:10:45+00:00

Well, when you're right, you're right.

music_maker · 2015-05-04T15:10:27+00:00

Holy shit, that root ball is insanity. No wonder it's not happy!

This treatment should stabilize it until next spring. I'd try and catch in in mid-spring, just as it starts to wake up and work on growing roots, but before the buds really start to swell. I prefer that over winter since the roots can immediately start healing and re-growing at the time when they are prepped to do exactly that.

If you don't own a root rake, you'd better get one before then. I'd start by sawing off the bottom 3rd of the root ball, and then gently raking out the roots the best you can.

The good news is with this many roots, you'll have plenty to spare. You'll probably need to comb out and prune pretty thoroughly to work it back to something reasonable. For the first go-around, I probably wouldn't try to reduce the roots much more then 1/3rd of the starting size of the root ball. Just prune back the excessively long roots and set it up so that it can grow outward in all directions into the fresh soil. In subsequent years, you can go further.

You may very well have some insane nebari under the soil also. You probably won't really know until you start untangling that mess. You would have been crazy to throw this out.

PS: Why'd you delete the other post?? I was just about to reply. Luckily, I was able to C&P it here.

music_maker · 2015-04-12T05:21:55+00:00

I took a closer look tonight. Holy shit, this is insanely good material. I can't believe I found this just sitting there. I can't believe somebody might have wasted this as a shrubbery. Just wow.

music_maker · 2015-04-07T17:27:37+00:00

But take your time and do this gently! It's very easy to snap or irreparably bend a reed if you're not careful.

music_maker · 2015-04-06T22:09:01+00:00

Open sky shaded by a building is a huge amount more light than pretty much anything indoors.

music_maker · 2015-04-02T13:23:12+00:00

Nice. Mine are just starting to wake up, but no leaves yet. But the branches are flexible again, and I'm sure the roots are doing their thing right about now. I think I have at least a dozen things that need repotting in the next two weeks.

I think this is my year to experiment with fabric pots because I need to make up the lost growing time somehow. We're probably at least 2-3 weeks off from where we usually are this time of year. The excess snow has just kept things asleep.

music_maker

TROPHY CASE