Sprint Re-potting

Over the past month I've re-potted trees into larger training pots or good Bonsai pots. The larger African Strangler and Green Island Ficus, along with the Brazilian Rain tree were potted in nice 6 inch Bonsai pots while cuttings were placed in various training pots.

For the Brazilian Rain Tree I did little in the way of root pruning. I tend not to heavily prune roots but cut them back enough to give comfortable room in the pot. Any large roots may be pruned away but I try to maintain as much of the fine roots as possible. I find that the roots grow pretty fast and it may be necessary to re-pot after a year's growth. I am leaving the Texas Ebony and large African Strangler in their pots without re-potting this season to test if waiting to re-pot every 2 years will cause any problems. 

Brazilian Rain Tree

African Strangler

Green Island

Soil

With re-potting comes the need to replenish my stock of Bonsai soil. Growing small trees reduces the need for large quantities of soil so I can buy commercially packaged soil and with a few additions, create the medium that I need.

There are 3 main qualities necessary for a good Bonsai soil:

• Drainage
• Moisture Retention
• Aeration

Drainage

Being that the trees are confined to a small pot, water can easily collect and eventually rot the tree roots. The soil should allow water to quickly drain through and out the drainage holes of the pot.

Moisture Retention

Even though water drains quickly through the soil, the soil needs to stay damp and not dry out too quickly. Moist soil allows the roots to get the water they need without harm.

Aeration

Lastly, the soil can become compact from normal watering if there isn't an element to the soil that helps to loosen it. Roots need air and space to develop properly.

In order to achieve these goals, it may be necessary to create a custom mix of ingredients to make a growing medium for trees to thrive.

My mix:

• Commercial packaged soil (TinyRoots All-Purpose Blend)  50%
• Akadama  25%
• Lava rock  25%

The TinyRoots blend makes up the balk of the soil and provides a good base for the organic component. It has mainly compost mulch and gives the trees the essential nutrients and soil structure. This soil also drains well while retaining some moisture.

Akadama is a clay-like soil used for bonsai in Japan. It occurs naturally but may be further dried. This element also helps in moisture retention while its larger particles loosens the soil allowing air to flow.

Finally, the lava rock gives the soil a courser texture to help with aeration and root development. Overall, this soil mix has worked very well so far. It's a simple mix with easy to find the ingredients and satisfies the requirements of good bonsai soil. 

Spring Plans

We are moving to mid February and time to start making some plans for spring. I generally do any re-potting and major pruning in March so that the trees have the Summer to recover and grow.

Re-potting

I'm going to leave some of the trees in their pots for another year without doing any work but I have 3 trees to re-pot. The Brazilian Raintree, upright Green Island Ficus and a Dwarf African Strangler are the trees that will move from training pots to nicer bonsai pots. I'm staying with the neutral brown, rectangular pots as I like the simplicity and consistency of the look.

Major pruning

The larger, somewhat Banyan style, African Strangler is scheduled for some major pruning. Now that the tree has been growing well over it's second Summer, it's time for some pruning/defoliation to help encourage ramification.

I'm planning on some really radical changes to the Port Jackson fig. I want to take some branches as cuttings that may work well for smaller trees and saw the main trunks down to smaller stumps. If this tree survives, then I could have a smaller tree with more dense foliage at some point in the future. At least that is the plan.

Special project

I have a small African Strangler that could work well for a root over rock style. I've already selected some nice rocks so this can be a nice longer term project.

So... I'm just gathering supplies and waiting for the weather to warm up! 

Green Island Ficus

The Green Island Ficus is an easy tree to grow and thrives in USDA Zone 10-11. It's leaves are round shaped and the tree can produce small ornamental figs. Like other Ficus trees, the Green Island Ficus can grow in low light so it's a suitable tree to grow indoors.

I have two of the trees that are clippings from a larger tree and both are around 2 years old now and growing very well. The trees are on the same schedule of fertilizing which is twice a month during the winter months.

One of the trees is growing in a more formal upright style while the other I've training in a slant style to provide a bit of movement. The upright tree has a larger back branch that I will probably prune off in the Spring and grow another cutting.