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hikari_gw

Greetings ^-^

hikari
15 years ago

I would like to introduce myself. I am a housewife who lives in Toronto, Ontario Canada and have been a bonsai enthusiast for 10 years now. I have had a few trees in the past but they never survived. My indoor bonsai did very well. I had a pony tail palm in a multiple planting (I gave the tree away as a gift a year ago) and am going to be purchasing a Ficus for inside very soon. For the outdoor trees I read many books and through trial and error I have a juniper that I have trained into a cascade style of which is 5 years old. Due to family problems last summer the poor thing got neglected and turned a bit brown. I then moved and was lucky to use the landlordÂs yard to put the tree in. The weather got better and I started watering it as before it was frozen sold and it has started to grow once more. I have given it a good pruning and its coming back to life. I am quite happy and surprised at this!

I am pleased to meet you all! ^ _^

Comments (9)

  • lucy
    15 years ago

    Pleased to meet you! As an ex-T.O.er I can relate to weather conditions there (for what it's worth) and tell you there are a lot of good bonsai facilities there, such as the Toronto Bonsai Society that usually meets monthly at Edwards Gardens (call the Gardens for more info), plus various stores, even if they're not right in town, but rather in Markham, Miss., etc. Good luck with everything!

  • hikari
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Nice to meet you lucy! Wow were are the stores in Mississauga? I need more soil and stuff.
    Thanks so much :)

  • lucy
    15 years ago

    Hi, well first of all, don't buy "bonsai soil", but learn to mix your own - it's cheaper, and you can tweak it a bit differently for each tree. It's easy, and components are available, so let me know if you want some ideas there. Look up bonsai in the yellow pgs (it's been a while for me and I'm not sure what's where now, only that I know there are places. But don't just depend on dedicated places, go to nurseries (at least if you can grow outdoors), and look in Loblaws for tropicals like Ficus that can become bonsai with the right training, Watch out for Wal-Mart, etc., as they often come with glued on pebbles that need removal, etc., but they do have variety and if you know what you're doing and what to look for there's stuff around. Good luck and get back here!

  • hikari
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Hi Lucy, yes I would like some ideas on making soil for my juniper. I will check the phone books for the stores, a trip to see them would be fun! I once lived in Manhattan for a while and would visit Bonsai Designs. It was a lovely store with awesome trees. Funny you mentioned Loblaw¡¦s as I use to work in one and yes they had better bonsai then Wal-mart. Mind you my juniper was saved from an A&P. I removed the gravel junk and made a nice bonsai of it. Thanks so much! ;)

  • greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
    15 years ago

    Howdy, Hikari!
    Welcome to the bonsai Forum.

    Josh

  • lucy
    15 years ago

    Well, bonsai 'soil' is not soil, or only in tiny bits, if that (those?). It's mostly some version of grit, ranging anywhere from 'chicken grit' available at farm feed stores (lots of those in TO :-) to something called turface, which is very popular, which I dislike and which used to be available at Can Tire under the name of Profile in big bags. I and a lot of people just use natural colored gravel made for aquariums from anywhere that sells fish. You can use the pea sized enamel painted ones and/or mix them with the tiny glassy type, a bit small on its own, but ok otherwise. I also throw in some perlite for weight relief, but not everyone likes it. Very important for conifers is the organic component, which could be well rotted compost, leaf mold, etc., but is more usually small bark bits (1/16" to l/8") and probably easier to find at a nursery or garden ctre than elsewhere - mulch is good but is often shredded into long skinny bits that compact, or else into nuggets that are too large. A good bet are the pieces in a bag of Schultz Orchid Mix and they're more readily available all over. The pieces look big but easily break into smaller ones. You'd use this 'component' for about 15-20% of the mix vs the grit. The real trick is just not to use 'potting soil', which is normally 99% peat, and that compacts over time if allowed to dry out at all, making it hard for roots to drink (the peat holds water forever, rotting roots, but if dry, is really hard to get wet again too). You can get porous, larger particle soil at garden centres the point being that water runs through very quickly, so watering more often is not the disaster it normally is if a tree stays in the c(*&[p they usually come in. Go to www.bonsaisite.com and look at their Soil forum (under General Discussion) for tons more ideas and info. Just remember it's mostly U.S. people and they have more components (like lava rock) available in various places that we don't.

  • hikari
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thank you so much Lucy! I can get those items cheapy and are very much on hand. Then, I gather, I carefully remove my moss and place it in water, then flush away the old soil form the tree with water? Then place a layer of gravel on the bottom of the pot and using my new mix repot my tree and replace my moss. I think I should wait till the weather warms up some more, it still freezes overnite.

  • hikari
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Nice to meet you greenman28 :)

  • greenlarry
    14 years ago

    Greetings Hikari from England!

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