(Part 2) Best products from r/Bonsai

Yes, I can definitely expand on those subjects - I just didn't want to go into more detail on a subject you didn't originally ask for unless you were interested.

1. Indoors, I imagine your temperatures are above 60 or even 70F (sorry, my Celsius knowledge is sorely inadequete - 23C?) year round. If the tree senses colder temperatures below a certain level, the tree will drop its leaves and go dormant like all the oaks or maples. If the tree is only exposed to the warmer conditions, the tree will mostly maintain its leaves throughout winter.
   
   
2. Indoor conditions are very static compared to outdoors. There is less airflow, less temperature fluctuation, less difference between day and night cycles based on artificial light use, and generally less light in total compared to outside. Trees have evolved to grow best outdoors and although outdoor trees are more susceptible to pests and weather, we as bonsai hobbyists can monitor conditions to help our trees if their natural defenses fail or if a unseasonable storm is coming. The light, temperature, and humidity outdoors compared to indoors especially I think contribute to our bonsai growing faster and being healthier outdoors. A lot of indoor bonsai especially away from windows are less vigorous and that means they may be less tolerant to a mistake on your part of watering or may die of their own accord.
   Also, make sure any tree you keep indoors is tropical. Junipers are commonly sold to beginners as bonsai, but they are advertised by those who don't know better as indoor trees. Such species need winter dormancy or they will eventually die.
   
   
3. Thanks for filling in your flair - I hope you will enjoy your bonsai and grow in this hobby with us!
   
   
4. I don't know exactly how amazon works over there or if you will have the same sales as the US, but I was recommending some beginner books to someone else recently and noticed both are on sale. I highly recommend a thorough beginner book to help you with basic concepts when starting out.
   This is the book I first got when I entered bonsai many years ago - still good and sustained my interest even after some initial trees died.
   https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Survival-Manual-Tree-Tree/dp/0882668536
   
   I got this beginner book a while back and it also Is well written and has tons of useful basic information for your beginner journey.
   https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-DK/dp/1465419586

Some information on my Ginseng Ficus.

Height: 18 in. (including pot) and Width: 9-10 in.

For the upcoming 9 months, I'll be living inside of an apartment and looking to start growing my Bonsai in that environment. The main concern I have is lighting, I have no southern-facing window with the only window I have being eastern-facing. This window isn't even the biggest and I'm concerned about the health of my tree if it had to live in these conditions. However, the option for a glow lamp should hopefully solve this issue. The issue in that being I have zero clues what glow lamp is optimal for my scenario nor what exact specifications I need to look for in a glow lamp. I've down small amounts of research and found you need roughly 300 nm-800 nm spectrum but am unsure if that's actually true. If anyone could provide some guidance or insight on what I should be looking for that'd be greatly appreciated.

I've attached three glow lamps I show through amazon that seemed like viable options(my price range is $50). Also, I've included an image of my bonsai tree to hopefully give you a better understanding of what I'm dealing with.

Lamp 1

Lamp 2

Lamp 3

Ginseng Ficus Photo (This was not taken in the apartment I'll be living in, just another angle of the tree)

Thanks for reading! If you have any recommendations or lamps that have worked for you in the past I'd appreciate it if you commented those below. I'm looking for lamps that can be attached to a desk as that's where my tree will be.

The larger pot is good given you want the base of the trunk to beef up. Trunks are grown by having a lot of foliage and foliage needs lots of roots and lots of roots needs lots of soil. You should water it when the soil becomes dry. In the summer this will be pretty much every day it doesn't rain.

What you do next depends on how aggressive you want to be. I'm guessing you used regular potting soil in the repot and didn't reduce the existing soil from the original pot, just slip potted it? If so you should get some actual bonsai soil, get rid of all the soil on the outside of the original root ball, but not all of the soil, leave the core root ball with soild and put it back in your large pot using only the bonsai soil. This soil will promote good drainage and make it easy for the plant to quickly build a big root system. Then fertilize heavily until July at which point back off a bit until fall.

There isn't much to style until it grows a lot and develops a lot more branches. You can direct the growth to what you want but since you like the horizontal nature it has now it will be a while before you have additional branches to style. Also, I see you have it outside, but be sure to keep it outside year round. Given you have it on a balcony you might want to provide it some wind protection for a while after repotting and during the coldest days of the year.

Also it recently had a trunk chop that was growing straight up (from the store not me). I was wondering if I was still able to prune back branches because I read that work should not be done often to the tree. Is giving it a break my best option?

edit: another question while I'm at it. One plant I bought was from amazon, the other in the store at walmart. I feel like the soil is low quality. I would like to change it. Do you guys have ideas for top quality soil? does something like this work?

I try to water it when the soil gets dry but it stays muddy for a while. Should I repot it into a faster draining soil?

The light I'm using is this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AZOV9K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ay-CCbPDK02ZN
It actually has been giving me really good growth on a ficus forest, Chinese sweet plum, and surinam cherry.

> Just spray it out, drill a little, spray it out, etc. Ceramic bits don't like to be gunked up with the dust, and water helps. The bit I have is about 3/4 inch, I've never tried starting small and widening. There are different types of bits for different types of tile/stone/etc, but mine look like this:
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Amico-Diamond-Tipped-Metal-Ceramic/dp/B00880CFJS

Okay that would do the job!! Gah I was going to do a single, large center hole with my angle-grinder (and put steel mesh over that) as I've got a plant needing re-potting and really want to use this one if possible, I wonder if I can find a bit like that locally am going to have to make some calls!

I was thinking you'd start out with 1/8" bits and then work your way up, boring bigger holes each time- if there's a 'doorknob'-type bit for ceramic that'd be ideal for me, would put a ton of 3/4" holes and call it a day! Time to see what local shops have because if I can't buy locally I'll probably just use the angle-grinder as I want to re-pot this guy right while he's starting to flower (right now is 3 days into setting flower buds)

It was a $5 ceramic pot from Walmart that was bigger than the one it came in. Forget what the bonsai purists say about what pot goes with what tree. Get one that you like that you think looks good with your tree. Bonsai is living art so have fun with it!

As for the soil I like to mix some Miracle Gro potting soil with either the tropical or all-purpose blend soil from tinyroots on amazon. I found the bonsai soil was too aerated by itself and the potting soil helped it retain a little moisture.

https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Tree-Soil-Purpose-Blend/dp/B007GS9ZGO

Keep in mind I haven’t even had this tree for a full season so I may not be the best advice :)

This stuff.

I don't typically use the latex type for big cuts like this any more. It's often better than nothing, but I find for big cuts, the latex type paste that you smear on tends to be a little too permanent for my liking, and the tree heals a bit differently than I prefer.

The clay stuff is easier to adjust as the tree heals, and to scrape off once it's done it's job. Also, the callous growth tend to nicely roll over into the cut the way they're supposed to when you use the clay.

I've heard of some people using vasoline for conifers, so that may be another alternative for you that's easier to obtain on short notice.

I just reported my Trident maple for the first time. How did I do?

https://imgur.com/gallery/4RcNmut (sorry that the images are out of order)

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Details:

• I bought this tree over the summer from Brussel's bonsai. They use a soil mix that's 50% organic, which I know is generally frowned upon and frowned upon even more for Trident Maples. I used this type of soil when repotting https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F7GVBQC/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
• The tree was heavily root bound, the bottom of the pot was filled with a thick mass of roots that had formed to the shape of the pot
  
• I raked all of that out, and removed a pretty large volume of roots so that it would fit back into the original pot.
  
• I removed a few thick/woody roots, but mainly just focused on detangling the root mass and removing as much of the organic soil as possible. I think I got most of it.
  
• I already realized I wired the tree into the pot wrong (did it after adding soil rather than before), but I think its ok enough. I'll do better next time.
  
  ​

https://imgur.com/a/BHLBM

I just got this Juniper bonsai at the Sakura Matsuri in DC yesterday! I'm excited because I've wanted to get another bonsai after a few failed attempts before with ficus. I've put him outside. I bought some
soil (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007H14XAI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
and fertilizer (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07483PHWW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

Any suggestions with the buds? He looks ok to me so far. I am super nervous about him being outside, but I know he'll be fine and happier.

I have one of these. It works great because they're designed to sit on a 5 gallon bucket so all the fines fall directly into the bucket for easy clean up. Granted, not as awesome as "The Machine"

Piggy back/update onto my last post:

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I put my young and new to me Serissa outside in my only window side which unfortunately faces north and it gets north sun until 10 or so in the morning, not enough!

https://imgur.com/pgU02Ok

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So i'm thinking of getting a clip lamp with a 150W COB LED Full spectrum bulb in it and putting that also outside to give it whatever i can from 11am for the rest of the day. A bulb similar to this one... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T47G2L2/?coliid=I3CBIE5CDG4LGC&colid=2Y089HAZ3UH6C&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

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Would a lamp like that have any effect? I want to keep this guy alive until i move to better light in a few months.

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Also, if such a lamp outside would be beneficial should i get the COB LED in warmer white 3000K or cooler white in the 5000/6000 range.

Going to be growing a Chinese elm from seed, but indoors. Can anyone tell me if these bulbs will be any good for growth?

https://www.amazon.com/Equivalent-Standard-3000-Lumen-Daylight-Warehouse/dp/B07TT3BPB3/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=6500k+3000+lumen&qid=1562778519&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

I picked the greenhouse up on Amazon. It's very sturdy and pretty darn cheap for a walk-in size. I did slightly modify mine by omiting the lower shelves. This gave me larger niches to fit the size trees that I have and does not effect the sturdyness of the construction at all. Hope this helps!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GDVVZY4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So... stratification... I've been dreading this topic. (cue the ominous music)...

Warm, cold, hot, moist all terms of art when dealing with stratification. Some seed need one type, some need another. Some seeds actually need both. The Source for this type of information is the books of Dr. Michael Dirr.

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propogation and Uses

The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation: From Seed to Tissue Culture, Second Edition

You can pick of the later and more important book on Amazon for $31 plus shipping - which is a ridiculously good price.

This book will pay for itself the first time you do not make a catastrophic mistake because you followed Professor Dirr's advice!

Really, nothing I can add to his books would help: Just invest the forty bucks, I promise, you will not be sorry. But I will try to answer yout question...

See if this link from from Bonner & Karrfalt The Woody Plant Seed Manual comes up for you. It pretty much will tell you everything you need to know about Ulmus propagation via seed.

So is something like this not considered proper soil for a juniper?

I do believe the tree to be 5 years old. I have had it for over 2 years myself, and a friend purchased it from somewhere and was told it was 3 years old then. Maybe my naivete has opened me up to scrutiny and I apologize.

Also, is it more harmful to replant a tree in the winter or let it remain in almost complete potting soil with no drainage? Yes, in my stupidity, i potted it in a closed-bottom container in potting soil earlier this year. I should have consulted resources before making that jump I guess.

The plant has lived inside it's whole life, so I'm sure that's another fault against me. Once spring rolls around if I still have a plant to work with I will try to get it into the correct cycle of being outside.

I do appreciate the tough love, and I want to take this seriously. I guess I joined this sub without realizing just how serious you all were.

Jin pliers are pretty useful for things that aren't immediately obvious. Need to make tie downs for your pot screens? Jin pliers. Need to twist a guy wire? Jin pliers. Need to open a beer? Jin pliers. An 8" set of jin pliers is even fairly cheap: https://www.amazon.com/Beginner-Bonsai-Tools-Standard-Level/dp/B078WR8FBF/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1525125527&sr=8-11&keywords=jin+pliers+tian

Copper and aluminum of EVERY gauge is something that all bonsai folks should have available at all times.

> Brand?

• Wire and knob cutters from Tian Bonsai
  
• Shears white label Chinese
  
  
  > Come with that roll?
  
  Ala carté
  
  
  
  > How you like em?
  
  Like eating butter for the first time...mmm
  
  > What's the gold one?
  
  
• Revlon concave clippers ;)

I have been growing a bunch of different plants at my cubicle desk at work - which means nowhere near enough sunlight even for a spider plant - and that includes quite a few cottonwood seedlings who are all doing very well.

I use an LED grow light at home and and the office desk that does a lot for plants.

>Bulb: https://www.amazon.com/SANSI-Daylight-Spectrum-Sunlight-Greenhouse/dp/B07BRKG7X1/
>
>Lamp: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HX2EVPS/

It is a full spectrum light that is in the same range as natural sunlight. It has been perfect for me, every plant I have put under it has started putting out new growth almost right away and bends toward it just like they do with the sun. (Which is how I am getting interesting curves in my seedlings.)

You do need to keep the lamp about 16 to 18 inches from the plant to get the full amount of light for it though, but it will not put off any amount of heat worth worrying about.

Thank you! Would this soil be okay? It's in German but you can see what it looks like. http://www.amazon.de/Bonsai-Erde-Hausmischung-Bonsai-Fachgeschäft-ltr-Abpackung/dp/B009JCP05K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1411758289&sr=8-3&keywords=bonsai+erde

That book looks like it actually has useful detail. Think I'll pick up a copy. Here is a link to a substantially cheaper copy if others are interested--$20 instead of $56.

Also, just checking the soil out again: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bonsai-Focus-Repotting-Mix-Litre/dp/B00BBAMIDK

Comments indicate the soil is great for Chinese elms, which is actually why I got it. Could I have packed the soil too tight?

Just spray it out, drill a little, spray it out, etc. Ceramic bits don't like to be gunked up with the dust, and water helps. The bit I have is about 3/4 inch, I've never tried starting small and widening. There are different types of bits for different types of tile/stone/etc, but mine look like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Amico-Diamond-Tipped-Metal-Ceramic/dp/B00880CFJS

Oh I meant to drill the holes into the ceramic and just repot it into there without the plastic pot. I just moved it outdoors under a partially shaded area with only the plastic pot, since it has drainage holes.

I have this soil already, from a failed previous bonsai :(. I saw people talking highly about it here so Ill just use it for this one and hope for the best.

Fill in your flair. Honestly my advice is to pick up a couple of nice books with that money before you dive in. Here are a few you might consider:

• Bonsai Basics
  
• Bonsai4Me Series.
  
• Bonsai - techniques, styles, display ideas. Haven't read this myself yet but Peter Warren was involved so I'm sure its high quality.

I would buy bonsai jack soil, but I don't know how much extra they'll charge you for shipping or if it's even available in your country.

When I search amazon.es, I can find products made with peat moss and sand which isn't very good for bonsai. This 2mm-5mm clay soil would work very well for bonsai. And in Japan they use akadama which is very expensive in my country, but looks much more affordable for you.

Its this: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B009JCP05K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Quite granular and water does not retain. Thus, in summer I have to water the plant twice, else its not enough.

https://www.amazon.ca/Bonsai-Beginners-Bible-Peter-Chan/dp/178472369X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=peter+chan&qid=1570281843&sr=8-1

And


https://www.amazon.ca/Bonsai-DK/dp/1465419586/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=bonsai+books&qid=1570281874&sr=8-2

I'm using that same exact soil and also bought it from Amazon! I hope its not the soil. Mine would most likely die if I repot it again.

This is the soil:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GS9ZGO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was given this tree, this soil, and these pellets for my birthday recently. I live 10 feet away from a window at work and the idea was to keep the tree either next to my desk or on the window sill where it will be facing the east and be in sunlight from sunrise to about 3/4pm every day.

I have no idea how to get started, absolute no idea. This is what the tree looks like.