I had a bonsai weekend. Kylie and I went to a nursery in Sebastapol called Lone Pine Gardens on Saturday and I picked up a few amazing plants. This Trident Maple is by far the best. Check it out.
I removed all the old soil and trimed the roots back substantially.
And here it is replanted.
it is planted in my special soil mix which I mix myself using four seperately sifted materials. It is tied into the pot with anchor string. I sprinkled the bare roots with a fungal inoculant that contains multiple varieties of microrhiza and trichoderma fungi and beneficial bacteria bacillus subtilis to create an active soil ecology and ‘rhizosphere’. I also used a rooting hormone when I watered it. It should be allright.
I cannot start the training that I’d like to quite yet. I have to wait until this years’ shoots ‘harden off’ which should be early June. If i trim the foliage now I will mess up the hormone cycle in the plant and basicaly halt the root production that I need right now since I repotted. So I did a little sketch of my training plans.
the lower drawing represents the tree as I bought it. The upper drawing is the basic structure I want to bring forth. I am fortunate to have so many small branches to work with. I will be able to choose the most ideally placed brances and trim out the rest. The darker lines on the upper drawing show the basic position I will move the selected branches to.
I bought some other trees as well that are waiting to be repotted. Wait for the three tree shohin forest that I will be doing next week.
Just for fun, here are the new bonsai tables I built just last weekend.
