| Monday, June 4th, 2001 | Tuesday, June 5th, 2001 | Thursday, June 14th, 2001 | Monday, June 18th, 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thursday, April 25th, 2002
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Monday, June 4th, 2001 I have been interested in Bonsai for several years now but have never taken the chance to actually grow one. I kept hearing that, yes, one could start the hobby inexpensively - but, I have a thousand other things going on in my life and half a dozen hobbies. So, adding one more hobby with associated expenses seemed irresponsible at best. However, this weekend I was at the mall and happened to walk into a bookstore. There, I found something interesting - a bonsai kit. It was in among the small books and bookmarks at the checkout - one of those impulse gifts. They hooked me! The kit is called "The Mini Bonsai Kit". It is from Running Press, ISBN 0-7624-0974-6. The kit includes a small book on bonsai with directions for the kit, a small black, ceramic bonsai pot, a cheap pair of scissors, a peat pellet and 4 jack pine seeds in a small ziplock. The kit was US$5.95. The word "cute" is invoked with every piece! The book is informative if a bit contradictory. The blurb on the box says "invite tranquility into your workplace or home with your own tabletop bonsai tree ..." - this was quite attractive to me. I don't have an excellent place to do bonsai at my apartment - somewhere that the cats or the neighbor kids won't get into. So, doing bonsai indoors seemed like a great idea. However, the book gives zero instruction for indoor propagation. I guess I'm on my own. I have a great view of the Puget Sound from my cubicle at work - a sweeping west facing window. Even here in the rainy Pacific North West, we do get a good deal of sunshine. While I realize the facing isn't the most ideal, neither is growing this poor tree indoors. However, this will be such a nice distraction at work that I want to give it a go. I mean, I was excited to go to work on a Monday just so I could start this process - a rare thing indeed! As per the instructions in the little book that came with the kit, I have put the jack pine seeds to soak for 24 hours. I have been trying to keep everything small and unobtrusive. To that end I bought a pint of juice from the vending machine, drank the not very good juice (how I suffer for my hobbies!) Then rinsed out the container with mild soap and lots of hot water. Then, I sealed up the four seeds with about half a pint of water. This way even the cleaning staff can't knock anything over and ruin this. Tomorrow - we cold stratify! Wish me luck! |
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Tuesday, June 5th, 2001 The seeds soaked for 24 hours in the juice bottle. I have now wrapped them in paper towels and placed them back into the little ziplock that came with the kit. This went back into the juice bottle and that went into the fridge. Remember I'm doing this at work - so I'm not the only one using the fridge. Next Tuesday, according the the instructions, I'll remove them and begin planting. Yesterday, I went out and hunted down several bonsai sites on the web. I got tons of info. First off, I could find no reference to Jack Pine any where - I wonder if anyone else has seriously used this for bonsai. What I am putting together is on the mame scale. But, I've always thought mame was a great way to go - so I think I'll enjoy this. Both of the procedures I've done so far, soaking in water and cold stratification, are things used in creating larger bonsai - although the lengths of time are much longer - I guess when you are soaking acorns, it takes a little longer than the tiny seeds I'm using. I'm going to buy some other items as well. I'm going to go to a local Asian market and buy a low tray, ceramic in black or blue, that I can use for the soaking next week. Also, this will help with another problem. I'm worried about growing these indoors, so a site I visited yesterday suggested using wet gravel to keep the area around the plant a little more humid. I like this idea, and I think it will be pretty. I'm also going to buy some bonsai soil and maybe another pot. I have four seeds - I'd like to see at least two trees. We'll see. |
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Links American Bonsai Society Virtual Reference |
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Thursday, June 14th, 2001 I was out sick for a few days and I'm also broke. So, there is no cool ceramic tray or anything like that. To substitute, I found a plastic case for an on-hold music tape - I cut it in half and it serviced nicely Everything else is going well, too. I found the seeds in the fridge - no one had tossed them out. Good thing I marked them so well. Next, I set up the peat pellet and put water over it just like the book said. However, they recommended 32oz. of water. It took much less than that to get the pellet ready to go - I'd say less than 12oz. They recommended planting 2 seeds. However, they gave me 4 seeds. I'm going out this weekend and buying soil and at least one more pot. I hope to have a couple of good sprouts out of these four seeds, and I'll transplant the strong sprouts to a new pot. The book tells me that once I have eliminated the weaker sprouts, to put the plant outside in the sun for a month in dappled sunlight then move to full sunlight. This will not be happening as I'm trying to do this all at my desk. This is one of the inconsistencies of this product that I'm still not happy with - selling me an outdoor product as an indoor one. We'll see where this goes. |
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Monday, June 18th, 2001 This weekend, things came together a little better on this project and the project expanded! We finally got a chance to go to an Asian market with a selection of bonsai related stuff. They sell trees already in bonsai form and some pots and some tools - not a great selection but some stuff for the beginner. I found the ceramic tray I was looking for in another department. Just something one might serve sushi on. I didn't go for blue, instead choosing an earth tone. (When I got it home and filled it with pea gravel - I was so happy I went with this tray!) I was looking for another pot - I was thinking that maybe I might grab a saki cup and drill a drainage hole in it. While I was looking at those - my fiancée found something else! You guessed it - another bonsai kit! The kit is called "MINI BONSAI GARDEN" - it comes from Toysmith out of Kent, WA. It was US$11.00. The kit contains a really cool pot, soil, coarse sand, nice little clippers and an envelope of Hyssop seeds. The seed envelope had most of the instructions, although there was a second instruction card - more sales hype than instruction. Altogether, a nice kit for stuff, but a little light on information. I wasn't planning to get a second kit, but it was such a nice thing I couldn't pass it up. Again, the scale is mame and again we are growing from seed. The little pot is very different from the black custard cup that came with the other kit. The clippers are better as well, I've seen clippers just like it for a buck or two elsewhere, but that was before I started this kit kick and I didn't grab them. The outside of the box said that there were 50 mg of Rosemary seed. Are Hyssop and Rosemary the same thing? I'll have to go look this up. I now have the custard cup sitting in the tray surrounded by gravel and about a quarter inch of water - per the instructions from that kit and the tip I found about keeping things a little humid. I also have the new cute pot, sitting on the gravel. This was such a simple planting - no soaking or cold stratification. Simple. I think the whole thing looks great on my windowsill at work and it is getting so much sun! I'm worried about the amount of moisture I'm giving these guys, but both kits insisted on "moist". With being in an air-conditioned environment - air conditioners spend half of their time drawing moisture out of the air - I'm worried about moisture period. |
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Wednesday, June 20th, 2001
I'm about to launch this page to the Internet
- kinda excited. |
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Wednesday, June 27th, 2001
I have sprouts! |
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Sunday, July 8th, 2001
My sprouts are doing very well indeed. |
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Thusday, April 24th, 2002 This update has been a long time coming - I'm sorry to have made my loyal readers wait! A lot has changed on my little window sill in the last year. At one point I had a whole bunch of new pictures. I wanted to add them to this page to show the changes I had made. But, that was several months, one new mariage and a computer failure and reformat ago. As you can see, I've added three pots to my collection. The three rounder, deeper pots were only a few dollars each at a cool bonsai store I found here in the area - if I find their link again I'll put it up. The cobalt blue pot on the left is my favorite so far - and there's a kinda funny story there, too. When last I left you, I had three Jack Pine sprouts and three Hysop sprouts. When I bought the new pots, the pines went into the cobalt blue and two of the round pots. The Hysop went into the last round, the custard cup and the jade green pots. I placed them all in this plastic tray filled with gravel for the humidity - the little Budda arrived a couple weeks later! Everything thrived pretty well. The pines all grew and the hysop grew a little too well! I bought some bonsai fertilizer - I think it's blood meal, I'm not sure, I got it cheap! Anyway, when I fed the hysop - they grew like mad! The one in the custard cup just out and died on me, the other two succumbed to my worst fear - they basicly dried up when not watered over a weekend. I have since learned that the hysop is a fast growing shrub - I should have begun cutting on it early and I need to be careful when feeding it. As it stands now, I've started some new hysop and only a few weeks after sprouting I'm about ready to cut on them. The new ones are pictured below - again in the jade pot. The pines died due to my ignorance as well - at least two of them did anyway. Sitting next to the window gets a lot of sunshine - but on a December night, on the 40th floor, it gets pretty cold. I wasn't thinking. One of the pines in the round pots - sitting right next to the window - started to look pretty bad. I pulled it away from the window - stupidly putting the other pine in the round pot in it's place - the second pine looked bad after the weekend. Both pines pretty much froze to death. The pine in the blue pot did just fine, I don't know if it was the bigger pot or the fact it was six inches from the window. I've since learned that pines don't do well in freezing weather. Doh! BTW, the last Jack is doing fine. I also discovered that Jack Pines are a real strain of pine - not a typo. When I find it again, I'll post the info I found on the net. I've been a little worried about this tree, I was hoping to see candles form on the top. So far - no candles. However, I've noticed that there are little nodules on the side (I tried to get a picture and failed) - I remember reading that not all pines candle. Either way, I just hope the little guy survives! The custard cup now contains a leaf from one of my co-workers jade plants. I read somewhere that a jade leaf will strike if put in dirt. So, I grabbed a leaf and stuck it in the dirt - only to have it eventually go black and die. This is the second leaf, I cut the bottom on this one hoping to give it more exposure to form roots. Seems to be working. This leaf has lived for many months and seems to be pretty firmly rooted. Time will tell! The funny thing about this hobby is that it grows on you! (Ha!) But, seriously, I've spent less that fifty bucks total and had a great time - I just spent about $40 more and bought a few new pots and some seed. But, in all this has been lots of fun, a great distraction at work and cheap to boot! Plus, there are freebies! For example, I went out last night and found a big pine tree next to a local parking lot - I'm betting it's a mugo - anyway I took a pine cone and found two seeds. I have them soaking at work right now in the little juice jug (pictured below) that I used before. I'll cold stratify them this week! There's also this cedar pictured to the left. Apparently, someone adandoned the poor thing when they got another job and left the office. So, some friends knew that I was into bonsai and brought it to me - for free! You'll notice that it's sitting in the original gravel tray I bought - this pot has a HUGE drainage hole. This little cedar has some problems. First - this guy was never meant to be indoors. He is so dry and brittle I can't touch him without knocking off bits of him. I keep misting him, but it's not helping much. One of the new snazzy pots I just bought is deeper, I'm hoping to use that as a better form of evaporation to keep up the moisture level. The other problem is the little froo-froo junk in the pot. While the rock is kinda cool, the fishing guy, the bridge and the lantern gotta go! So, this update was a long time coming, and the change of venue is no fun, but I have a lot more going on. There will be new trees and cooler pots as we continue our little indoor experiment - stay tuned! |
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Monday September 2nd, 2002 These pictures are about two months old, I apologize. I have been putting more time into IWDC and less time into the features - it took a three day weekend to get this up and we know how rare those are! All of these pictures were taken one day while I had some spare time and all my materials at work. I had wanted to make some changes to my little garden for quite a while, but kept running into supply and demand problems: I didn't have the supplies and there were other demands on my time! However, it finally came together and I have what you see here. I started with some new pots - as I told you last time around, I had purchased some new pots and seed - well, here are the pots. They are simple but very pretty - I'm afraid that the lighting conditions don't fully show the richness of the blue glaze on the largest pot. Don't you just love that tray?! The other pots are simple black but very pretty, I think. The next picture is of some of my older pots, all cleaned out and waiting for new plants. At one point I felt like I was running a plant store off my desk! You'll also notice the black mesh in my pots, another purchase along with the pots and seeds. The mesh will keep material in the pot while allowing water through the drainage hole - I got a whole lot of mesh for two bucks! Not bad at all! You'll notice in the second picture that the large blue pot there is from the poor cedar I talked about last time. Yes, I finally gave up on it. The tree dried out horribly and I couldn't save it. I watered it and misted it and gave it fertilizer, nothing seemed to work. I found out later that bonsai made for the gift market in China are often planted in any old garbage soil - often heavy clay. No wonder the poor thing was having trouble. When I pulled it out of the pot, the roots pulled right away from the plant no matter how gentle I was - it pretty much rotted to death. I wish I had known to replant it! I could have done that months ago and saved the pretty little tree. Some day I want to try a cedar again, but I may wait until I have a proper place outside. Below that picture is the froo-froo that was in with the cedar - the rock, fisherman and lantern. I couldn't rescue the little bridge that was there as well. Oh well!! All were held onto the rock with a little mortar - matter of fact the rock is a mass of rocks held with mortar. I may try a root over rock planting later, but I have no idea what to do with the other froo. Remember the hysop from last time around? Well, the next picture shows how I planted them. I had a lot of fun cutting on them as they grew and watching how they would recover from my interventions. However, I may have been too aggressive. Out of that group of four - only one is still alive. Between not having a sufficient root structure after the replant and not getting enough water over weekends - three of four died, including the one in the thimble pot, pictured in the next photo. Look how tiny that thing is! This was one of the coolest parts about doing the replant and I lost that plant within three weeks. I think part of the problem there was that there was nothing in the pot to hold moisture. I would have been smart to put sand in the bottom over a bit of cheese cloth to keep the sand from washing out. Alas, I learned that too late. You'll be happy to know that the fourth hysop, the one pictured in the upper right hand corner in the round pot, is doing really well. It has taken to this planting very well, indeed. It seems very strong and the stem has begun to turn brown - like it's getting bark. That's a first for me with these hysop. I have also planted more hysop seed in one of the shallow oval pots. Speaking of which, there isn't a picture of this, but I went through a process to sprout some of the chinese elm and japanese maple seeds I bought in the old cedar pot. I also tried to get the mugo pine seeds going that I spoke about in the last post - neither of these worked. For a guy who has had a ton of luck with seeds - this is disappointing! I don't think I'm cold stratifying them long enough. So, I plan to leave them close to the window this winter and we'll see what sprouts in spring. The next picture is of my jade sprout! I'm so excited about this - I had no idea what to expect - I'm just glad it worked! As you can see, the jade is no longer in that custard cup, it is now in a hex shaped pot that is jade green - I thought that was quite appropriate! I found that pot at a second hand store for $.69 cents! I love that! This little jade has grown a ton since I took this picture - the next picture will be impressive I swear to you. But, I'm also a little angry with myself for a lack of patience. This jade leaf exibited the same black spots as the last one, but the little sprout, more of a bud, actually, still came. I think if I had waited a bit longer the first time I would have gotten results. The next photo might come as a shock - but that wasn't just some picture I got off the internet. One day I was sitting at my desk and some co-workers brought that to my desk. Apparently a vendor was trying to curry favor with my boss' boss, so they sent her that poor bonsai. Why do I say poor? They probably paid a ton for it - but it was awful. When I got it, there was a piece of wire cutting into the base of the tree that I removed. Then I had a good look - if you looked down at the tree you could get a better feeling for how they grew this tree. It looked as if they had taken two pieces of rebar and simply wrapped this tree around them as it grew. The first two twists were so harsh as to be sickening. There was simply no art to the tree. It was thrown together to fetch a price from an uncaring public. Anyway, they brought it to me to take care of until the uberboss returned from sabatical. I had it on my desk for a few weeks. A coworker took it and repotted it when our boss returned. I understand the tree is in much better shape now. The next picture is just odd! That is the remaining jack pine (pinus banksiana!) from my original kit - the only one that survived last winter. So, you may be asking yourself - why does the little tree have a mullett? Well, I must tell you, it wasn't intentional. But, I gave the tree some of that fertilizer I bought and that was the result I got - long, odd needles! I was told that indeed I could remove those wthout damaging the tree overall. I did that. Also, the tree did finally candle! I found out after I cut the candle to NOT cut candles, instead to pinch them off. And, I got the oddly shaped needles I read that I would get in addition to the mullett! The tree just looks odder and odder all the time! This little seedling, for all the hell it has gone trough in a year, is doing pretty well. As you can see, I have replanted it into the new cool pot that I originally bought for the cedar. I found a page that said that jack pines like lots of decaying matter in theri soil - so a lot of bits from the cedar have been applied to the little pine. I think it's doing great and I'm really excited about it's progress. Jack pine may not have been the best choice for a beginer - but that six bucks has taken me a long way! I'll keep you updated, until then, here are some interesting Jack Pine links - did you know that pinus banksiana is an endangered plant in the state of Illinois? The cool stuff you'll find if you look hard enough on the Internet! |
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