bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colin Lewis

I think so - or even up to three years. After that the peat will deteriorate. It's important to get a good root system working for you early on. For some reason seedlings do better in this humus-rich and acid environment. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that they're designed to germinate in leaf litter...

I favor those nursery pots that are shallower than normal flower pots. I think they use them for bulbs or chrysanthemums.

I like to get the nebari nice and wide first, wider than you would think, for this reason: Imagine a young trunk,half an inch thick, with nicely spaced nebari spreading out to a radius of two inches all round. Wide enough? Now think ahead ten years. The tree has been in the ground for four or five years, then in a large growing container. The trunk is now two inches thick, but the nebari is still only four inches across. An inch-wide nebari all round? Not enough by any means.

It took me twenty years to figure that out!

Thanks Colin. Down here in Florida I don't see more than a couple of seasons tops with a peat heavy mix. Not with frequent waterings and the rain. It goes to muck pretty quickly. I'm with you on the nebari spread as well. The wider the better when young. Yeah - bulb pans are great. Nice size in height vs. width.

Kong - you got me going - I slipped out a few seedling JBP I potted mid November. They are in 4" square pots, smaller stock less than 5" tall and pencil trunk and smaller. Loaded with fine and fat roots. Colonized enough so that the soil came out in one piece except for some stuff on the very bottom corners of the pot. Soil? 1/3 mix of pumice, akadama and lava screened to 1/8 - 3/16. Real good for 2 months maximum.