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Originally Posted by radsnell
Do you line the pot with plastic, as their website recommends. Obviously in nature, the BC are in water, but I've never heard of lining the pot to create the "swamp".
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Different people grow them in different ways. Last year I tried it in grow box lined with an old shower curtain. Kind of a variation of the technique that Grampz uses:
http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/f14/bal...821/index3.html
The soil was constantly wet and by summer's end the stink was pretty bad. I scooped the whole mess (without disturbing the roots) and put it into a plastic oil drain pan with a few holes poked in the bottom. I also added some more coarse sand and pine bark. This was more of a compromise between the "swamp" and a regular condition. The trunk did increase in girth from about a 1/4" to almost an inch. I don't know if keeping it in water through the summer did it or not but I like the results! When I repotted earlier this year, there were a ton of white, healthy roots. I put it in a pond basket with a free draining mix of pine bark and coarse sand. I 'm planning on putting the pond basket in a tray of water (not completely submerged) once summer really kicks in.
As for the forest, I joined the Arbor Day Foundation:
http://www.arborday.org/shopping/me...?trackingid=528
I got 10 free BC saplings (toothpick size trunks) for the $10 membership fee. I've planted those in a grow box and hope to make a nice group in a couple or three years.
Mike