Danger- Misinformation

bonsaial1

I feel that I must speak up here. There has been alot of misinformation here lately. So much that it seems to be a free for all.

Just type a essay and you will get the Joanies; fantstic article Will

Bonsai greenhorn, wonderful article and so on and so fourth. You praise this stuff and have no idea if it will even work for you. You do not question it, you just accept it for face value. You folks may get irrate over the way I question things around here, but if someone posts something that is just plain dangerous I'm going to speak up. It ain't going to be sugar coated either. If Will told you guys to march off the cliff would you question that or just yell Geronomo!

The information while working for Will in his micro climate is not a thing that should be practised carte blanch.

Joanie has mentioned a penchant for wanting a collected Cal. juniper. It's collected and so I can just follow the wonderful article posted by Will. He is having so much success with this method it must surly work for me.


WRONG with a capital W. Seek the advice of people in your locale. What works for Will will certainly not work for everyone. In fact the information he posts will probably not work for the majority of the posters here under all the probable curcumstances that can arise.

Will's article contains information based on very young looking plants. I would also venture to say that he digs these in rather rich growing conditions and gathers a fairly compact root system. I have posted the pictures of the root systems I have collected in my many searches and successes with Cal. Juniper. I am lucky to have a hand full of roots on a tree well over three hundred years old. It's collected, that makes it fair game for the recipe that Will suggests? All I can say is Joanie, do not follow this advice on a juniper from the desert. They are to precious to burn up on fish emulsion on dig day.

Any thought from you collectors out there?

BTW, I have not even vented about hurricane styled trees yet. We'll save that for when the thread slows down.

Al

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Joanie

Granted, Al, all the information on this forum needs to be weighed and considered. No one article, no one person has general enough information to suit every situation and climate. Having read ALL the articles, including yours on collecting junipers, and others, and the comments, and the off forum articles, and the books.....and signing up for a collecting trip with Mr. Hirao.....is that enough diversity of information? If someone can't weigh the opinions and thoughts and experiences of others, and come to their own conclusions, then they will fail, or they will have to figure out what works for them.

Will's article was interesting particularly in his thoughts about the microclimate and the interacting vegetation that he collects along with the tree. I appreciate that Will takes the time, as do you, to write the articles. It takes guts to put your ideas front and center. It also takes guts to challenge and ask more questions....

Did you read my article? "Finding Information First"? It's all about learning from as many places as you can, starting with but not exclusive to this forum. Read, read, read. One loose quote from my article- "the web gives you the most information available to anyone, anywhere, in history. Use it." If you are collecting junipers in hot weather, you'd better know what you are doing. If you are collecting an old Lantana out of a yard in Carlsbad, then Will's information might apply. If you are growing azaleas in Arizona, then the Japanese books aren't the best source of information on when root pruning should be done. Join a local club, (another post of mine, multiple times) learn from the pros, participate, think and apply what you learn.

Don't mistake encouragement for endorsement. I also praised your article on guy wiring, asked a few questions, but am still trying to learn WHY and HOW and whether it applies in specific situations. Speaking of which, I asked a question on your moss article which I don't believe ever got answered, maybe I have to post it...still want to know....

Joanie

bonsaial1

Joanie, I applaud your desire to seek out information as you have. I hope that you understand that there are many here that read these threads and think they can apply what they read here at home. Praises without simple questions like: would this work everywhere? go along way towards the credibility that you portray to others.

When I read praise like that from those first replys, it makes me wonder where your thinking might be. Thanks for clearing that up.

Al

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Joanie

That's okay.... and you are right, in that casual readers may assume something is gospel everywhere, in every situation, just because they read it on the internet. But that goes for almost every piece of information. To everything, there is a caveat. Which is why we have warning labels on toothpicks. "Danger...sharp...do not stick in your eye".

But may I also point out that there is a difference between "MISinformation" and "information of limited application" as far as the information we put out here on the forum? Wouldn't it be nice to see some head to head comparisons of different techniques? Controls? That kind of thing?

I have an experiment that I am running with another group, we are testing the variables of firing kilns of different sizes in different climates. I am making twenty identical pieces of pottery, glazed in exactly the same way, and sending them to participants who will chart their firings, and send them back to compare results head to head. We suspect something that the kiln manufacturers seem to be blind to....a relationship between kiln size and the fugitive colors in low fire ware. We have been discussing our own results with certain underglazes, trying to compare them over the imperfect communication that is the internet, and cannot get close enough to an answer. There is only one way to know for sure.

What I am getting at, with this long winded post, is that telling someone to use a certain mixture of underglaze colors and fire to a certain cone temp would not be "MISinformation", but it COULD be of limited application for them if their kiln is significantly bigger or smaller than mine. Or, possibly, if they live in a different climate whose humidity or temperature can affect the firing time of the kiln. It takes much longer to get to cone temp if you live in Canada, than it does in New Mexico....does that change the color of the result? We think so. We are about to find out definitively.

Joanie

bonsaial1

Joanie,

Misinformation...Limited application

Potato...patato.

Garbageman ... sanitation engineer

Your just nicer than me. I have no agenda, just truth in advertising. Sometimes you just have to throw PC out with the bath water, and call a spade a damn shovel!

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BonsaiGreenhorn

I think Will's or anyone elses efforts to inform us on their ways and techniques to collect or whatever other articles they may write are usually pretty good ones in these forums, and even if they may not be totally be directed towards me or someone else (location location location) something can usually be learned from them, and if not, are interesting to read. That's all.

-Evan

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Joanie

Call'em as you see'em, Al.

The torch lives on.....

Joanie

bonsaial1

Greenhorn, you familiar with P.T. Barnum?

Al

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Ashbarns9999

Al, Call a spade a shovel and i'll call you a cab!!! As the articles proponent on anything you couldn't even be bothered to vote in the contest to this time.
Unbelievable Ash

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