A nasty little atropurpureum

Nivizoit

Because I love the way a Japanese Red Maple looks, and the fact that they are so rare here in AZ, I bought the only one my "supplier" had. It's main trunk is about 3 inches tall and has two thin branches about 8 inches tall leaping from the trunk off into oblivion. The trunk at the split of these two branches has a very severe scar from a 1/4 inch branch being wacked off. Now that I look at the thing I don't see much potential in it. I have it in a 5 gallon pot to see if I can help it to expand it's possibilities. But I'm loosing hope. I know it'd need to be there for at least 5 years before it'd be worth it. But should I just use the junker for parts or should I just let it be for the half decade?

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Joanie

If you can plant it out in the garden, you might be able to enjoy it without stressing about it, and someday you'll notice that it finally grew potential. Is it grafted?

Joanie

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Nivizoit

no it's not grafted, it's just pathetic. and im in an apartment so a container is all i got.

Joanie

It won't live in an apartment no matter what you do.

If you need trees that can live indoors, try ficus. There are excellent threads here about ficus and how to keep them growing indoors.

Joanie

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zen

When I was out in the desert I started having crazy ideas, about growing regular temperate trees in something like a large terrarium, basicllay it would be a fish tank stood on end, and placed in a window with a "top" side made from wood or something with a hole cut in it for a small computer processor fan that can be turned on during the hottest part of the day, and then mist at least once a day or when the humidity gets too low,...to measure temps. and humidity levels I was going to go to a cigar shop and get one of those kits for a humidor they have the right guages and they are usually small and nice looking. This whole idea might just be BUNK,...but hey without inovation bonsai would still be regular ficus trees in a large pot like they used to have in ancient India or even the grand landscapes like they made for the emporer of China to best survey the land under his govern, by the sages that he sent out to gather and compile a comprehensive veiw of the country, they created landscapes and made a large courtyard sized map(of sorts) and set the "penjings" in their coresponding or respective area, so that the emporer could best be able to assign purposes to each region. This history is just the veiw that I have been given from what I have read and is in no way considered by even me to be hard fast "way of it". so I don't want to start a big fight about the birth of bonsai, just making a point, to the effect of inovation in this the fine art bonsai.

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"Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work."

~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)

rockm

"it would be a fish tank stood on end, and placed in a window with a "top" side made from wood or something with a hole cut in it for a small computer processor fan that can be turned on during the hottest part of the day, and then mist at least once a day or when the humidity gets too low,...to measure temps. and humidity levels I was going to go to a cigar shop and get one of those kits for a humidor they have the right guages and they are usually small and nice looking. This whole idea might just be BUNK,..."

It's BUNK. It's been tried endlessly. Terrarium growing of temperate trees doesn't work. It kills them rather quickly.

The simple fact that terrariums are a tropical environment with tropical humidity levels and air movement limits them in this kind of thing. Humidity is rarely a problem in a terrarium. Humidor gauges are for optimal storage of dried tobacco intended for human consumption, not living plants. they can be nice looking, but look best in a wooden humidor next to the Cubans...

Temperate zone plants not only need substantial air movement (much more than a puny computer fan can produce--WIND is what they need), they also need cooler soil temperatures at night. Soil temps in a terrarium would tend to stay high all the time, since the idea is to trap heat.

Simply growing temperate trees in a temperate zone is best for them. Growing them in a terrarium won't accelerate their growth. It will slow it

Unfortunately, growing a temperate zone plant in a desert is a hard thing to do.

Cordon

I second that. I had a nice starter Maple growing when I was living in CA, but one summer in new mexico and I just couldn't keep the poor thing alive.

Cord

zen

Hmmm Mark seems to be onto quite a few very good points here,...nevermind what I have said. I'm crazy,...and as such have crazy ideas. Sory for wasting the thread space. LOL. As I have seen that terrariums are making a comeback I might just try something like this with some tropicals like ficus, jade, sheffls or something, but yes they will need less air flow then a temperate tree so the comp. fan might work(those things get pretty big, from what I've seen at the electronics store, ya know?) But according to the folks at the Phoenix bonsai soc. Maples can be ,and are grown in the desert,...though it takes more work than a sage, portulacaria, jade, suajaro cactus, or even the dwarf myrtles (that grow rather well out there, and look quite nice, shape relatively easily, and ramify rather well also,...I would try to see if you can get hold of at least one of these if you like temperate "looking" trees but don't want to put in a BOOTY-LOAD of work and care to just keep something just alive,unless, of course you have the time and energy and really, really must have a temperate tree) these trees will never be, nor look like a maple,...of course there is something else that will grow just about anywhere (especially indoors, and sometimes through the use of quite intricate and expensive light and watering *sometimes hydro- or even aero-ponics* timers,warmers,coolers, etc.) and looks ALOT like (so much so that I think there must be some relation to) Japanese maples,...but of course growing more than a couple is a federal offense, and they only live a year maybe three tops with some special care. OK ok, i'm just kidding don't plant reefer seeds for bonsai,...even though I and quite a few others think they would make very beautiful houseplants. And about the humidor guages, they do not actually control the things that they measure, any more than a baking thermometer actually cooks the turkey,...so long as they measure the temperature and humidity and display the levels of these things for the grower to see and use as a guide, when taken in concert with the visual ques as to the health and well being of the tree at any given stage or artificial "season" to best provide the tree with the things that it needs or needs lack of to thrive. Believe it or not, many of the things that have been tried, have been tried in the "wrong" areas to achieve the desired results and,...*you more purists-blooded folks may want to brace yourselves*,...I do understand that bonsai is a quite ancient artform (but not so old as other artforms, like oil painting or stone sculpture,...where low and behold--inovations are STILL being made!) not, by any stretch of the imagination, has EVERYTHING that can be attempted ,has been given a shot, or been truelly tested, in as scientific an experiment as possible,...with a goodly number of subjects and controls were used, or put to use in a broad enough number of environments, to attain a conclusive finding, for or against, quite a large quanity of techniques,...besides, what is bonsai but a system of techniques used in concert with artistry, on the object medium of woody plant material, to attain a subject "tree" that appears older and/or larger actual tree in nature to convey the artists vision of what the nature of that tree or planting really means to him/her and what he/she wishes to evoke, or envoke , in the veiwer of said subject/object? I mean really let's not get short sighted or altogether blinded by the "textbooks" (as great as some of the books, articles, etc. out there are) RULES of can and cannot be done, granted some things are just bad ideas, and WILL NOT work at all, but I am more than certain when Bonsai was born there were more a few old-fashioned folks around who just knew that "Trees won't grow in no pot!", but then just look at where we are now.

__________________
"Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work."

~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)

rockm

"of course there is something else that will grow just about anywhere (especially indoors, and sometimes through the use of quite intricate and expensive light and watering *sometimes hydro- or even aero-ponics* timers,warmers,coolers, etc.) and looks ALOT like (so much so that I think there must be some relation to) Japanese maples"

You might want to think about not dipping into that "something else" before posting.

"Believe it or not, many of the things that have been tried, have been tried in the "wrong" areas to achieve the desired results and,...*you more purists-blooded folks may want to brace yourselves*,...I do understand that bonsai is a quite ancient artform (but not so old as other artforms, like oil painting or stone sculpture,...where low and behold--innovations are STILL being made!) not, by any stretch of the imagination, has EVERYTHING that can be attempted ,has been given a shot, or been truelly tested, in as scientific an experiment as possible,..."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all bonsai fuddy duddies.... whatever...You "bonsai revolutionaries and anarchists" better brace yourselves--THIS particular idea has been tried endlessly. It don't work. Maples are maples. Ficus ain't maples, and Maples ain't cannabis. If the soggy roots don't kill a terrariumized maple, then the fungus and rot will. Trust me.

Oh, by the way, if you've got the $$ to fool around with artificial growing equipment or stock for one hobby--, your cry of "I'm too poor to buy bonsai stock" kinda loses its credibility