Over potting vs. Ground planting

Vance Wood

Everybody pretty well summed it up. It is all about proportions, time and the nature of the growing environment.

__________________
The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa

Advertisement

anttal63

thanks john and vance for that. it has put my feelings into perspective.

KIMURA QUOTES todays bonsai are grown to fast i have fimly believed that since reading it 18 months ago.

__________________
Antonio . . .
------------------------------------

rockm

"KIMURA QUOTES todays bonsai are grown to fast i have fimly believed that since reading it 18 months ago"

Kimura hasn't grown out a bonsai in a container in decades, at least from what I've seen and read. He works with old, older and ancient material...

anttal63

and what relevance does that have.

__________________
Antonio . . .
------------------------------------

rockm

"KIMURA QUOTES todays bonsai are grown to fast i have fimly believed that since reading it 18 months ago."

and what relevance does that have.

Well, consider what he's talking about as "fast." Fast to him is three or four decades. That range of material is mostly what everyone else is working with.

He isn't working with pot grown or field grown trees, for the most part. He works to restore bonsai that have been in containers for mroe than 40 or 50 years, or extremely old collected stock. Most of that is mostly unavailable to most people. Using his yardstick, you will be growing trunks for 50 years--unless you have access to some outstanding stock.

anttal63

yes rokm i agree and a fact is fact both sides of the quote. we can only do what we can in the time we are here. but our hurry sometimes gets the best of our trees.

__________________
Antonio . . .
------------------------------------

mgodbee

I am not as experienced as most here like Vance, Vonsgardens, or Rock, but I prefer containers for one reason, the roots. I have found the ground initially seems to grow slower than containers, but then excellerates greatly in a couple of years outpacing the pots quite a bit. I just find that after you pull them out of the ground then you spend time working on the root faults that come with ground growing. In the container it grows slower, but I can get the roots the way I like them from the get go. Those fibrous roots are much harder to get in ground and then you still have to pot them to work out that mess. Basically, I find both about the same because of this. Hence, ground is faster, but longer to refine and pots are slower but easier to refine. I am not talking root pruning either one, just containerized plants to me have better bonsai roots, especially in a pond basket. After digging a field grown pine you could spend years getting that thing in a bonsai pot. Also, I am not an expert at all, so to me, it reduces the possibility of me growing in the ground for 5 years and then killing it trying to get it trained to fit in a bonsai pot. I do grow some in the ground though still, but mostly decidious trees that I can whack 70% of the roots off of and feel comfortable about it like maples and elms.

malik

I have found that trees (at least the ones I have worked with) tend to recover faster when potted. After you plant a tree into the ground in spring, it will probably not show much growth until the next season. When you repot into a container you can see much growth the same year with less recovery time. I know some of you( ROCKM) will probably have a different opinion, but this is what i have noticed in my humble short time spent in the art of Bonsai.

Either way, what a wonderful topic and I hope a lot of people get to read each comment and learn from it.

__________________
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it" -Winston Churchill

bonsainotwar

Well that's all very nice,but not everybody has the money to either buy such material,or work under someone like Kimura.I have no idea if he takes students or not,but I imagine it would be insanely expensive to be one.I'll stick with my $15-40 nursery stock,thank you very much.