Trees Killed - Lessons Learned

Jay

Oh Boy.... Here is a partial list of the dearly departed:

By Incorrect Overwintering............ Ficus, Junipers
By Over Watering.......................... Ficus, Serissa
By Lack of Water........................... Maple, Ficus, Serissa
By Too Much Pruning..................... Azalea, Ficus, Junipers
By Out of Season Repotting.......... Maples, Azalea, Serrisa

The list goes on.... The pain I think (hope) I am learning from my mistakes!

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A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

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ripsgreentree

I have over the last 15 years lost hundreds of trees. There is no way that I could remember or document each one but each one did add to the pool of knowlege that I draw from. Here is an example. Last year we dug up and root pruned 30 cedar elms. Six went into good draining soil in pots. (the best six) The rest went into the field. Time was early spring. The potted material fell out in the summer and the field material did well. Go figure!!
Any way I have a bone pile of major trees that would keep you warm for most of the winter. I think that the moral of this thread is...if you want to learn about bonsai you will loose trees.

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

GaryS

I can't remember them all over the past 26 years. But, I do remember the ones I really wished didn't die,

European Larch- I think it died from not enough drainage and using Arenaria caespitosa(star moss, Irish moss) as a groundcover. What a lousy weed. I've been trying to get it out of my garden ever since!

Shimpaku Juniper(Nice one)- I tried to srtaighten the trunk with a trunk bender and compressed the cambium around the trunk.
Took a while but it finally turned golden and died.

A collected Acer rubrum that had been deer browsed for years......beautiful tree with about a 6" trunk that was 24" tall and nice and twiggy. I don't know why it died for sure. Probably froze to death during the first winter after collection.

Many small Japanese maples-Acer palmatum. I just can't seem to grow them well. The 3 I have now are going into the shade come Summer, and their alive.

A bunch of collected Procumbens nana junipers from a city project. They layed out with their roots exposed on the hot sidewalk too long.

When I first started, in 1975-76, I lost so many I can't remember but I think most of them died from not using a free draining sil mix and overwintering them on a third floor apartment balcony in a cold frame.

Loosing bonsai is part of the game-especially in the beginning. I'm glad I didn't get dicouraged!

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GaryS

Rene_Voortwist

Wow, so I'm not doing so bad after all...
I'm doing bonsai now for 2 years... let me see :

Needle Juniper : this was painfull. I got this one from my parents and they paid too much money for it. I made a nice bunjin, repotted in spring and then overwatered. A hard lesson. Easy on the water on recently repotted trees.

5 needle pine : I went to the Gingko awards last year and was so overwelmed by all the magnificent trees that I bought myself a 5 needle pine and paid way too much for it. I brought it to the beginners course and we made a nice semi cascade. Looked great ! Then, just before I put it in shelter for winter, it rained continiously for a week so the poor thing was soaking wet. The soil was a terrible clay substance that didn't drain enough. It didn't make it trough the winter. Lesson : pines are not good trees for beginners.

Pieris Japonica (japanese andromeda) : This was also a gift and this time from my wife's parent when we rented our first appartment. It was in container and it moved with us to our new home. We planted it in the front yard. I convinced my wife I could make a bonsai ;-< dug it up, potted it, and overwatered. (wrong soil) ouchch...

Spruce : It died on me after styling an repotting. I'm not really sure why, but my best guess is overwatering.


That's about it. I didn't lose that much trees, but the ones I lost were really painfull :-(

Major lesson : The teacher at the beginners class told me that watering was probably one of the hardest thing about bonsai. I thought "yeah sure". He was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.

regards, René

zeb

I've been to bonsai a little less than 2 years and now I'm beginning to take care of them, too .

Here are some of my mistakes.

- I had a nice keshutshibo (less than 2 inches) ivy in a 1x1x1 inch pot. You guess it, right? Probably not. I carefully watered it 2-3 times a day and it did quite well, until I decided to give it some nutrients... 1/8 of the smallest dose suggested in the package, but still. Root burn due to over-feeding.
Lesson: 1. don't plant anything in such a small pot, 2. at least don't feed anything in such a small pot.

- My first bonsai was a garden centre juniper, which I styled into a literati. Looked nice until it's first spring. When the sun began to shine the tree transpired itself to death as the roots were still frozen.
Lesson: 1. don't style a tree immediately after purchase, if you buy it in june, 2. keep your trees in shade until the water in the soil has melt.


Zeb

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Two men were walking down a road. The one on the left was interested in bonsai. The one on the right had no money either.

Kazuki

Too many to list... its just too hard to even mention

juliet-of-oz

Also too many to list....and a few that i could list but wont cause its too sad....hiccup but

what i want to know is...does anyone keep the dead tree around as a memory for a while or do you just ditch them and start again....

Oh David and Moni - i am also a cotoneaster killer, no matter what time of the year i try to pot them - instant death.

And Matt - thanks for the advice on the oak, just a wee bit too late. My oak was budding and i repotted it and still it has no leaves and isnt threatening any either. The bark is still green if you scratch it on the branches too, so i will hold out hope, but i guess i stuffed it up, so in future i will only pot oak in autumn.

Jls

stephentoddpope

there is a thread about keeping bones, oops i forgot to poast a pic of my bones, i gotta get one! here is the thread
http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...highlight=bones

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"A Bonsai! A Bonsai! My kingdom for a Bonsai!"

William Shakespeare

matsu

2000 - Large Satsuki azalea (4" caliper): Kept exhibiting signs of root root. Even after tilting the pot and cutting back watering to only when it really needed it (as determined by monitoring moisture level continuously with a chop stick), it finally passed on in 2001. Since then, several other satsuki have languished and continue to exhibit root zone problems. This tree, and the 3 others, came to me planted in medium grade Kanuma. My other satsuki in my standard mix have done fine for years. DISCOVERY -Kanuma is not what its cracked up to be, even medium and course grade Kanuma. Kanuma holds way too much water in my high temperature and high humidity environment (USDA zone 9a). Next year I'm going to do a soil change to get rid of the Kanuma entirely in all my satsuki planted in it. I'll have to cut them back strongly to balance the removal of so much root, with the consequential loss of 3 years work. Lesson learned is that you keep with what works. Any future satsuki I buy that are planted in Kanuma will be changed out of Kanuma as soon as the season allows.