Poplar Whips and Wire

I have poplar whips which I wired in spring, before full bud break. I just removed these wires this week.
One of the whips is very wire scarred. I think it is going to go into the garden to grow to a point where its currently mangled trunk won't matter.
The other tree is fine. I took off the wire at the perfect time to keep the marking to a minimum, but the tree is holding its place.
The tree has grown one set of branch about 5-6 leaves before they were trimmed to two; then they have budded and leafed but are only at 2-3 leaves.

Watering Constantly

Since last Tuesday, when the temp. hit 24 degrees Celsius, I have been watering daily. My bonsai soil dries out enough to water daily. These trees I will have to move into more shade as the seasons pass. The plants in nursery soil have to be watered daily even though they are not dry. If they are not watered daily when warm, it is difficult to re-wet them. Watering them so much causes worts and mushrooms to grow - because of warm, wet soil. Guess what else grows well? Bacteria and molds which kill trees. But it is that or a sure death with dehydration.

Confusing Fertilizer

People are often mystified by plant food. There are three numbers on all fertilizers, like this 10-10-10. These numbers always stand for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These correlate to leaf growth, root growth and plant health.
If one is diligent with their plant, one can feed one's plant any plant food whatsoever.
However, if one is poor at plant care, even a perfect nutrient mix can weaken or kill a plant.
Fertilizers are made of salts, which dissolve in water. The plant is salty too, usually more so then the nutrient solution. When the salty water touches the salty plant, all the water involved (and the nutrients) go to the saltiest area.
When the plant is salty, then the plant absorbs the water and nutrients.
If one is over feeding one's plants, then there will be an accumulation of unabsorbed salts in the soil. One day this accumulation will result in the water/nutrient solution to be saltier then the plant. In this case the salty water inside the plant will be drawn outside the plant by the salty water/nutrient mix. When this sad thing happens, the plant will dehydrate, even though it is surrounded by water.

Gardening Literature and Sick Plants

This is a rant.
The Otho professional garden problem solver, one of the largest books (and most comprehensive) for solving plant problems, suggests this as a remedy for juniper root rot.
"When replanting area, use plants which are resistant to root rot."
When one is talking about their 20yr juniper that was grown from seed, this answer is utterly useless.
Another fellow, on the internet, discussed a maple disease he called tight bark syndrome. He claims that it is not a well know disease, because people who have infected plants tend to discard them. He argues that as long as people consider maples cheap and easy to replace, then maple diseases will remain common.
These are problems the plant health professionals are not interested in because common tree buyers don't love their plants - they love things about the plants.
We love our plants.

Garry Oaks - a solution?

This year I de-budded half of my garry oaks, in December. By de-budding, I refer to the practice of removing the terminal bud from the branches of the tree.
Why? The horse chestnut has a very dominant apical bud. So much so that the horse chestnut will grow as a single branch for many years - with no branching at all. The solution to causing the tree to branch is to remove the apical but before or while the but is swelling. The secondary buds then burst forth bringing many branches in many direction, each of which with their own apical dominance.
The garry oak seeding is a slow growing, stringy tree. Removing the buds could promote branching, and more branches also means the tree puts on wight faster.
My de-budded garry oaks are developing about 5 to 7 branches per twig, up from 1 to 3. I think the technique will help.

Wires on Pines

I started to take the wire off my scotch pine, which I got in a workshop with David Rowe. The wire looked like it could be biting in. The wire was starting to cut in, but only barely and in only a few spots. It was, really, about the perfect time to remove them.

The small branches were happy, but the larger branches had not set. So I unwired the small branches, and left alone all the large branches I had not unwired. I used guy wire to resecure the branches had unwired.

How much time can you put into one bonsai?

What I mean is how much time can you spend refining a tree?
It takes alot of time to apply wire to every branch!
Before today I did not think it was worth it. However, I needed a small juniper branch to cover a very specific area on the tree. There were 15 branchlettes. I wired the branch to heck, and it did what I wanted it too.

Now I wonder how much more I can do with branches that don't need to be wired to the nines, but could be anyway.

Guests

I have a guest coming over tomorrow!

A couple things needed to be done. I had to put out my display ready bonsai. I usually have projects or favorites out on my main table. I hosed the dirt and debris off all my tables. I weeded pots. I cleaned my yard of small pots and plant flats - the wind really throws then around.

One of the Reasons for Bonsai

Over the past week I have been appreciating my bonsai. The last few days have been really hectic. I have spent some time each day in my garden looking at the bark on my middle aged hedge maple trees - a nonhectic activity. I really like the bark at this stage, about 3 or 4 years old.
I like having bonsai.