Albury Wodonga Bonsai Newsletter

Transcription

1 Contacts: Albury Wodonga Bonsai Newsletter March 2017 President: Ian Bransden, Ph: , Mobile: Treasurer (and newsletter editor) Neil, Ph: Secretary Theo, Ph Club website Les: Web address: Fees: Fees for 2017 have been set at $25 per member or $35 per couple. You can pay Neil at a meeting or post subs to Neil at P.O. Box 135, Yackandandah, Next Meeting: Tuesday, Mar 28, 2017 at Harry s Hut, Olive St. South Albury at 7:30 pm. For those who have not been before, Harry s Hut is the meeting room at the Gardens beside Brown s Lagoon. Entry off Olive St., opposite the end of Nurigong St., South Albury. Members and visitors are always welcome to bring a tree (or 2 or even more) to our meetings if you want to show off your successes (or failures!), to work on a tree, or to ask about a problem. Topic for Next Meeting: Pines, cedars and other Evergreen bonsai Ian has been planning for this topic since before the last meeting so it will be spectacular. Lots of hands on from what I hear so be prepared to have a go this month. 1 P a g e

2 4thand5thMarch,2017 Last Month: Several members submitted photos of their benches and bonsai display areas. Ian s creativity showed once again with innovative uses of both recycled and new materials for his bonsai benches. Theo s post-modern bench design makes a practical and elegant statement in his yard. Materials for benches are many. As long as it is both strong enough and durable it can be used. Benches seem to be favored because you can house a number of bonsai in close proximity allowing ease of monitoring, care, protection and maintenance. Beware of crowding too many bonsai into one area. All trees need to receive good light to grow well and stay healthy. Bonsai should be turned every few weeks so that both sides receive direct sun. Having one side constantly in the shade can lead to weakened or dying branches on that side. Some growers elect to display some bonsai on single stands, sometimes known as monkey poles. These can be made from treated pine poles set in the ground with a flat top attached or a plinth made from bricks or blocks topped with a tile, cement paver or similar. Having room for only one tree means there is no temptation to crowd the tree and cause shading of some parts. Ian has found a way to fix the top of his stands so they pivot, making it easy to turn his trees when they re on these stands. Bonsai need plenty of light. Shade means lanky growth with long internodes which can make for an untidy bonsai. Too much shade can cause trees to get weak and sometimes even die, however full sun can cause problems for some growers as the trees can dry out too quickly. Every grower needs to find a compromise that works for them. Ian finds that shade cloth up high allows enough light to keep the trees healthy. Others find they can cope with full sun on the bonsai by adjusting their potting mix or watering regime. In windy areas some sort of windbreak can save you from finding broken trees and smashed pots on the ground when you come home after work. As you can see, while there are some general themes in where we can keep bonsai there are no hard and fast rules. Placement and care is usually a matter of some trial and error, hopefully less of the latter. Bonsai Events: There were a number of bonsai events during March but I am not aware of any coming up soon. BFA calendar of events: - Business: We re lucky to have Annalea giving another of her informative presentations at our June meeting. Don t miss that one. We ll reschedule the deadwood topic we had tentatively proposed to another meeting. Our olive dig went ahead as planned. 2 P a g e

3 We put on a bonsai display at Wodonga Show. Report and pictures next month. March is our Club s Annual meeting. It generally consists of a quick election of office bearers. Let Theo or Ian know if you think you have what it takes to help our club run. Neil is happy to keep producing your newsletter but it would be great if someone competent could take over finances for us. Don t miss the meeting fearing you ll be landed with a job you don t want. We only allocate roles to willing volunteers. If you would like to know what is involved in any of our admin roles feel free to ask Theo, Neil or Ian. We also need to ratify the increase in subs this year. Proposed 2017 program: January: Figs and natives. February 28: Where and how to keep bonsai, display benches, etc. March 28: Pines, cedars and other evergreen bonsai species. April 25: Dead wood May 23: Pruning. June 27: Annalea - Wiring July 25: Club workshop night. Grafting? August 22: Bonsai pots and potting. September 26: Flowering bonsai. October 24: Air layering and other propagation methods. November 28: Natives as bonsai. December: No meeting de to proximity to Christmas January 2018: Figs (and other natives) 3 P a g e

4 Seasonal Notes from Shibui Bonsai Summer may have finished but warm, dry weather continues. Days are a bit shorter and occasionally I can miss one watering but generally I m still watering my trees twice a day. The summer growth spurt is over for most trees so I ve had a rest from pinching those new shoots this month. Natives continue to grow at this time of year so pinching has moved on to native bonsai now. Last month I started using a high K flowers and fruit fertiliser on my flowering bonsai. This includes: wisteria, crab apples, callistemon, kunzea and cotoneaster. Other trees are still getting standard fert to keep them in top condition. My more advanced pines have not been fed since candle pruning in December. This is supposed to limit the size of the new shoots and new needles they have been developing. End of March is about the correct time to start feeding these pines again. Note that pines that are still growing larger or developing branch structure have been fertilised as normal right through summer. If you have figs outside you ll need to keep an eye on the forecasts. Figs do not like frost so if temps are forecast to drop your figs and other frost tender species will need to be moved to warmer winter quarters. I have not tried it yet but over the last 5-10 years many experienced bonsai growers in SE Australia have begun repotting in autumn. Conifers seem to do well when root pruned in March and April in our area. Let us know if you ve made the switch to autumn repotting. 4 P a g e

5 I promised to let you know how the pines responded to candle pruning this year. Here are some photos showing what has happened. This pine had all the spring candles cut off Mid December. You can see all the small shoots with short needles that have grown since. The longer needles are left from last season and will be removed in the next process with these trees. At each point where a candle was cut 2, 3 or more new shots have grown. one. You can see in the centre where the spring candle was cut. You can also wee there are at least 4 new shoots growing from that spot and that some are long and strung, others medium long and at least one really small 5 P a g e

6 Leaving any more than 2 shoots at one place on a bonsai can cause localised thickening and you ll end up with an unattractive, lumpy tree so these new buds now need to be thinned. Where there are more than 2 I ll remove the stronger ones from strong branches. If there are more than 2 at any one place on weaker lower and inside branches I ll take off the smaller ones. This selective pruning should even out the strength of the tree so that lower branches and upper areas all end up with similar vigour. Club Olive Dig Olive Dig - Out the back of Allans Flat - March 5, 2017 On Sunday March 5, the AWBS had a dig out the back of Allans Flat somewhere. Can't give away too many secrets on location now can I. A group of 7 of us met up at the Allans Flat Recreation Reserve at 9:00am for a 9:15am departure, and yes we left at precisely 9:17am! The group consisted of myself (Theo), Neil, Margrit, Ian, David, Karen and Karen's slave, oops partner Tony. We made our way in procession to the property where all the action was to take place, a short 10 minute drive. We parked our vehicles at the farm house, relocated our weapons of choice into Neil's and Ian's vehicles and were guided up to our dig site by the landowner. 6 P a g e

7 My Hyundai AWD was spared the trip, not sure its AWD capabilities would have managed the farm track we were led up anyway! The Hyundai is probably more suited to speed humps if I'm completely honest. The trip to the dig site was interesting in itself and it soon became evident that olives had clearly been growing in this area for a very very long time. There are some amazing examples of big old olives growing over rocky outcrops and showing just how our root over rock trees should look. We had to walk the last 400m or so to the bottom of the hill where all the action would take place. Clearly more olives here than we could hope to dig in a day or even a month or maybe even a year. They were everywhere ranging in size from little seedlings to trees even too big for Ian to tackle and everything in between. 7 P a g e

8 From here we all dispersed. Seeing a challenge, what did I do, straight up the side of the hill. Was the hill steep, yep! Had to hold onto the shovel otherwise it was a long trip down to go and collect it. I think I had dug six trees in the first 15 minutes. I was looking for smaller stumpy looking trees and there were plenty to choose from. Being a weed and a pest for the farmer, I thought I would do my bit and dig out a few that I wouldn't be taking home just to help with the eradication program. There are that many of them up there. I was preparing for a battle to remove the trees prior to the trip. Surprisingly the trees were very easily removed and even more surprisingly, they could be removed with some decent roots on them as well. The others were having as much fun as me. I stumbled across Ian, Karen and Tony on my way back down from my first expedition up the hill. Ian was digging like a wombat trying to get out of the sun, and piles of trees were being left in his wake. Surprisingly nothing he was digging would require a custom built pot of monumental proportions to contain! I believe he may be bringing some extras to the next meeting for those that are interested. Karen was giving Tony encouragement in relation to what she wanted to take home (must ask her where I can get myself one of those)! 8 P a g e

9 David didn't venture too far from our initial point. Come to think of it he dug some nice trees quite close to home. I operate on the pretence that the best trees must be the furthest ones away. Why do I do that?! Neil and Margrit took off in their own direction as well. Margrit even found herself a very nice tree with some really good potential. She only pointed at it, Neil did the digging :). I'll be interested to see what SHE does with it Overall we all got ourselves some really nice trees with great potential. I'm confident that most of what we dug will survive and if they don't, we probably only have ourselves to blame as largely the trees dug relatively easily and came out with a good amount of roots. We had finished digging by about 11:30am so it was a short and sharp 9 P a g e

10 expedition but also a whole lot of fun. The rest of the group had a picnic lunch back at the Allans Flat Recreation Reserve to have a look at their acquisitions, unfortunately I had to get back home so missed that part of the fun. Upon getting home the trees were trimmed, top and bottom, and potted into propagating sand. Neil pots his up straight into his bonsai potting mix. There were a few trees, that when I had a look at home, I thought 'why the hell did I dig that!' You tend to get caught up in the moment and dig everything you see! Next trip I will probably be a little more selective, although I will have fun with them all anyway. First to see if I can keep them alive and then the challenge of making something out of them. If there is interest, and I'm sure there will be, we could probably organise another trip in spring time. I for one will happily go and remove a few more environmental weeds. Theo Neil s trees pruned and potted up after the dig 10 P a g e

11 Thanks to Theo for the report about our Olive dig. We d all love to hear from other members about anything bonsai related. If you can t get to a meeting (or even if you can) why not Neil neil@shibuibonsai.com.au with a question or a comment or even a few photos to go in the newsletter? Does anyone have anything for next month s Members and visitors are always welcome to bring a tree (or 2 or even more) to our meetings if you want to show off your successes (or failures!), to work on a tree, or to ask about a problem.. Fees for 2017 will be due in March. Please forward your payment to Neil ASAP. We also need to confirm members contact details to keep club records up to date. Please complete this membership details form and lodge it with your payment. Name: Postal address: Telephone: address: Membership type: Family Individual Concession 11 P a g e