http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org en-us http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org N/A tmcguire@pinwire.com Mon, 12 May 2008 10:05:09 CDT 20 http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/27/Hello-from-Texas.html Our trees have taken a very hard beating with the crazy weather that we're still trying to get used to. The weather is all over the place. It's freezing (literally) one day and in the mid 70's the next day. It is impossible to keep track of the weather and protecting our bonsai is even harder.A few things we've found out. Most people keep their trees in their garages during the winter months and they don't bring them out until the Pecan trees bloom. At the time I'm writing this it is 70 deg outside and still no blossoms on the pecan trees.Bonsai lovers with tropicals in their collections bury their Fig's up to the base of the trunk in sand during the summer and keep the sand moist. Everything is watered 2 times a day and misted 2 times a day because of hot winds. Oh ya..it is R.E.A.L.L.Y. windy here!Black pines are totally commonplace here. And there is some fantastic native material here which makes wicked awesome bonsai.Also, Pomegranate is deciduous in Texas! I was freaking out that all of our pom's were dead from winter but it turns out that they were just dormant. I'll post some photo's after new buds form so and take inventory of our collection to see what made it through the first winter in Texas. -Tom Tom McGuire Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/26/Cute-bonsai-idea.html  I found this picture on the bonsaiToday forums today. Thought it would be fun to share it. Tom McGuire Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/23/Renewed-for-another-year.html I'm happy to announce that today (my birthday) I renewed the CVBS-Bonsai.org domain name for an additional year! I hope this site can continue to grow into a site which will serve our community and that 2008 will be a year of greater online participation.-Tom Tom McGuire Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:00:00 CST http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/22/Shimpaku-Juniper-faces-extinction-threat.html While looking around on Google for some information related to why on earth the color of one of my Shimpaku's may be turning to an Olive Drab shade of green I discovered this little gem of an article.Shimpaku Juniper, which is popularly known as "The Smoke of the Volcano" due to its powerful swirling trunk, was discovered barely a century ago. But in this period it has literally been stripped from its natural surroundings and planted in homes as bonsais. In fact, such has been the craze for this Japanese plant that today it faces extinction on most of the islands where it grew.This Juniper grows two feet to three feet in height, and spreads out like a shrub. The first foliage is needle like but later it matures into soft scales. It thrives in sunshine though it does not mind shade or wild fluctuations in temperature. It needs a rocky well-drained soil for healthy growth, and should be sprayed daily during the growing season.It needs to be pruned and wired through the year. The new growth needs to be pinched back to increase branching. The roots should be pruned gradually, and less then a third should be removed at each repotting. The unwanted branches too need regular removal especially during the growing season.Wiring should ideally be done in early winter so that branches get used to the new position while the tree is dormant. Also, the wiring should be limited to the new wood because the older wood tends to become stiff and brittle. The wire should never be allowed to go through the bark.The tree should be repotted every alternate year in spring till it reaches the age of ten. After that, the repotting can be done every three to four years. The repotted tree must be protected from wind and direct sun till two months after repotting.The Juniper foliage turns yellow if it is attacked by red spider mites. You need to spray insecticidal soap or nicotine solution of tobacco soaked overnight in water to get rid of the spider mites. Tom McGuire Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:00:00 CDT http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/21/Move-to-Austin-completed.html For those of you who haven’t heard from me or Kiwe or another club member, we moved! That’s right; we are now residents of Austin Texas. To prepare our bonsai trees for the move we did several things. Firstly we asked other club members for their suggestions and input regarding how to move trees. Overwhelmingly the concerns centered on temperature and moisture. Without a doubt we knew we could keep the trees moist by making frequent stops and checking moisture levels. We were a bit concerned that if it got too hot in the trailer that we may ‘boil’ the trees! Firstly we purchased an enclosed trailer made by Pace America which had a adjustable vent in the roof and a locking rear door. We then went to HomeDepot and purchased a 2 part thermometer which allowed us to place the temperature sensor in the enclosed trailer and the temperature display unit in the cab of the car. This way we could monitor the air temperature in the trailer as we rolled down the highway! Fortunately we have an Isuzu Rodeo (SUV) which could accommodate two single shelves from one of those standard utility shelves you can get from HomeDepot. I think the total surface area was 36” X 36”. We had already planed to purchase a trailer to move our most essential items because our moving company would arrive at the destination nearly 8 days from our departure date. We lashed the trees we were most concerned with to the shelves using twine and copper wire. We then slid the shelves into the back of the Isuzu. These trees were Elm’s, Maple’s, Pomegranates, so on. The rest of the trees, consisting of mostly evergreens, were placed onto another shelf in the covered trailer. We had some concerns with trees tipping over because of the high center of gravity of some of our cascade styled trees. But fortunately due to some fancy. and very thoughtful, packing of boxes we were able to prevent any tree tipping. Once on the road we took care to avoid speed bumps, cross winds, and quick starts. Quick stops were easy to avoid because there was no such thing as a quick stop. The trailer greatly increased our stopping distance so we made sure to leave ourselves a nice long stretch of road to stop on. During our road trip the temperature in the trailer never went over 100 degrees with the exception of the first morning in Phoenix AZ where it reached 110 degrees before 9 am. Once we were on the road the wind cooled the trailer down to around 95 degrees. Overall the temperature hovered around the mid 90’s. So, now we have the trees outside and on a maintenance schedule so that we don’t shock them anymore. One of our concerns are that maybe since there isn’t much organic material in the pots that the scoria and decomposed granite may have caused some abrasion on the feeder roots. Also, that the constant rattling of the trunks and posts may have compacted and pulverized some of the soil material forming some ultra hard clay-like powder material. At any rate we’ll keep an eye on them for a few weeks and hopefully we won’t loose any of our bonsai. -Tom and Kiwe Tom McGuire Sun, 15 Jul 2007 00:00:00 CDT http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/19/The-Jade-that-just-wont-quit.html Some of you may remember when we brought some huge Jade stalks to one of the meetings. Well here are the photos of the plant that they were taken from and the progress of the plant so far. I would like to say that I’m not particularly fond of Jade and I don’t much care for how readily you can break the stalks from over bending. However, I will say that I do get some satisfaction from cutting into huge branches with no concern as to whether or not the plant will survive. Also you can propagate new Jade plants endlessly with the cuttings. Basically we all suffered from that nasty cold snap a few months ago. Well this Jade was a victim also. This photo shows the plant after we had trimmed off all of the dead parts from the freeze. This trimming resulted in a massive trim on the back side of the plant which is not visible in the photo because of the way the plant is turned. However once we were done trimming we decided that we would see if the stumps left on the back side of the plant would start to break new buds. If they did then we would trim the plant back to a few stumps and start fresh. This made sense because in its current state we had a very lopsided plant and if new growth started it would not be in balance with the rest of the plant. As expected the stumps started to produce new buds and at that time we chopped off the rest of the green except for one small trunk just so we would have something green to look at. Now the Jade is budding like crazy. I’ll let it go for a few more weeks and then start to remove new growth that I don’t like. Some of the larger stumps close to the soil never had a chance to really dry out properly and some of them grew some mold. This species of Jade grows buds almost directly related to sun exposure. When taking these photos I now see that I need to rotate the plant to encourage some growth in different areas. -Tom Tom McGuire Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/18/Yay-a-small-greenhouse-for-us.html As if our tiny little patio at our apartment wasn’t crowded enough, Kiwe simply couldn’t bare the thought of not having her very own mini greenhouse. So, here it is all setup and crammed into the corner of our patio. The upside is that now we have more shelf space to put more plants and supplies onto.-Tom Tom McGuire Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/17/How-to-plant-your-own-moss.html I recently acquired some small packets of Fujiyama Moss with the intention of ‘growing’ my own moss and recorded the preparation and process of spreading the spores over the soil. Things you may need to do this yourself are moss spores or ground up moss, a shallow tray, some finely sifted soil, a misting bottle, scissors, and a calm moist place to put your moss. I used soil which was screened with the smallest screen that came with my soil sifter set. Then I evenly spread the soil in a humidity tray which is about ? inch deep. I cut open the moss packet and saw another smaller yellow packet inside. Inside of the yellow packet was some green fluffy fibrous powder which looked like ground up moss. I gently poured the moss out onto the larger packet so I could get a better look at the substance. Again, the moss spores are very fluffy and lightweight. I noticed that when I made even the slightest movement near the pile of moss spores they would waft up and float away. The next step was to gently spread the moss powder over the soil. I quickly learned that I could use the fluffy nature of the moss spores to my advantage by releasing the material several inches above the soil which let it disperse and cover the soil more evenly. As I began to spray the soil with water some of the moss was blown off of the soil by the force of the water mist. The lesson learned there is that I should have moistened the soil before applying the moss spores. After the soil was sufficiently saturated with water I placed the tray in a shaded area with little breeze to prevent the soil from drying out. New moss should be visible in two to three weeks. I have heard from other people that you can simply put some moss in a blender and spread it over soil and you should end up with the same results as growing directly from spores. -Tom Tom McGuire Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/16/Some-notes-for-propagating-Jade-cuttings.html As most of you know by now we have a lot of Jade. It's not the kind that is typically used for bonsai however it does propagate with almost no effort. Here are some basic tips for growing Jade from cuttings.When making your cuttings, be sure to use a sterile, very sharp knife!The stem must be cut back to a point where there is no indication of rot or other disease.The surface of the cut should then be lightly dusted with a rooting hormone (Roottone®) with fungicide.The cutting should then be left in a warm, dry place until a callous developes over the cut.This usually takes anywhere from 1-2 weeks, depending on the thickness of the stem.The cutting may then be planted into sterile potting soil, or set temporarily into a rooting medium such as vermiculite or perlite.Watering should be kept to the bare minimum (barely damp), and then gradually increased as the roots begin to develop.Ideally, the soil temperature should be kept at 75 degrees F. which will speed the rooting process considerably.Jade leaves can also be used to create a clone, but this method will take much longer before you have a specimen size plant. Leaves will take only a few days to callous, after which you simply insert the base of the leaf slightly into lightly moistened potting soil or rooting medium. It may take a month or longer for the cutting to root and the plantlet to start growing from the base of the leaf.Gradually increase the watering as the plant grows until it has reached a size suitable for repotting.With either method, feeding should be withheld until the new plant has become established, and even at that point should be a dilute half strength mixture of the fertilizer. Tom McGuire Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT http://www.cvbs-bonsai.org/blogs/15/Bonsai-videos-by-Mike-Hansen.html I stumbled across these videos tonight about Bonsai and Bonsai care. I found them to be very informative and felt it would be good content to share with the group. I hope you find them as enjoyable as I did.And now on with the show!Mike Hansen, owner of Midwest Bonsai, has been growing, caring, selling, and instructing others in bonsai care for years. Mike is an expert bonsai master.Bonsai growing and care is an ancient Japanese art of cultivating special varieties of miniature trees. Bonsai trees can live to be hundreds of years old, and need very precise care to thrive. In these videos, a bonsai expert will show you the basics of picking out a bonsai and how to care for your first tree. Learn what to look for when you pick out a bonsai, as well as which types of bonsai do better indoors or outdoors. The videos will also show you which type of soil and sunlight to choose for your plant, as well as the tools and containers you’ll need to shape your bonsai into a traditional form. You’ll also learn about the history of bonsai, the different types available, and find out more about bonsai groups you can get involved with. All videos in this series Bonsai pots Bonsai trees Bonsai soil Bonsai maintenance Bonsai tools History of bonsai Bonsai from seeds Bonsai tips Bonsai for beginners Planting bonsai Bonsai care Repotting a bonsai Types of bonsai Watering bonsai Bonsai garden tips-Tom Tom McGuire Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:00:00 CDT