名媛直播

I got that urge again today. Followed by a trip to the nursery and then putting this planting together. I wanted to share.
The material was nursery stock Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd").
Root cleanout - repot - initial shaping. Mostly finding new leaders and thinning out the inward growing branches on each tree and some other branch selection.
I re-used 1/3 original mix mostly pine bark based and 1/6 smooth gravel and the remainder was a quality quick draining potting soil. The growers must have used a troth system of growing. The rootballs were more like short pointed wedges packed with dense sand then potted in gallon containers with pine bark (very bizarre). So anyway, I was hesitant to stray to far from the darker rich soil and into bonsai mix quite yet. But, I am already questioning that decision. Lifes a lesson.
No training as of yet, I will wait until spring at the earliest to begin the training. Hopefully something will be alive to train.

Height from base of pot: 27 inches (68.5 cm)
pot dimensions: 18 x 13 inches oval (46 x 33 cm)

A good start.
You seem to have researched how to go about making a forest planting and you appear to have done things right. Some work, obviously, needs to be done but I think it is right to wait until next year.
I'm not sure whether you've looked into cultivating Northern white cedar or even cedar in general into bonsai but it's definitely worth doing.

Good luck keeping them alive,
Ed

It would have been better to first train the individual trees. It's going to be much harder now to wire and shape any tree, as the (branches of) the other trees will be in the way.

Auk wrote: It would have been better to first train the individual trees. It's going to be much harder now to wire and shape any tree, as the (branches of) the other trees will be in the way.

They all had to be separated as I found all of the trees in only 3, 1 gallon pots at the nursery. in order to train them first, I would have needed to pot them all in 9 separate pots and then wait until spring anyway to really wire everything good. The perhaps another season or year to plant them together. Like I said " I woke up with that urge again". And the urge was not to wait 2 years to see a cedar forest in my pot. Oh well. It shouldn't be terriblly bad to work in the middle of it. At least the foliage isn't sharp like a juniper. And if the other trees are in the way of the branches themselves then they may need to be pruned back anyway so the branches can be positioned lower where they inevitably need to be.

My main concern at this point is that it will start to get chillier at night in about 2 months, and I want the trees to be more established than they will likely be by then.

Also I realized that what I thought was Bizarre about the rootballs, makes total sense. These were started by the grower as cuttings and planted initially into a wedge troth filled with sand as the rooting medium. Then they were cut out in 4 inch long sections and re-potted into the pine bark in 1 gallon containers. Unfortunately the wedge shape of the troth is not the best shape for pre-bonsai cutting to establish roots in. We want radial root patterns that spread out evenly in a circle. Not a 4" long 4" deep 2" wide wedge of dense compacted sand. I have been using a vermiculite and per-lite mixture for my cuttings and that washes away perfectly and quickly without any root damage.

Also, Thank you 名媛直播 Learner. I have done forest plantings in the past. But Never with a Thuja occidentalis. It was very satisfying. It took about 6 hours from start to finish.

I think you forgotthe most important step in bonsai. Patience. If you want to create a good forest, preparing the plants for a couple of seasons is really not all that strange.

I wouldn't worry too much about the lower temperature. As long as you can protect them from frost, etc. they should be fine, provided you haven't disturbed their roots too much.

Ed

p.s. Call me Ed, that's why I sign off with it. My username is just to remind myself that I will never stop learning (and to show people that I'm no expert).

P a t i e n c e.
Thanks Leatherback. Maybe a can get a self help book on tape about that. I will listen to it on 4x speed so I can get to the end faster and learn my lesson.
Thanks Ed

parker wrote: P a t i e n c e.
Thanks Leatherback. Maybe a can get a self help book on tape about that.

Yes You Can! (Hm.. reminds me of something). In any case..

:lol: :woohoo: :evil: :pinch:

parker wrote: They all had to be separated as I found all of the trees in only 3, 1 gallon pots at the nursery. in order to train them first, I would have needed to pot them all in 9 separate pots and then wait until spring anyway to really wire everything good.

Yes, that's would have been a better idea.

Like I said " I woke up with that urge again". And the urge was not to wait 2 years to see a cedar forest in my pot

It will now even take longer before you see a forest. The plants have little room to grow and will grow slower, so developing them will take more time and will be harder.

Maybe it's a good idea to buy more of 'm, plant, grow and develop them, for the future. You already have something to work with now, so maybe the urge for a next forest will not be too strong.

No problem with the way you plant it now at all, It trains your skills of working in confined space. That you have to do in the future anyhow when the trees are established. I did it the same way with my Junipers, gained a lot through skills of how to place my arms and hands on how to wire without bending any work done on the other trees to pieces. On top the style comes together as the trees are, that in itself can be good because wiring places it in the direction of upper side branches to make them fit, when the trees are apart and you but them together later you may have branches in the way. You always can add or take away trees as you wish too. In the end your trees, your system and most important you doing it!!!! I like the setup and will love to watch the progress.

I got a setup of 2 (styled), 5 (styled) and 6 (raw) Juniper trees waiting for placing as forest, I been through lots of comments on what and what not to do too and came as you to the conclusion I do what I want .