imafan26
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Re: Juni's New House

For soil I just used black cinder (crushed lava rock) and pea gravel strained through filters to get the size I need. Cinders can easily be crushed down to smaller pieces. You do have to wash the media since you don't want dust.

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DDMcKenna
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Well, I'll take the lack of response as your indication that my use of short names for typing ease was not called for so I sincerely apologize and it will never happen again. But I do thank you for your helpful information.

And Juni seems to be doing well considering she is experiencing her first winter here, if you can call it winter. Longer nights and temps dipping into the 40s isn't what a lot of people would consider winter but Juni seems to be doing well. Watering has decreased to approximately twice a week give a day or so here and there.

I've yet to modify that tray and still keep it there, under her, simply because I haven't decided for sure what I want to do. I'm looking into buying some soil online because I'm guessing that's the most important things she needs right now. Of course, it won't be till spring when I use it but I want to be prepared.

her new house is a couple inches bigger than the old particle-board house I had her in previously. And she seems to be taking full advantage of the extra room. It's like she is just stretching out a little bit like she just getting comfortable. I think she'll be quite happy right where she's at.

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DDMcKenna
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@imafan26 If you would, can you tell me why the current soil that she is in couldn't be washed out or recycled in some manor? I mean, maybe you would need two batches of soil so you would have time to work on one batch while she was growing in the other. But I was just wondering if there wasn't some means of reusing the soil. I'm guessing it has too many chemicals in it that are a waste product of tree growth. But it seems that by now, somebody would have figured out a way to treat that and revitalize it for conservation. I know they rotate crops in larger environments to deal with a similar situation. So I was just wondering.

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DDMcKenna
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@tomc Hey Tom, would this be something worth considering?

https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Tree-Soil- ... +tree+soil

I hope that link works. It's two quarts of Bonsai tree soil that says it's supposed to have the minerals and nutrients that they say "any" Bonsai tree needs. It's fairly inexpensive so it seems like a good deal as long as it really is good Bonsai soil.

I got the liquid and pellet type fertilizer through Amazon and that stuff seems okay. I guess Amazon has a bit of everything.

Thanks, David

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DDMcKenna
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Well, I did it.

It rained quite a bit last night. I wasn't worried because it wasn't windy, so I thought Juni's house would keep most of it off her. And it was bright sunshine when I opened the door to check her. It had been a couple days since I watered her and we've had some unusually warm weather. 80s on Friday. So I figured she would be thirsty. I found her tray just full of water.

So she didn't need a drink but still got her spray with the fertilizer water. And then I did it...
0110e1.jpg
Hundreds of small holes, big enough not to clog but small enough to keep the white gravel in. I put four plastic one-eighth inch high pillars under that to make sure there would be adequate air flow under the tray and now I'm hoping I can just water her without even moving her off her little shelf.

She didn't need any water yet so I'll have to wait to see how well that works but I like the way the tray looks under her. Since her house is gloss white, the black tray is a good contrast. And I have plenty of other trays if I need to bring her inside for any reason. Hope this works out.

tomc
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The longer you stick with bonsai the finikier you'll get. Your drilled out pan is only the beginning example. For this spring soil via Amazon (with free shipping) will probably do fine.

Next year, or the year after you'll want more control. Soil is a likely avenue.

Little trivia that goes with soil: some squares of screen with bigger than window screen holes (window screen is 1/16th inch). Some copper wire to wire screen to pot and or tree to pot.

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applestar
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Hope this works out.
I think it should! Sounds like the holes in the tray is a good idea :D

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DDMcKenna
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Grinning~ I thought for sure one of you was going to pounce on me because it was so obvious that I started out drilling all those holes in nice even tight rows and by the time I got fifty or sixty holes drilled, I was just drilling randomly. LOL, it was funny when I was doing it. I even nicked the cement under the tray a couple times when I got half way through so the drill bit got pretty dull. I think it was melting its way through by the last row.

It's exciting to do stuff that might actually work. I'm looking forward to this spring and some new look.

tomc
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DD, you are (or at least I'm thinking you are) planning to return gravels to your tray, so who's gonna notice the additional holes?

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DDMcKenna
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(Smiling) Yeah, that's what I figured. Nobody's going to see it. It looks really nice with the white gravel in the black tray on the white shelf. Just the right amount of contrast to make it appealing to the eye.

I'm getting psyched about just how I want to trim her. I wasn't going to do the whole "wiring" thing but now, I figure why not. If I'm careful, I can make her look really cool. I have a bit of that copper wire that is used to reshape her baby limbs. It's so awesome working with a tiny little tree like that since I've never done anything like this before. I'm going to have to get myself a good set of tiny tools to do it right.

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DDMcKenna
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Well, it's Juni's first winter. And unlike last year, they are predicting temps to drop to 30 degrees for an hour or so in the early morning, but 32 by midnight and for all night. So Juni has moved indoors for the very first time.

I must say, I'm petrified. It was time to water her. She's pretty dry and I wasn't sure how the shock of going from 37 degrees to 70 degrees was going to be on her. So I just misted her real good. I'll probably water her when I put her back out in the morning around 8 or 9 am. It's supposed to be back up to 38 or so by then. And I doubt we'll have any more of this.

She looks happy. So I took a couple snaps so you could see how she was doing.
DSC00116.JPG
DSC00117.JPG

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Gnome
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DDMcKenna ,

I'm glad that your Juniper is doing well. I do feel like you are being too conservative WRT temperature. My Junipers are outside right now and we are predicted to go to -11 tonight. I'll let you know in a few months how they do. :wink:

Norm

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applestar
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My wannabe bonsai junipers in nursery pots are also outside under the picnic bench, buried in snow.... 1°F ATM with windchill of -14°F, predicted to go down one more degree to nice even 0°F before the sun rises.... And today's high will be 17°F.

tomc
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The only maybe not of a juniper in its pot in the weather could be:

1. Frost and ceramic pots often don't get along well. More below.

2. Freeze-thaw cycles can be stressful to trees. Also more below.

3. The folks who stay with this hobby spend their morning coffee, thinking of the next thing their 'gonna do'.

I am not graceful. I walk, I fall down. Ceramic pots bounce even less well than they freeze. Mostly I have switched over to mica pots. YMMV

A box, even a cardboard box will have enough inertia to hold together with a nest of straw nesting trees out of doors in frost. If it worked for me in NH, I bet it'll work other places too. The deal is to keep thing once frozen, to stay frozen till spring is nearer.



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