Hello everyone I am new to this site and fairly new to the bonsai world, although I have the basics down all of my trees are beautiful and healthy I am not up to speed on field growing.. I was considering putting 1 or 2 of my baby Junipers in the ground.. I would be able to put them in the ground at my parents house in a corner of my dads garden, he has been growing veggies for many years in this location so I know the soil would be ok.. I live in Oklahoma and we have some of the craziest weather you could imagine with very hot summers and freezing winters with snow, ice and blizzards.. What would be some pointers to get me started on this?? Should I put tile underneath it with the tree being this young? When should I plant them?? What would the watering requirements of this be obviously not to let it dry out but can you use the chopstick method to monitor the soil?? My goal here is to have a healthy, fairly large Juniper with a thick trunk.. I would like for the tree to be around 2 feet tall with a trunk size of roughly 6". Is this possible or am I way off??
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this..
Casey
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rainbowgardener
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Short answer: no.
Trunk size is usually given as diameter, the width from edge to edge going through the middle, of a cross section. Circumference, measuring around the outside of the trunk, is pi times the diameter or roughly three times as much. So if your 6" is referring to circumference, then you are aiming for diameter about 2" and that is more doable, though your tree might still have to get to be more than two feet tall to get that caliper. That's ok though, because after it has the girth you want, you cut the height back.
But you have to be careful and know what you are doing at that point. Junipers cannot handle the kind of "trunk chop" you might do on a deciduous tree. If it doesn't have a leader it will die. Here's a thread about that and what to do:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=39790
6" diameter would be neither doable (the tree would be huge and old) nor desireable. General rule of thumb for a finished bonsai is that the height is 6 times the diameter. If the diameter is 6" then the height would need to be 36" = 3 feet. That kind of thing is done sometimes, but not what most people have in mind when they think bonsai.
Trunk size is usually given as diameter, the width from edge to edge going through the middle, of a cross section. Circumference, measuring around the outside of the trunk, is pi times the diameter or roughly three times as much. So if your 6" is referring to circumference, then you are aiming for diameter about 2" and that is more doable, though your tree might still have to get to be more than two feet tall to get that caliper. That's ok though, because after it has the girth you want, you cut the height back.
But you have to be careful and know what you are doing at that point. Junipers cannot handle the kind of "trunk chop" you might do on a deciduous tree. If it doesn't have a leader it will die. Here's a thread about that and what to do:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=39790
6" diameter would be neither doable (the tree would be huge and old) nor desireable. General rule of thumb for a finished bonsai is that the height is 6 times the diameter. If the diameter is 6" then the height would need to be 36" = 3 feet. That kind of thing is done sometimes, but not what most people have in mind when they think bonsai.
Prostrate juniper will bulk up over time when planted to field. How you chop them back to display shari and jin is going to be slower. your mid-western plantation is very likely to need supplimental watering for at least the first couple years when drouthy.
That gnarled twisty centurion can be encouraged by plantation to field. Though frankly you are talking a decade or longer.
Me, being old and bad-tempered. If I was in search for a big fat stump to train, I'd keep a sharp eye peeled for remodeling being done in your neighborhood. If you ask nice as the home-owner or landscaper rips out shrubs s/he just might give you some. Let somebody else do twenty years of growing. If you don't drool too heavily or babble on too much about how valuable their gift is, it might even get home to your work station for free. Remember "Free-cycle".
Its enough that they don't want that stump, and you do.
My last two free boxwood stumps were pulled out of a local service station. Well actually it was three stumps, one had a volunteer airlayer.
That gnarled twisty centurion can be encouraged by plantation to field. Though frankly you are talking a decade or longer.
Me, being old and bad-tempered. If I was in search for a big fat stump to train, I'd keep a sharp eye peeled for remodeling being done in your neighborhood. If you ask nice as the home-owner or landscaper rips out shrubs s/he just might give you some. Let somebody else do twenty years of growing. If you don't drool too heavily or babble on too much about how valuable their gift is, it might even get home to your work station for free. Remember "Free-cycle".
Its enough that they don't want that stump, and you do.
My last two free boxwood stumps were pulled out of a local service station. Well actually it was three stumps, one had a volunteer airlayer.