New bonsai forum

[bonsai]

Hi ideasguy and hi forum

I'm a german bonsai gardener (so please excuse my bad english  ) and I'm very pleased to be the first to post in this section.

@ideasguy - I think you know who I am 

I hope we will have a lot of interesting threads here in the future. To all people who are interested in bonsai please also have a look to the "Bonsai Genie Forum". There's a nice piece of software coming up!

[ideasguy]

Hello and welcome Peter, and thanks for joining us.

You have absolutely no need to apologise for your English translations. Its perfect! Its too easy for us to overlook the ability of those whose first language is not English to communicate fluently in our language on a forum. I for one am in awe!

RE: Bonsai Genie - the nice piece of Software - indeed, and very much thanks to you. I hope it meets your satisfaction. I'm looking forward to your assessment.

I'm sure we will indeed have interesting threads on Bonsai here.

I've a few questions for you, to start things off.
I have a number of Acer cultivars in pots. When's the best time to prune them?
I'd like to train them to be a mass of foliage, small (no more than 3-4ft)
Do I need to root prune them to keep them at that height in pots?

I'm also hoping to plant some of them this year. When do you recommend I should do that?

Next, I have one planted and want to transplant it. Again, when do you recommend I should do that?

Do you have Acers in your collection? I'd love to hear more about what you grow.

[bonsai]

Hi George,
I thank you very much for your warm words 

Do you want to hold your Acer in the pots or should they end in the garden?
Anyway, you should repot, plant or transplant them in the early spring (when frost is gone) and before they will begin to shoot.
Also this is the best time to cut branches you don't want. If you want them to grow in a pot you should prune up to a third of the roots and repot in new soil. This has actually nothing to do with the height of the plants.
Ok, I don't think you want to have bonsai, but if you want them densely foliated you should cut every new sprout between the first pair of leaves. You can do this with a pincer or with your fingernails. Otherwise they will have long shoots between every pair of leaves. And don't forget, in june they will have a second shootout so you have to do this as well.

Yes I have Acers in my collection. I'll try to post some pictures in the post (this will be a good exercise  )

Here we have a common local Acer found as a seedling in my garden 2002:


And a Japanes maple (Acer palmatum)

I don't know if it worked to attach the pics, I can't see them in the preview 
Otherwise I'll try again...

[bonsai]

Ok here's the second picture of the common local Acer (I hope)

[bonsai]

And the Japanese maple...

[bonsai]

The Japanese maple with harvest design...

[ideasguy]

Great photos Peter, and lovely specimens, and pots!
What age is that Acer seedling?
 
You've done very well to master posting photos on the forum so quickly! Well done!

Thanks for the tips Peter

...but if you want them densely foliated you should cut every new sprout between the first pair of leaves. You can do this with a pincer or with your fingernails. Otherwise they will have long shoots between every pair of leaves

Do you mean the leading shoot, the sprout at the tip of the stem?

Eventually I intend to plant my Acers in the garden.
However, I love them so much that I keep my favourites at the back door, so I can see them every time I go outside.
I have a Pink and a White Diascia with one of my favourite dissectums (Tamukeyama) in one of the large pots and it looks real good with the purple foliage.
 
Being at the back door, I water them a lot (initially because they had these small plants in the same pot) at the same time as I water other container plants on the patio.  In summer thats every evening, or perhaps every other evening.

I found the Acer really liked the water and the regular application of plant food (Chempak No 3)
I was surprised, as I read they are supposed to be light feeders.

It grew very well and developed a lovely weeping shape.
Talking about weeping, I was close to that myself when I returned from holidays and one main branch broken off "mysteriously".
A (dis)budding footballer in the family?
Its a bit lop sided now!

Anyway, another question to you... what sort of a program do you have for feeding your plants throughout the seasons?

[bonsai]

What age is that Acer seedling?
 

As I said before it's from 2002, so it's about 3 1/2 years old now...

You've done very well to master posting photos on the forum so quickly! Well done!

Most forums are those php's and this is a little bit different but it's ok 

Do you mean the leading shoot, the sprout at the tip of the stem?

In principle you have to do this with every branch. In the end it's up to you how you would like the plant's design...

A (dis)budding footballer in the family?

You need a bodyguard, no what do I say, a plantguard 

Anyway, another question to you... what sort of a program do you have for feeding your plants throughout the seasons?

Well it depends on the trees, but you can say out- and indoors every 2 weeks from spring until october. In the wintertime the outdoors are sleeping and the indoors will have food every 4 weeks. But this is just a common rule, sometimes it's different, if a tree has flowers for instance...

[bonsai]

At the beginning...

[ideasguy]

A lot of patience and care to bring those little seedlings to show, Peter.
Is that the mature specimens you showed previously when they were "babies"?

[bonsai]

Hi George

Is that the mature specimens you showed previously when they were "babies"?

They are not "mature" specimens. But one of the babies is now the common Acer.
To say it loud and clear, the "trees" on the previous pictures are not bonsai, I hope they will be some time in the future.
They are at most pre-bonsai. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time for a good result.

Following i show you some Acer which are bonsai.
The pictures are from Walter Pall, one of the german bonsai masters.
He has copyright of those fotos, I hope he will forgive me that i show them in this forum.
The honor goes to Walter...

[bonsai]

Acer

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Acer

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Acer

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Acer

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Acer

[ideasguy]

The pictures are from Walter Pall, one of the german bonsai masters.

They are terrific specimens Peter.
I surfed and found Peter Palls web site so Ive added it here for reference.

http://www.walter-pall.de/

I'll revisit for a good look later. He has lots of specimens. I spotted some that were 150 years old!
Update! Had another look... found one more than 500, close to 1000 years old!!!