Micro Bonsai

Share your success stories about defoliation, bare rooting and anything else relating to maintaining healthy bonsai.
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quodlibet_ens
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Micro Bonsai

Post by quodlibet_ens »

After a quick search, I couldn't find any information regarding micro bonsai. I'm still a novice and have a number of plants in the 'growing out' phase, so I'm looking for something I can play around with now, and I was thinking of some tubestock I can put in a small, attractive pot. My question is: what are the things I should keep in mind when working with something on an even smaller scale? Is there a major difference in the approach to training a micro bonsai than a 'regular' bonsai, such as fertilisation, pruning and wiring?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts.

Cheers.

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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by shibui »

Small bonsai still need feeding, trimming and shaping. One difference is they need more attention. You do need to trim even more often so the tree does not get coarse and ugly. It will need more attention to watering. Such a little pot has no room for excess water so it will dry out in a matter of hours. Either water more often or use a gravel tray to slow down the drying.
I also think that smaller pots need to be root pruned and repotted more often. If I don't do mine each year they start to look sick in the 2nd summer.
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quodlibet_ens
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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by quodlibet_ens »

shibui wrote:Small bonsai still need feeding, trimming and shaping. One difference is they need more attention. You do need to trim even more often so the tree does not get coarse and ugly. It will need more attention to watering. Such a little pot has no room for excess water so it will dry out in a matter of hours. Either water more often or use a gravel tray to slow down the drying.
I also think that smaller pots need to be root pruned and repotted more often. If I don't do mine each year they start to look sick in the 2nd summer.
Typically how tall is the micro bonsai height? And do you have any pictures of your micro bonsai you'd be willing to share?

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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by Pup »

quodlibet_ens wrote:
shibui wrote:Small bonsai still need feeding, trimming and shaping. One difference is they need more attention. You do need to trim even more often so the tree does not get coarse and ugly. It will need more attention to watering. Such a little pot has no room for excess water so it will dry out in a matter of hours. Either water more often or use a gravel tray to slow down the drying.
I also think that smaller pots need to be root pruned and repotted more often. If I don't do mine each year they start to look sick in the 2nd summer.
Typically how tall is the micro bonsai height? And do you have any pictures of your micro bonsai you'd be willing to share?

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Search the the Shohin pages there are some pictures there.
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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by dan.fisher92 »

Try looking into the Japanese names used for the different sized bonsais (google search) but shohin is a good place to start!

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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by Pup »

The sizes are. Mini, Shito, Mame, Shohin. The next size is taller at 23/28 cm is Chuhin.

Cheers Pup :reading:
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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by quodlibet_ens »

dan.fisher92 wrote:Try looking into the Japanese names used for the different sized bonsais (google search) but shohin is a good place to start!

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Just found a page detailing the different sizes.

http://www.bonsaitreegardener.net/intro ... sification

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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by Pup »

quodlibet_ens wrote:
dan.fisher92 wrote:Try looking into the Japanese names used for the different sized bonsais (google search) but shohin is a good place to start!

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Just found a page detailing the different sizes.

http://www.bonsaitreegardener.net/intro ... sification

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Looks like I need to give up seeing I do not know what sizes my trees are. Also Koji Hiromatsu, headliner at Adelaide has to stop growing Shohin.
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Use the search, Luke

Post by thoglette »

quodlibet_ens wrote: And do you have any pictures of your micro bonsai you'd be willing to share?
There's a whole pile of information out there. Put "shohin" and "mame" into your favourite search engine.

For starters, some examples http://www.bonsaiempire.com/inspiration ... est-bonsai and http://bonsaibark.com/tag/mame-bonsai/

Morten Albek's web pages are not a bad place to start. As others have said, it's keeping them alive (especially in summer) which is a challenge

Just one example from a chap called Haruyoshi who has a facebook page
Image
Last edited by thoglette on September 10th, 2016, 12:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by kcpoole »

dan.fisher92 wrote:Try looking into the Japanese names used for the different sized bonsais (google search) but shohin is a good place to start!

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try the wiki
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... nsai_sizes
All you need to know and if not let us know so we can improve it :-)

keeping miosture up is the hardest bit, As (keep them on a gravel tray) ide from that fertilise normally, trim normally and wire normally but just in small scale :-)

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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by evan »

Pup wrote:Also Koji Hiromatsu, headliner at Adelaide has to stop growing Shohin.
?????????

And yes that link is quite wrong with the sizes. Official size for Shohin is 20cm or less. http://shohin-bonsai.or.jp/shouhinbonsa ... h-abstract
Last edited by evan on September 10th, 2016, 7:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Micro Bonsai

Post by NAHamilton »

You'll learn a lot following the current shohin comp and reading through the past ones. It's surprising how quickly they can be developed.

Cheers,
Nigel
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