#Today more #ThickTrunkTuesday of a #Bonsai (Pinus Contorta) that I purchased about 4 years ago…and have never touched, soil wise. I know it must be tight, but the tree is flourishing and the needle length compact. I wanted to look at the soil to see if intervention was needed…and luckily, they hadn’t wired it in, so it lifted easily.

Fine ramification of roots and a healthy batch of beneficial fungi tells me all is well enough to leave until next winter/spring potting time. So, back into the pot it goes and keep it hydrated as well as possible through the hottest period and all should be in order.

Note: The white material on bottom of pot and on inner pot surface (shown in soil after lifting from pot) is a good sign of a healthy pine.

#TinyTreeTuesday #MakeGoodChoices

#Today a bit early for #ThickTrunkTuesday and #TinyTreeTuesday

A rescue collected from a gravel access road in a gravel pit high in the Cascades. A then stunted growth Pinus Contorta (Lodgepole Pine) that had been run over and was destined for the plow or wholesale removal as the gravel operation proceeded.

Dug up with a copious amount of native cinder around it and used nothing else for soil than that cinder…unsorted or screened to remove fines…just as was.

It has doubled in height in 3 years and gained an inch in the trunk girth. Needles are much longer now as the growing conditions much less harsh.

Time to make some decisions about future direction for this tree.

Likely into a large-ish pot to begin refinement:drop needle size back to scale.

#Bonsai #MakeGoodChoices
#Cinder #Tephra

I like thick trunks, I cannot lie
But building them takes a lot of time
A big pot helps provide
Nutrients to make the climb
And a show pot seals the illusion
Of a tiny tree’s big delusion

#ThickTrunkTuesday #Bonsai #Mosstodon #Moss #Soil #Trees
#TinyTreeTuesday

#ThickTrunkTuesday #Bonsai #Trees #TinyTreeTuesday #Relativity

Visual scale is as much dependent upon the observer as the observed. In that spirit I offer two bonsai in training whose girth to height ratios are rather impressive for such immature specimens.

Hinoki Cypress and Japanese Maple bonsai in training