Japanese Black Pine Experiment 1.1

Today 07 November 2024 I decided to do a little bit of an experiment. I ordered some Bonsai Tree Japanese Black Pine Seeds - 30+ Seeds the sellers Amazon store can be found here: CZ Grain (CZ Grain is not sponsoring this experiment, I bought these seeds using my own money, however if CZ Grain or any other bonsai supply would like to send me products for review and test, please contact me at Aaron@K5ATG.com). I ended up way more than 30 seeds. This is typical when buying seeds online because seeds are cheap and it is not worth the time for someone to count out 30 seeds. So they just put a pinch or two in the seed bag and call it good. This is early November so it isn't the best of times to be starting some Japanese Black Pine (JBP) from seeds. However there is a method to my madness. I have read from several online sources that to really don't need stratification (stratification is a fancy word for simulating cold winter like conditions to get the seeds to break dormancy and start the germination process) on JBP seeds. You should be able to pop them into some dirt and watch them grow. As I said I have way more JBP seeds than I need, and I just got this Seed Starter Tray so I was thinking, why not just go ahead and try it out and see if anything grows. 

I'm going to experiment with a total of four JBP seeds. So I took the seed starter tray and filled up four of the cells. 

In three of the cells I used just some standard potting soil. In one soil I put some Bonsai Soil by the Bonsai Supply I have not used this bonsai soil on a living plant yet so there is not a review of it by me. 

I use the little scoop that came with the seed starter tray to fill up all four cells. It worked great for this activity. 

I just planted one JBP seed in each of the seed cells I added water and stuck it on my shelf and put on the dome and turned on the plant light.  The experiment will be to keep the planting medium moist and check in every few days to see if anything is growing. I guess every couple of days I will add a update and picture to share any progress. 

I'm not expecting a JBP bonsai that will be considered to be one of the best in the world. This little experiment isn't going to cost anything. I just want to know if JBP seeds will germinate with no preparation to them at all.  The rest of the seeds will be put in the refrigerator for stratification as normal convention dictates. I will probably start some blog posts for those as well. 

My ultimate goal is to get me two or three Japanese Black Pines going to train as bonsai. Then I also hope to get a bunch of healthy seedlings to send to other people who would like to grow their own JBP bonsai.   

If you have any questions or comments please put them in the comment section below this post. I do encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you will be notified for any new posts. If you have an idea or something that you would like to see me try then please let me know. My email is Aaron@k5atg.com

Follow me along as this blog grows. 

Aaron

Seed Starter Tray with Plant Light 2 Pack

 I ordered a Seed Starter Tray with Plant Light from Amazon. It is meant for growing seed and I might use it for that but I mainly got it to grow cuttings to expand my bonsai collection. 

It is small enough that it will fit on a shelf at my computer desk so that I can pay close attention to the cuttings. The plant lights are built in the thing that you twist to adjust the humidity level inside the dome. I think that the plant lights are a little bit dim, but the trays are pretty small so it should be ok. I don't like how the USB cables attach in a vertical position, I will probably get some 90 degree adapters to lay them flat. The plant lights do use USB C so finding adapters should be easy because it is like the world now operates on USB C. These are not built sturdy enough to be kept outside but I did not buy them for that. I wanted something small enough to fit at my computer desk and these are perfect for that. I think that they were a good buy for just $15

You will see these a lot in the future as I document growing trees from seed and cutting.   

Norfolk Island Pine

I inherited this Norfolk Island Pine from my mother in 2021 when she passed away. I have not really done anything with it other than keep it alive. This isn't a good species for bonsai. I just have it in typical potting soil. All together I think that it is about ten years old. 

Front Entry Dawn Redwood

 Due to my being handicapped we had to install a ramp to the entry to my house. Ever since we bought the house 20 years ago there has been a flower garden that is bordered by the house, driveway, sidewalk and porch. Over the years it has been planted with canna, and other perennial plants.  At one point it had a small goldfish pond that me and my son installed. 

Here is the entire flowerbed

When I became unable to take care of the yard, my son took over and all of my flower beds (I will not let him mow down the Rose Rock Bonsai Garden!) became parts of the yard and were just mowed over. When the ramp was built the finished plan was that we would put some steps on the side of the porch and they will go down to a pad of cement pavers in the flower bed. The paver pad will take up just under half of the flower bed. This will be large enough for a person to step from the sidewalk onto the pavers and then up the steps. The rest of this bed will be covered by a weed barrier and then covered with gravel.  

I decided that I didn't want just a plain gravel bed and the rest of the family decided that I could not plant anything there. So we compromised to where I can have a bonsai tree in a pot.  

So I came up with the Front Entry Dawn Redwood, I really need to come up with better names for my trees. As the name suggests it is a Dawn Redwood. I bought this tree on Amazon at the Jonsteen Company Store I ordered this tree on 03 May 2024 and when I received it was about nine inches tall including the root ball. The pot that I put it in is a Creative Plastic Concepts Small Cement Mixing Tub. At $8.00 it is one of my more expensive bonsai pots. This tub was designed to mix cement in so it's made of some pretty thick plastic. It measures 15 X 27 and 6 inches deep. I'm sure that when this tub was designed, they didn't think that it would become a bonsai pot. If you do use this tub as a bonsai pot, please remember to drill drainage holes in the bottom or it will become more of a pond than a bonsai pot. I got the pot/tub so large because I want the tree to have plenty of room to grow and I wanted to make it large and heavy to help discourage theft. I just used some compost to plant it in. 

I planted it the day that I received it in the mail in great condition and well packaged. Then the very next morning I went out to check it and the trunk was snapped in half! I figured that an animal was sniffing around and broke it. The top half was still there. I contacted the Jonsteen Company and never got a reply. 

I was going to try to grow it as a large formal upright, around 3-4 feet tall. I don't know if that is still possible because of the unplanned trunk chop. I was concerned that it would die as it had just been through the Amazon delivery system, planted then lost over half of its size and foiledge. It has since grown a new leader so hopefully in a year or two when it reaches 4 feet tall the trunk will have made the chop line disappear and I can style it as a formal upright. 

This is the first of what I hope to be many on this tree. If you want to follow its progression and be informed for any updates, please subscribe to my blog. That would make my month. 

Question Everything, Love Everyone

Aaron

02 November 2024

Grand Ginseng Ficus

 At this time (01 November 2024) I have just a few bonsai trees. This is the best looking bonsai in my collection. It was cut from its parent plant in July 2023 and was stuck in a pot to grow roots. 

Here is a close up of the ginseng style roots:

I just repotted it a couple of weeks ago so the roots and trunk have not faded to its normal gray like color. The pot is a cheap plastic bowl from a big department store and a matching plate makes a great water tray. It's going to be exciting sharing this trees growth and styling with you in the coming years. 

Please subscribe to this blog to be updated on this tree. 

Question Everything, Love Everyone

Aaron

01 November 2024

Welcome to Rose Rock Bonsai

 Let me welcome you to the official blog for the Rose Rock Bonsai Garden. Lets start off with "What is a Rose Rock? 

Well a rose rock is a small rock where the crystals that created the rock formed in flat pads that with other pads creates a rock that resembles a rose. Here you can read the Wikipedia page on it: Desert Rose (crystal) Rose rocks are formed in different parts of the world but most notably in central Oklahoma. In a park about 1/2 mile from my house is an area that is littered with hundreds of rose rocks. The Rose Rock is the official rock for the great state of Oklahoma. Here are a few rocks from my personal collection:

Here is a Rose Rock Bouquet, formed by dozens of rose rocks that attached to each other when they were forming. 

My mother loved to garden, especially yellow roses. She had a pretty nice collection. Sadly she passed in 2021. Out of her three kids, I was the only one with a house and yard, plus I grew bonsai trees so we had a connection through gardening. I inherited her planters, statuary, plant and her collection of rose rocks. 

When I was in better health I had a pretty nice goldfish pond in my backyard. I started developing serious back problems and I was unable to care for the pond. Eventually it just filled up with leaves and other debris. Me and my son decided to clean it out and fill it in cause I just couldn't take care of it anymore. The pond liner measured 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. It had some holes in it so it's days of holding water were done. 

So I took the pond liner and laid it out in my yard and thus created the Rose Rock Bonsai Garden. The pond liner works great as a weed barrier. Since I have become disabled, my budget is really small, I have to support myself, my wife and 2 kids on a small disability check. I would love to cover the pond liner with pea gravel or a nice mulch, but that isn't in the budget. So we raked up fall leaves and shredded them by going over them with a mulching lawnmower. It works for me and it is free. Every couple of years I have to clean it off because the leaves break down and make some very good compost/dirt. Which is what I mostly plant my bonsai trees in. 

For the past decade I have been very active in amateur radio. I would build my own radios and antenna. However my health has declined to the point that I just can't do a lot of electronics. Soldering is really hard for me now. So I have had to make a life choice. I will continue operating my radios but building them is no longer an option. Also this past winter I had both sides of my SI joints fused. I had a hard time in recovery and here in Oklahoma City we had a hot summer with long stretches at 95 to 110 degrees. I couldn't get out and water my trees and they weren't getting watered by my kids like I was told. I lost every one of my outdoor trees. I went from about 35 trees to just the 4 that I have now. So I'm going from building radios to growing bonsai trees. I'm pretty much having to  start from scratch. I have a pretty nice blog for radio: k5atg.com so I decided to create a bonsai blog. I named it after my little Rose Rock Garden which was named as a tribute to my mom that I greatly miss. When I go out there to the bonsai garden I feel like my mom is right there with me. 

Since I was unable to take care of the garden this past summer it is in really bad shape. So I'm going to start cleaning it up over the winter and get it ready for spring. I do not have the funds to buy actual bonsai trees so I will be starting mostly from cuttings and seeds. I'm going to share everything I can on this blog. 

I invite you to follow along my bonsai adventures. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to be updated. 

Question Everything, Love Everyone

Aaron

01 November 2024