Climate Plots for 2009 and 2010 so far

Chinese Elm Seed

In addition to the Acer Palmatum seed that I have gathered this past year and sown, I have also sown a small amount of Ulmus Parvifolia or Chinese Elm.

These trees will serve as a year round indoor Bonsai plant. I have had some success in germinating these seeds through non-natural cold stratification using the refrigerator.

This year I wanted to experiment with natural stratification to see if my germination rate would increase. Last time the seeds that I purchased only germinated @ 5 in 35 out of the fridge. This time I bought 3 packs of 35 for $ 3.29 /packet and sowed them along with my Acer seeds in late November in a small end portion of the upper seedbed.

I purchased the seeds from the Whatcom Seed Company. www.seedrack.com

Diatomaceous earth for Bonsai Soil

Following some off beat advice from a post I read regarding using Diatomaceous earth as a Bonsai soil I went out and purchased some.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm

I purchased the Oil Dry "Granular" product from a Napa Auto Parts store in Annapolis MD. It was pretty cheap...9 bucks for a 40lb bag.

http://www.oildri.net/Downloads/OD%20Granular.pdf

I performed a simple break down test for the product and it lasted for 3 days in complete submersion of water without a significant slaking of the material. After that there seemed to be some slight (very slight) breakdown in the larger clay particles.

With this more or less successful test I repotted a Chinese Elm tree that I started from seed 2 years ago into a Bonsai Pot containing only the Oil Dry product which had been sifted through a window screen to remove the finer particles that would hinder water passthru.

To date the Chinese Elm has responded well over the past month and has started to bud out for the spring growth period.

Gathered Bonsai Material

Currently I have one of my seed beds reserved for last years gathered potential Bonsai material. All of these small plants are one year old. I gathered mostly Japanese Maple, Cherry, Silver Maple, and Red Maple Seedlings. Most of them look to have survived the winter to date.

Observing the different plants the larger Japanese Maples seedlings gathered from other yards seem to have done the best as they are already starting to bud out in similar fashion to their parent trees across the street and next door. The Cherry, Silver and Red Maples seem to still be dormant.

To bring the blog up to speed the small Japanese Maple seedlings that I collected from my backyard seem to be the suffering the most as they are very small and they did not grow much during the predicted second growth spurt in the back half of the summer. I think this was due to learning to water them and also learning about how much shade they require. Both of which I think I did incorrectly.

I did not provide enough shade and watered them too much. The shade was provided primarily from above using just window screen material draped over a square pvc frame. This let as significant amount of sun in from the side in the back half of the day as well as from above. Watering also was too much as I watered the seedlings every other day @ 6:00 am for 15 minutes. The seedbed became drenched. especially in the late summer early fall during a few rainy periods. The symptoms I witnessed that led me too this conclusion were the browning leaves from burn or overwatering and the stunted growth.

This year I plan to extract the trees from this bed soon and pot them up in their own pots to use for grafting rootstock or my first few deciduous Bonsai if they survive the summer. I plan to continue to use the bed for collected material this year until the end of the season where I will use this bed as a seed bed as well.

I plan to document this next year with lots of photographs of either success or failure. ;)

Cold Frame Use Winter 2010

I have constructed 2 simple cold frames for this winter season in hopes of keeping out squirrels and the like and to prevent wind damage to the seed bed. We have had record snowfall this year and so on 2 occasions I have let the snow simply fall on the seedbed while the top layer of plastic was peeled back and folded behind the back of the frames. This allowed the snow to insulate and protect the bed.

Today 2/27/2010, I reattached the plastic to the top of the two frames in the hope of a quick melt of the remaining snow inside and to further enhance germination prospects. If you look close you can still see the snow inside.

We will see how well this works because I have noticed that the seedbed is quite moist and I am worried for the condition of the seeds. I will probably leave the lids cracked to help the seedbed dry out.

Specific Seed Sowing Fall 2009

This years sowing was done in a way that may not yield successful results. The seed was sown on November 21st after a few days of very hard rain. The soil chosen to form the base of the seedbed was not particularly formulated in any way and had been worked over from the rain. Additionally the bottom of the 2 seedbeds have a layer of weed block added to help prevent the outflow of soil through the wooden sides but this layer of material may inhibit drainage. It remains to be seen how this will effect this years crop.

A quick word about the source of this years soil in the seedbeds.

The soil was gathered from the local landfill at a cost of $20 a yard. The soil was termed top soil by the folks working at the landfill. Prior to sowing a thin layer of Miracle Grow topsoil was added to give some "softness" to the seed bed. The soil from the landfill seemed to be suffering from some compaction. Ideally I would have turned the soil over but due to time constraints I did not have a lot of time to turn the soil over and work in any additional perlite or other aeratiion medium.

The seeds where then sown on the soft layer and then covered with another thin layer of the Miracle Grow top soil. This soil contains larger pieces of bark and peat along with traditional Miracle Grow type soil. The soil is not termed potting soil.

The seeds were then covered with a cold frame with plastic sheeting on the sides and top to prevent loss of soild from wind and to protect the seed from squirrels and other animals.

Fall 2009 Seed Collection

Seed (winged samara) was collected from a variety of trees this year. Our neighborhood has a large amount of Japanese Maples planted, but only a few trees are accessible from the sidewalk. There is also 1 tree near my job that is accessible. Of these available trees I was able to collect 2 cups full from the tree directly across the street. Another 2 cups full from a tree directly across from my job. I was able to collect a small amount from 2 other locations. About 1 cup full from the tree directly next door and about a half cup full from a green maple at the end of a cul-de-sac some streets over.

The green maple seeds I was able to keep separate from the other seeds due to their easy to spot size. However my oldest daughter in an effort to be efficient and helpful mixed the rest of the seeds together while they were intially being dried out after being collected in the rain.

All seeds were collected within the first 2 weeks of November while they were beginning to detatch themselves from the trees. During 2 separate days of rain I collected from the trees at work and the trees across the street.

I then took the seeds and laid them out in an open box top to let them dry out. The seeds "dried" for about a week and then were sown in 2 lifted seed beds after being soaked in water for a few hours. This method was my own method and decided upon based on some cursory internet reading. I am not confident that this was a good option. Next year will not re-soak the seeds and will probably try my best to sow them the same day they are collected.

Reference Materials

Currently I am using 2 references, one for Bonsai and the other for Japanese Maples.

Japanese Maples: Momiji and Keade



The Bonsai Workshop