6 Comments

When I lived in Alabama I had gotten really into Bonsai bc of being stuck at home and watching a ton of Youtube. Sadly, when we move to NM, I forgot to put the trees in the car and so they sat out on my back porch and likely got thrown away. I've since had to start over. Being in the desert it can be kinda tough to find good ones, so I've taken to grabbing discount trees at Lowe's, etc and reviving them to later prune and shape. I'm excited to continue reading your journey. Hope you have as much fun with it as I have.

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I moved to Omaha in January 2020 and my new home has 3 pawpaw trees. Your link to the pawpaw trees is interesting. Thanks.

I'm just starting bonsai in retirement and killed 2 out of 3 trees last year. I figured 1 out of 3 ain't bad. Heck, a .333 batting average gets one into the Hall of Fame in baseball. I look forward to reading the rest of your posts.

Dan

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I never even considered that gingko was bonsaiable, if that’s a term - what age saplings did you decide to use and what sort of prep to get them in their current state?

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I've read they can be difficult to shape, so it's best to use upright designs. I'm considering getting an older one to play around with.

These saplings were from here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/plantsandthings

Not sure of the age but guessing 2-3 years. To plant them, I trimmed their downward pointing taproots so they'd fit in the pot. In retrospect I should have applied rooting hormone or used some sphagnum moss to encourage root development.

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thanks so much for this reply! I've been interested in bonsai since I was young but found the jargon used on forums/sites really confusing (I have ADHD, which might contribute) and your newsletter so far is really helping me to actually grok the why and how of things.

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If you ask folks like Peter Chan, he says any tree can be bonsai, some are just easier than others. He's got a couple YT videos about doing Gingko trees.

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