Professional Bonsai and Suiseki

Professional bonsai and suiseki from Peter Warren. Japanese bonsai educated by well known bonsai master Kunio Kobayashi.

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Saving a Sick Satsuki

The repot is finished off by placing prewashed soil into the rest of the box. It is not as important to ensure a tightly packed soil as you would do with an established healthy tree, leaving it aerated and loose is better in this case. Even so, the soil was gently worked into the gaps around the root ball with a chopstick.  Grated sphagnum moss is placed lightly around the nebari to keep that area slightly moister and also to ensure that any accidental scars are not left open to desiccate and can heal. Once planted it was thoroughly watered again and then placed in a temporary greenhouse to maintain humidity.

On the picture of the box you can see three marks; the lowest is the level of the broken polystyrene lumps in the bottom, the next is the level of the larger grained soil and the top mark is the soil level. You can see that although the box is large, the actual growing space is quite limited, not much bigger than a pot. It is however incredibly well insulated, well aerated and with superb drainage.

 Care for the tree throughout the year was relatively easy. For three months it was kept in the makeshift green house until there were signs of growth. The soil was watered very rarely, but the inside of the greenhouse was sprayed at least once a day until the cover was removed. Once growth had begun and I was certain that there was activity at both ends of the tree I began to fertilise. I used a sprinkling of Growmore, various different nitrogen strength Chempak liquid feeds throughout the year and bi-weekly Maxi-crop drenching. It was placed in the most humid and bright corner of the garden and had tomatoes and beans growing all around it, breathing off large amounts of moisture. I kept a hygrometer near it and it was constantly around the 50% mark in normal conditions.   Watering remained quite similar to the initial period, the soil was watered only when it began to show signs of drying out but the foliage was misted daily.

New growth began to pop out quite soon from the terminal growth and the original foliage turned a deep green colour which has remained to this day. Every terminal developed a flower bud around September which was removed as quickly as I could. It has subsequently tried to send out other flower buds from shoots further in and they too have been removed. New shoots are also popping out on old wood further in the tree.   I am confident that next year will see a burst of growth and I can begin to plan the future of the tree. It has definitely been saved from ill health, the next is to push it back to full strength and then tart it up ready for a show.

Not that much difference to look at!

But that is the colour we want to see...and new budding.  Note that there are no flower buds....they have all been removed.

The initial work was carried out on the 14^th May, the follow up photos on 20^th November.  Updates will follow as work progresses

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