Ken’s Trees

Trident Maple Bonsai - Day 320

I repotted all of my Trident Maples last week, but perhaps I should have left little Jouquin seen above alone.  All of the other trees had nice strong root systems.  However when I went to clear the excess dirt from around Jouquin’s roots, I kept digging and digging until just one thin tiny root appeared.  Hopefully this was not too much of a shock to the tree, and it will be able to develop a nice strong root system.

Giant Sequoia Seeds

Before I can sow the Giant Sequoia seeds I need to put them through a period of cold stratification to trigger germination.  Essentially I am simulating the cold weather that the seeds would experience during Winter in a natural environment.  What I will do is put the seeds in a ziplock bag with a paper towel, then put this into the refrigerator for about a month.  The first thing I did was separate the seeds into two equal groups, this is one of those “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket” type of project.  There is always a risk of mold growing with any type of stratification, so splitting the seeds up into smaller groups to put into separate bags is a good idea.

Giant Sequoia seeds separated into two groups

Next I prepared the paper towels for the seeds by soaking them and then squeezing the excess water out.  You want the paper towels to be damp, but not soaking wet.  Most nurseries or seed stores will recommend vermeculate or perlite in place of the paper towel, however in my research I have found that most people who are not trying to make a sale find most success using paper towels.  There are a couple other reasons I prefer the paper towel method.  The paper towels make it much easier to check for mold and to change out if mold does happen to develop.  Even if everything goes correctly having there is an advantage to paper towels because they make it much easier to find your seeds at the end of the month, than searching through the vermeculate.

So once the paper towels were damped, I folded them half and spread my seeds out on the top quarters of the paper towels.  Again this is a percaution to avoid mold destroying too many seeds, keeping them spread out will provide a little bit of a barrier.

Giant Sequoia seeds in damp paper towel

Next I folded the bottom quarter of the paper towel over the seeds, and prepared the ziplock bags.  With a permanent marker I labeled each bag with the tree species and the date that I need to remove them from the refrigerator.  Working with a couple different types of seeds this makes it much easier for me to keep track of which bag contains which seeds and when they need attention.

Giant Sequoia seeds in ziplock bag

Once the seeds and paper towels have been placed within their ziplock bags and sealed up, I placed them with in the refrigerator.  Try to find a place within your fridge where the seeds won’t be crushed or accidentally thrown away, the sandwich drawer is a fairly safe bet.  Now all I have to do is wait 28 days and I can sow them in soil.

I’ve been a bit preoccupied the last couple of days with a new project of mine that I hope will help me find a job. I have been trying to think of new and creative ways to get my resume seen, and I thought that a blog might be the way to go. So I’ve started a site called Make Me Your CEO, not only will it feature my resume but it will also provide a platform for broader social commentary.

Please help me spread the word about the new site and I will be back to posting about bonsai trees very soon. I’ve provided “Share This” links throughout the blog to make it easy to share the site with everyone. Thanks in advance to everyone who is willing to help me out with this.

http://makemeyourceo.com

Trident Maple - Day 313

With all the seed photos lately, and more to come, I figured that I would break it up a bit with a photo of another Trident Maple.  This is the tallest one in my collection probably because it was one of the few that was not severely damaged by the squirl.  I think it was also the first one that I had potted from the seed tray.  Speaking of which, I repotted all of the Trident Maples today, photos will soon follow.

Coast Redwood Seeds

Yesterday right after I received all of my seeds in the mail, I was pleased to discover that the Coast Redwood seeds were ready to get planted immediately.  I had already picked up some seed starting soil and seed trays from Lowes last weekend so I had everything that I needed to get started.

I bought a total of 50 Coast Redwood seeds, but they only have a germination rate of 20%, so I can probably expect 10 trees if everything goes correctly.  Even though I could probably save space and place a couple seeds within each slot, I prefer to give each individual seed their own slot.  This way I avoid any possibility that two trees sprout in the same slot, and I can allow them to grow without disturbing them at a fragile age.  In the photo below I have counted out 50 slots in my seed tray and have started filling them with my seed starting soil.

When filling these make sure to tamp down the soil a bit, not too firm, but enough to ensure that you have a good soil base.  Coming straight out of the bag, this seed starter was quite fluffy and airy.  Watering the soil at this point makes it easier to work with when you are ready to sow the seeds which only need to be 1/8th of an inch deep.  I found a small stick to help make shallow holes in each slot where I will then place the seeds, this is pictured below:

One seed goes in each hole, and then they need to be covered with the surrounding soil and tamped down again, firm but not too hard.  My seed tray has a clear cover to keep the whole setup moist, the only step left is to find a warm place for the seeds and wait.

You’ll notice that I placed a label on the right most column with the letters CR to represent Coast Redwood.  If I run out of space for my other seeds I can use the remaining slots without getting confused about which seeds are which.  The wait could be as little as 21 days, but could take up to 70 to see any growth.

My seeds have finally arrived in the mail!  I have four new species to get working on this year.  Below is a brief preview of the seeds before I get into the germination processes.

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Coast Redwood Seeds

Coast Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) -  If not trained as bonsai these seeds could develop into the tallest trees on the planet.  The seeds look very similar to the Dawn Redwood seeds that I used last year, only these are a much darker brown with a hint of red.  Thankfully these arrived ready to go, I just needed to sow them in soil water and wait.  I was able to do this today, photos will follow in my next post.

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Giant Sequoia Seeds

Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron Giganteum) - The Coast Redwoods may grow to become the tallest, but it is the Giant Sequoias that have the greatest mass.  Again these seeds look very similar to the two different types of Redwoods I’ve seen, but these are at least twice the size if not bigger.  These will need a short period of cold stratification like the Trident Maples, only instead of three months it will only take 28 days (or a February month 3 out of 4 years).

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Temple Juniper Seeds

Temple Juniper (Juniperus Rigida) - This is a tree that is made for decoration, it is named the Temple Juniper because it is often found within Japanese temple gardens.  The seeds look like obese rye seeds, at least that’s what I immediately thought when I saw them.  The Juniper seeds are going to take a bit more work than any of the other seeds that I have worked with to this point.  They will need a hot water soak, one month of warm stratification (a new step for me), and finally two months of cold stratification before I can plant them.

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Chinese Juniper Seeds

Chinese Juniper (Juniperus Chinensis) - When most people think of Bonsai, this is the type of tree that immediately pops into their head, because it is the species that everyone gets as a gift for their introduction into Bonsai.  Unfortunately these gifts often lead to the misconception that Bonsai are really difficult because more often than not the container and soil used in these gifts are designed for safe shipping rather than the health of the tree leading to a dying bonsai.  The seeds are glossy and will follow a similar process as the Temple Juniper, only much longer.  The warm stratification will take three months, and the cold stratification will take another three months.  The other option is to sow them outside in the spring (still waiting up here in Maine) and wait a year.

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All of my seeds were purchased from seedrack.com and come with instructions for each individual species to get the best results.

If you don’t have the patience to grow bonsai from seed and want to get started with a grown tree right away try Bonsai Boy of NY where you will find unique quality bonsai trees available for purchase.

Trident Maple - Day 308

I recieved a notification that the seeds that I ordered have been shipped and are on their way, so I have been patientely waiting for them to arrive.  Since ordering I have done a bit more research into the tree species, it looks like I may have to do some cold stratification for most of them.  So I may have gotten ahead of myself with my trip to Lowes the other day to pick up supplies to plant new seeds with.  Jouquin is looking good and the leaves are developing quickly, all the Trident Maples should be ready for a soil change within the next couple days.

Trident Maple

In just two days a couple of leaves have emerged from the middle of this Trident Maple, which I’m calling Jouquin.  I have also figured out the date in which I planted the seed for this tree, this was May 16th 2008, so it is 304 days old from the point of planting.  Hopefully it will start to develop some leaves at the top, otherwise it will look quite odd as a tree being this small.

Nothing Happening with European Olive Seeds

It has been just over one year and a month since I planted the European Olive seeds, and I’m starting to wonder if I will ever get anything to spring up here.  The description of the European Olive seeds that I recieved from the company that sold me the seeds (seedrack.com) said that it could take a full year for the seeds to germinate.  So it might be early to give up entirely on these guys, there really isn’t too much work to do on my part to keep them up.  The cover keeps everything pretty moist so I don’t even have to worry about water too often.  I’ll keep waiting…

Trident Maple - New Life

Last time you heard from me I was trying to get my Dawn Redwood trees ready to go outside full time last spring.  The first part went smoothly, I followed the schedule and they took the transition with no problems.  However I left everyone hanging for awhile and didn’t even update when I planted my Trident Maples seeds or when they started springing up.  To make a long story short, all my trees were doing great through the summer and then came the fall…

In the fall in the area where I was living the squirls literally go nuts looking for nuts to stock up on for the winter.  This means they become more inquisitive and unfortunately more destructive than usual.  The Dawn Redwoods had no problem dealing with these critters who dug up the dirt in the pots, and knocked off a couple leaves but no major damage (they are strong hearty trees).  On the other hand, the Trident Maples were much to fragile for the evil squirrels.  On one particular day, I came home from work to find every single one of my Trident Maple trees torn out of their pots, some snapped completely in half.

I put all of the trees that I could find back in their pots, even the ones that were snapped in half.  Then brought them back inside where they remained throughout the winter, and continued to water them in hopes that they could spring back.  A couple have kept their leaves throughout this time, but for the most part the leaves slowly died off and I ended up looking at bare sticks for a couple months.  Then yesterday I got back from a ski trip to find that they are all starting to get some new growth!

This has sparked some new life into me, and I have some big projects for the blog coming up.  New seeds are on the way and I’m going bigger than last year.  I made a trip to Lowes today and picked up supplies to get these trees repotted.  There is still a lot of snow up here covering my Dawn Redwoods, but I may even take care of that for a Willard update sooner rather than later.