Bonsaify | Fall Work on Crab Apple Bonsai: Ready for Repotting?
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Eric brings 6 European crabapples (Malus sylvestris) from his growing field to the garage to get a sense of whether to cut them back, repot them, or if their trunks are large enough to prepare to pot them down into bonsai containers. He plans to make shohin bonsai out of them. They're a few years old and in 6-inch pond baskets, and one is Eric's attempt at an exposed root Crab Apple. Was he successful? Give the video a watch to find out!
00:01:08 Rough clean up before Eric reviews the trees' structure, includes cutting some big roots.
00:02:00 Sacrificing a basket to a get a tree out (with a SAW!!)
00:02:23 Attempt at an exposed root (more to come, watch on).
00:02:58 Removing long straight section from a tree that is not ready for potting down.
00:03:29 This tree began as a normal-looking seedling but now has some bumpiness on the branches, which indicates to Eric fungus of some sort.
00:04:39 Most interesting tree out of the six: Eric rakes away the soil at the base to check on the nebari situation.
00:05:10 Eric hasn't figured how to make these bloom yet! Also: propagation by rooting cuttings (trees produce a lot of suckers).
00:06:28 Eric eliminates unwired or less interesting sections.
00:08:06 To get into a reasonable size container, Eric must remove most of the large roots - which are what he's looking for in terms of propagation.
00:08:54 Second tree with big circling roots, which Eric removes (want an apple donut? Eric needs better jokes!) along with one big piece of wood. Eric explains why he will put this tree back out to grow in the fields for another year.
00:10:36 Third tree with vigorous growth - Eric removes the four foot long top and then rakes away the roots. Exposed root success? Eric doesn't think the results are very interesting. What do you think?
00:12:26 Eric reviews the fourth tree below the soil. Quick clean-up and then back into the container for another year.
00:12:52 The fifth tree is not big enough to work on this year, so Eric doesn't even remove it from the container.
00:13:13 Summary from Eric: he places all six trees back into the 6 pack holder after sealing any woods he created. This is a great example of incremental progress in early stages of bonsai development.
How long do you think it will take Eric's crabapples to bloom? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching! Please like and share, and subscribe to the channel for more great bonsai videos!
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who does things and then can’t remember what I did or what tree it is!
Great video! I would have never thought you could prune back that hard in winter. Thank you for sharing.
Fall...and with the caveat that we have a mild winter. But, in landscaping I believe fall is also the time to do cutback on fruit trees like apples.
@@Bonsaify you are correct about that, i live by a bunch of orchards but never put 2 and 2 together. We even go to gather firewood there in late fall from all the trees hard trimmed back.
It is so funny how this video comes out just as I am making decisions on my own crab apple saplings. I made the mistake of transferring them to pots far too early and so am now going to return them to pond baskets and put them in the nursery bed for a couple more years - silly me. I really enjoyed this episode and can confirm that I too suffer with a sort of wooly aphid that creates those lumpy galls. Drive sme nuts ot be honest! Thanks again for a great video, Xav
The Bonsai Master tan line looks very similar to a Farmer's tan. 😁 I envy your weather--the temperature dropped below -10F here this week. 😬
There is a crab apple tree out front of my apartment window that fruits every year. Beautiful pink blush flowers followed by little tiny fruit. Seedlings grow every year but maintenance weed whacks them mid summer.
Been meaning to ask but I keep forgetting, what brands of pond basket are these? My larger square ones are fine, but the smaller round ones I bought have wider air gaps and they don't hold smaller soil particles. I think the particle size is too coarse for a lot of my trees as a consequence.
Also, I appreciate these pruning videos. It's my favorite thing to do with my own trees, but I obviously can't be cutting all the time, so the satisfaction of watching you remove flawed branches and roots helps scratch that itch, haha.
I really like the tree from the middle of the video - I agree it's the most interesting. If it goes up for sale eventually I might try to grab it!
I bought them from an eBay seller a couple years ago. Looks like they are no longer listed.
The brand is "Finofil" and is from England. The plastic is much better than any other that I've purchased in the US.
I should mention - while I'm using a lot of these, I'm not convinced they are superior to the fabric grow bags. But I need to do more experimentation. It would also perhaps depend a bit on your local climate. Since we have very dry summers, the larger holes make them dry out a bit too fast.
Hey like your videos
Could we maybee get a full show of all your trees and growing flats
Check out the farm tour video: ruclips.net/video/DFfJnXVC29k/видео.html
And follow @bonsaifyonline on IG for more images.
Roots like a fist full of carrots!
My rosybloom seedlings took about 12 years to flower. I had about given up on flowers.
I had the thought that it could be chill hours. I'm not sure how much chill time these need to flower.
@@Bonsaify I live in Ottawa, Canada USDA Zone 4a. No issues with getting chilling hours!
Sorry if I missed it but why use pond baskets?
More Oxygen for roots. Roots will grow out of the holes and die off and in response the tree will create more fine feeder roots close to the trunk ("air pruning").
@@watsup6084 oh I see. Thank you!
It's a technique we borrowed from the pines. For some species it works better than others. Seems pretty good for these.
Apple/crabapples are known for root fungi/pests etc do you apply any product when you transplant or later?
We use a regular rotation of fungicides in the growing grounds. Otherwise everything just gets fungus.
Wait... what about that piece of root you were going to talk about for propagation?
Ah, thanks for the reminder! I'll do another video on crabapple root cuttings. But generally root cuttings can be buried in soil, showing just the top cut, then treated like any plant. I've had good success with Chinese elm but have not tried apple until now.
@@Bonsaify after buring r/cutting do you need to put cut passte on expose top..?? tks
No, I don't think so. Although it wouldn't hurt. With elms the new buds actually emerge directly from the exposed cambium, but I'm guessing apples will shoot a bud from below the cut, not right at it. Will see when I try it. If it buds from the cambium then the paste could actually inhibit the budding.
How old are these?
3 years from seed.
Do you have any crap apples trees which actually have tiny fruits on them?
Not sure if "crap" apples was a typo or a comment. lol. The Zumi fruit every year. So far none on these european ones.
Hey Eric are you growing and Stewartia Monadelpha by chance or know where I can purchase some stock? I haven't had any luck in my area.
Yes, actually I have some. I'm not sure I like them in our climate, but ping me an email and we can discuss.
👌👍🙂
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What cultivar are these crabs ?
Not a named cultivar - these are seedlings of Malus sylvestris, European crabapple. Generally we use seeds and cuttings for our stock because grafting is problematic. There is some variation in the genetics but as I mentioned in the video, the one potentially problematic thing is the reliability of flowering....which is still TBD.
why does everyone doing apple bonsai do crab apple?
Smaller leaves and smaller apples? And - ostensibly more reliable blooming. I've also grown regular apple varieties. But remember, edible apples are bred to be larger and more productive, crabapples are closer to a wild-type tree.
Hi, I started collecting hundreds of seeds and cuttings (crab apple, hawthorn, junipers, Jap Maples) this year as a backyard hobby with the intent to 'casually' sell small bonsai's locally just see what happens. I'm curious what are your best sellers? I'm assuming small flowering crabapples $20-$40 would be popular. I have no idea how to price them. There are no bonsai shops anywhere (regionally) that I know of. Thoughts?
I think there are strong regional preferences, so you should look at what is growing well near you and go from there. People in the northeast grow a lot more maples and hawthorns than we do here in CA.