Thank you for always showing us what "really happens" in your gardens, with your bonsai....successes, failures, plans, dreams, etc. This is what keeps me going, I especially loved this one because it shows weeds, progress of various sorts, failures, outlines strategies and just plain makes sense. I have started a tiny growing bed which "boasts" a single beech, a couple of dogwoods and three crab apples. I am planning on adding some other trees that aren't making progress in their pots. I have trees that are in the ground elsewhere in my yard that are "singles" They just might get moved this winter. THANKS!!!
Second this. Pro’s showing their successes and failures in a realistic sense earns more respect and inspires people more than edited reality. I appreciate Jelle’s down to earth approach (no pun intended)
Hi Susan aka @Darkfire1300 , just saw your email. I would say you can get away with lifting the plum in early spring as soon as the buds are fattening up and putting it in a grow container. Would be similar to th-cam.com/video/yAjP5Nj5M6k/w-d-xo.html You could aid the tree by now already taking a spade and cutting the main roots, just circle it with the spade, making angled cut into the ground below the trunk, from maybe 8 inches distance. That should give you an 8+8+2 = 20inch rootball to pot up.
@GrowingBonsai Thanks for the pointers. I'll get that trenching/root cutting done in preparation for a springtime "dig up". I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting that older video. Thanks!
After watching this, our own field growing operation doesn't seem that chaotic any more. :D Very interesting to see, that we are growing very similar species. Thanks for showing this.
Yeah, it gets messy soon, as you plant stuff too close, then you thin and spread out and mix things up. These are actually all in beds 2 trees wide and 10 feet long! It is a lot less messier than it seems!
Great to see what interesting videos are also goinng to come from this growing area. I definitely get more from nursery bed growth...I just need to leave them in longer than I normally do. I'm far too impatient :)
Have you considered mulching around the trees to help ensure the weeds don't block the sun? I was particularly thinking of the lower branches on the pines.
It looks like you will start a bonsai nursery. 😊 what an advantage if a bonsai Master has enough space for field growing. You are lucky man, Jelle. Nice to see your training plants in the field. Some more years and your nursery will be as big as Herons. Like it!
Hahahahahahaha! I do NOT have the ambition to build a herons. This really is to just have stock lined up whenever I want it, instead of having to get it from nurseries. Ambition is to eventually mostly have all me-grown bonsai on my benches and replace all current trees.
It is said that overall growing speed increases 10 to 20 times, growing little trees in the field, compared to "little pots". I gave it a try, some years ago, with a few Japanese Maples and Acer Campestre (Field Maple) and Yew. And so, now I know that it's true. But indeed, you have to keep maintaining these as bonsaï material somehow. Otherwise you can easily loose control, to be honest. And that could make the job more difficult afterwards, if not impossible. But I do fully agree: if you do have the possibility, you should certainly give it a try! Personally, I learned that in these situations, again "less is more" (as a "bonsaï wisdom") is so true. My personal advice would be: try not to become too greedy but it certainly works and is worth trying. Good luck to you, Jelle.
That was a great video Jella, I’ve finally began growing in the ground this season and regret not starting it years ago! It’s a fast forward button for raw material.
I see only one pine!! And a Juniper. (To answer your question) Thanks for the great content on growing real-life bonsai and not the magical one-day transformation.
Wonderful ❤❤ thank you for showing this growing bed and how you manage it - truly inspirational! Please follow up again with these trees so we can see more of the process. I have a few trees in the ground now including a Cottonwood which is two years in the ground - it went from a pencil to 4.5 inches thick and 15 feet tall . I’m planning on cutting it back this year but was waiting for winter - or should I do it now in fall (I’m in southern USA)?
What a wonderful operation Jelle! Unbelievable selection of material!! Do you find that fall trunk chops work better for you than those done in late winter? My zone is slightly colder than yours so I'm a bit nervous about winter die-back.
That is some impressive growth on many of those trees. How big of a space are you growing those in? It's a pre-bonsai jungle! I am planning small growing bed only several sqaure metres for pre bonsai and seeing this video is very inspiring. Also would love to see more videos filmed at this location showing pruning, digging, layering etc. if you've considered it, even if it's just a simple video or ASMR for bonsai people.
This is about 100 square metres. Might have 2-300 trees growing there. Insane, to be honest. But I thin out and give away stock to friends. Keeping the ones with most optential. And just cutting back to the ground if I do not like where it is growing! Might do a full winter cycle video. Great idea.
Great video Jelle. The growth is substantial for being in ground for a season. Having a dedicated trunk grow bed is brilliant, I think I will try that somewhere in my yard. When you dig up your trees to put in a pot, how much of a diameter do you give for the root ball when digging the tree out (just as a rule of thumb)? I'm always afraid that I will dig to close to the trunk or cut too much of the roots and send the tree into sock and kill it. Thanks for the video
I take about a spade (8 inches?) around the trunk. Keep in mind: Every 2-4 years the trees are lifted so rootballs are compact. Often I will in fall do a circle around the tree with a spade, and lift in spring. Then I clean out the fieldsoil and do targeted pruning of main roots to make things fit. Check: th-cam.com/video/yAjP5Nj5M6k/w-d-xo.html
I haven’t had any dieback on my forsythia cuttings. I make small cuts and I’ve found that they heal over very well without any paste or putty if it’s humid. (They’re planted in a box with a layer of sphangum on top of the soil) I have a forsythia in my garden that i did make a bigger cut on, around the thickness of my thumb and it did die back. Maybe it’s because of the hollow core? I’m not sure.
Another awesome video, thank you. Just curious if you have experienced any difference in ground grown and grown in a pot, but left on the ground and let the roots escape and run, do you think or have seen a difference in how fast they thicken up? Cheers
This was interesting. So, when you were saying you would take it out, do some root pruning, and then put it back, does that mean back in the ground? Probably everyone knows this, but I'm brand new, so...i see how that would make sense.
@@GrowingBonsai Ahh, that's why they look so happy now. I trimmed the roots of the ones I've collected, and they look gorgeous now, but always planted them back into a pot, and not the ground. I couldn't, because I collected them from somewhere else, not my else. Like there's a little juniper growing in a crack in the Savealot parking lot, he's got to be rescued, right? But if you stick around on your knees with a tree, the cops assume drug use, so he's moved onto my patio bench.
Hi Jelle, thanks for the beautiful video. In which month do you plant them on the ground usually? And the root work, in early spring as usually, right?
I try to do this either in fall or before bud-break in spring, indeed. I prefer early fall, as the trees continue rooting for several weeks after leaf-drop so in spring they are already better established. THere is naturally a slight risk of an early winterstorm, but these are rare here.
Maybe some serious mulching would help keep down the weeds? I collect needles from under my pines to use as free, long-lasting mulch. Their slow disintegration lowers soil pH and looks pretty decent as a ground cover.
Question about you heavily trimming your elms. Are you removing all the leaves before the tree is able to withdraw all the valuable resources from the leaves? Isn't that going to drastically set it back?
Very good question. At this point in the year (northern hemisphere), most of the tree's resources have already been sequestered in its root system. Elms are probably just about to start dropping this year's leaves. Cutting back this severely is essential to developing good taper, especially elms, and you could see how much they'd grown following last year's big chops. Especially when grown in the ground, they're just about unstoppable, and cutting back this much simply takes advantage of that vigor!
Not drastically to be honest. The pruning will remove a lot of the reserves anyway, as most of the reserves are in the stems. But the last fall-thickening will be missed. In this case, the aim was more sun for smaller trees hiding below the big jumbos.
Have you grown and trained ivy for bonsai? There's a massive one next to my place, it's been cut back a lot by the local Council. Some branches are as thick as my wrist! Thinking about some air layering.
Hard to say. 608 years I think. I am seriously considering getting this one out and into a pot in 2025. Right now it is plated deep, in the hope to get roots on the lowest side-branches, to plant them separately!
In MY climate this is fine. BUT I did take the big ones away for more sun to the smaller ones in the last weeks of autum. I prefer pruning in spring after they have grown, or, in a pinch, a maintenance round in late spring.
Thank you for always showing us what "really happens" in your gardens, with your bonsai....successes, failures, plans, dreams, etc. This is what keeps me going, I especially loved this one because it shows weeds, progress of various sorts, failures, outlines strategies and just plain makes sense. I have started a tiny growing bed which "boasts" a single beech, a couple of dogwoods and three crab apples. I am planning on adding some other trees that aren't making progress in their pots. I have trees that are in the ground elsewhere in my yard that are "singles" They just might get moved this winter. THANKS!!!
Second this. Pro’s showing their successes and failures in a realistic sense earns more respect and inspires people more than edited reality. I appreciate Jelle’s down to earth approach (no pun intended)
My pleasures! I feel learning starts with failure. So when I try something, I also try to show when it did not work!
Hi Susan aka @Darkfire1300 , just saw your email. I would say you can get away with lifting the plum in early spring as soon as the buds are fattening up and putting it in a grow container. Would be similar to th-cam.com/video/yAjP5Nj5M6k/w-d-xo.html
You could aid the tree by now already taking a spade and cutting the main roots, just circle it with the spade, making angled cut into the ground below the trunk, from maybe 8 inches distance. That should give you an 8+8+2 = 20inch rootball to pot up.
@GrowingBonsai Thanks for the pointers. I'll get that trenching/root cutting done in preparation for a springtime "dig up". I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting that older video. Thanks!
@@Darkfire1300 it reminded me of some work I needed to do in the growbed too. Ah well, made a video of it too will be out.. sometime ;)
After watching this, our own field growing operation doesn't seem that chaotic any more. :D Very interesting to see, that we are growing very similar species. Thanks for showing this.
Yeah, it gets messy soon, as you plant stuff too close, then you thin and spread out and mix things up. These are actually all in beds 2 trees wide and 10 feet long! It is a lot less messier than it seems!
Great to see what interesting videos are also goinng to come from this growing area. I definitely get more from nursery bed growth...I just need to leave them in longer than I normally do. I'm far too impatient :)
Too bad you are outside of the EU, else I could bring you a trunk next time around!
Great video, Jelle! I have a few trees. I've been field growing for a few years. Keep the great videos coming👌
Thanks! Will do!
Really enjoyed this. Please post another video when you start digging these out.
Will do!
Have you considered mulching around the trees to help ensure the weeds don't block the sun? I was particularly thinking of the lower branches on the pines.
And if you have considered it, what made you decide against it?
Yes I have. But I am cheap and do not want to pay a few hundred buck for mulch! But for the pines I might have to!
@@GrowingBonsaiCan you get free woodchips from an arborist?
Ayooo, you've got whole operation going there! cool stuff, I wish I had some spare plot to plant my suckers up.. Love the videos dude, keep at it!
It is a hobby in itself! It does help me understand the process of growing out trunks!
Love videos like this 👍🏼
So glad!
It looks like you will start a bonsai nursery. 😊 what an advantage if a bonsai Master has enough space for field growing. You are lucky man, Jelle. Nice to see your training plants in the field. Some more years and your nursery will be as big as Herons. Like it!
Hahahahahahaha! I do NOT have the ambition to build a herons. This really is to just have stock lined up whenever I want it, instead of having to get it from nurseries. Ambition is to eventually mostly have all me-grown bonsai on my benches and replace all current trees.
It is said that overall growing speed increases 10 to 20 times, growing little trees in the field, compared to "little pots". I gave it a try, some years ago, with a few Japanese Maples and Acer Campestre (Field Maple) and Yew. And so, now I know that it's true. But indeed, you have to keep maintaining these as bonsaï material somehow. Otherwise you can easily loose control, to be honest. And that could make the job more difficult afterwards, if not impossible. But I do fully agree: if you do have the possibility, you should certainly give it a try! Personally, I learned that in these situations, again "less is more" (as a "bonsaï wisdom") is so true. My personal advice would be: try not to become too greedy but it certainly works and is worth trying. Good luck to you, Jelle.
There is so much depending on peoples situation! Ground is fast. But mistakes grow and multiply fast too, sometimes taking a decade to grow out again!
That was a great video Jella, I’ve finally began growing in the ground this season and regret not starting it years ago! It’s a fast forward button for raw material.
Absolutely. Just keep in mind.. Mistakes also develop much faster! And keep track of the roots!
I see only one pine!! And a Juniper. (To answer your question) Thanks for the great content on growing real-life bonsai and not the magical one-day transformation.
:) Yeah, overgrown!!
I agree, this is the aim of my channel. Show how it is done, and help see into the future. Bonsai is not a one-session event.
Wonderful ❤❤ thank you for showing this growing bed and how you manage it - truly inspirational! Please follow up again with these trees so we can see more of the process. I have a few trees in the ground now including a Cottonwood which is two years in the ground - it went from a pencil to 4.5 inches thick and 15 feet tall . I’m planning on cutting it back this year but was waiting for winter - or should I do it now in fall (I’m in southern USA)?
I have no idea how cottonwood grows!
That's wild! Literally! Hahaha!
Bonsai fan in the wild!
Siberian elm get big black buds when they swell in spring, almost like Hornbeam buds. They also get rough bark when older
Thank you so much! I will have to lok at the trees in spring!
Thanks!!
Welcome!
What a wonderful operation Jelle! Unbelievable selection of material!! Do you find that fall trunk chops work better for you than those done in late winter? My zone is slightly colder than yours so I'm a bit nervous about winter die-back.
I traditionally prefer mid-spring to be honest!
That is some impressive growth on many of those trees. How big of a space are you growing those in? It's a pre-bonsai jungle!
I am planning small growing bed only several sqaure metres for pre bonsai and seeing this video is very inspiring.
Also would love to see more videos filmed at this location showing pruning, digging, layering etc. if you've considered it, even if it's just a simple video or ASMR for bonsai people.
This is about 100 square metres. Might have 2-300 trees growing there. Insane, to be honest. But I thin out and give away stock to friends. Keeping the ones with most optential. And just cutting back to the ground if I do not like where it is growing!
Might do a full winter cycle video. Great idea.
Great video Jelle. The growth is substantial for being in ground for a season. Having a dedicated trunk grow bed is brilliant, I think I will try that somewhere in my yard. When you dig up your trees to put in a pot, how much of a diameter do you give for the root ball when digging the tree out (just as a rule of thumb)? I'm always afraid that I will dig to close to the trunk or cut too much of the roots and send the tree into sock and kill it. Thanks for the video
I take about a spade (8 inches?) around the trunk. Keep in mind: Every 2-4 years the trees are lifted so rootballs are compact. Often I will in fall do a circle around the tree with a spade, and lift in spring. Then I clean out the fieldsoil and do targeted pruning of main roots to make things fit.
Check: th-cam.com/video/yAjP5Nj5M6k/w-d-xo.html
I haven’t had any dieback on my forsythia cuttings.
I make small cuts and I’ve found that they heal over very well without any paste or putty if it’s humid. (They’re planted in a box with a layer of sphangum on top of the soil) I have a forsythia in my garden that i did make a bigger cut on, around the thickness of my thumb and it did die back. Maybe it’s because of the hollow core? I’m not sure.
Maybe. But.. maybe also the size matters?
Another awesome video, thank you. Just curious if you have experienced any difference in ground grown and grown in a pot, but left on the ground and let the roots escape and run, do you think or have seen a difference in how fast they thicken up? Cheers
Full Ground is much stronger
@@GrowingBonsai Thanks Jelle, I'll have to hunt down a grow bed. Cheers
This was interesting. So, when you were saying you would take it out, do some root pruning, and then put it back, does that mean back in the ground? Probably everyone knows this, but I'm brand new, so...i see how that would make sense.
yes, exactly. That encourages taper and branching in the roots, and keep the rootball compact!
@@GrowingBonsai Ahh, that's why they look so happy now. I trimmed the roots of the ones I've collected, and they look gorgeous now, but always planted them back into a pot, and not the ground. I couldn't, because I collected them from somewhere else, not my else. Like there's a little juniper growing in a crack in the Savealot parking lot, he's got to be rescued, right? But if you stick around on your knees with a tree, the cops assume drug use, so he's moved onto my patio bench.
Hi Jelle, thanks for the beautiful video. In which month do you plant them on the ground usually? And the root work, in early spring as usually, right?
I try to do this either in fall or before bud-break in spring, indeed. I prefer early fall, as the trees continue rooting for several weeks after leaf-drop so in spring they are already better established. THere is naturally a slight risk of an early winterstorm, but these are rare here.
Maybe some serious mulching would help keep down the weeds? I collect needles from under my pines to use as free, long-lasting mulch. Their slow disintegration lowers soil pH and looks pretty decent as a ground cover.
I know. But then I would have to get Mulch there. I am hoping that as the canopies get denser, weeds will get less.
Question about you heavily trimming your elms. Are you removing all the leaves before the tree is able to withdraw all the valuable resources from the leaves? Isn't that going to drastically set it back?
Really great Video, Jelle!
Very good question. At this point in the year (northern hemisphere), most of the tree's resources have already been sequestered in its root system. Elms are probably just about to start dropping this year's leaves. Cutting back this severely is essential to developing good taper, especially elms, and you could see how much they'd grown following last year's big chops. Especially when grown in the ground, they're just about unstoppable, and cutting back this much simply takes advantage of that vigor!
Not drastically to be honest. The pruning will remove a lot of the reserves anyway, as most of the reserves are in the stems. But the last fall-thickening will be missed. In this case, the aim was more sun for smaller trees hiding below the big jumbos.
Have you grown and trained ivy for bonsai?
There's a massive one next to my place, it's been cut back a lot by the local Council.
Some branches are as thick as my wrist! Thinking about some air layering.
I happen to have pulled a smallish one from a tree this summer, in order to learn them better!
Dont you wait first before pruning for the tree to absorb its energy back from the leafs into the roots and the trunk?
Yeah normally you would. Here however the bush was so thick that I decided to thin out a bit already
How long is the kojo no mai in the ground you recon?
Hard to say. 608 years I think. I am seriously considering getting this one out and into a pot in 2025. Right now it is plated deep, in the hope to get roots on the lowest side-branches, to plant them separately!
Hai Jelle verkoop je ook stekken van de juniperus ? Heerlijk zo eigen bonsai tuin 👍
Ik heb gemerkt dat ik elk jaar mijn stekken doorgaf en nooit zelf oudere bomen over hield. Dus nu even niet!
what do you do with all the wood you cut off? do you burn it? or just throw it on the compost? or into woodchipper?
Typically I leave it laying around maybe cut into smaller pieces as natural compost layer
You cut back some chin. Elms. Did they don't get problems during winter time? Is the region a wine growing area?
What problems do you expect me to get?
Not really a wine growing region. These are my own cultivars which are very vigorous in my climate.
So for clarity you are doing this really heavy pruning in October safely?
In MY climate this is fine. BUT I did take the big ones away for more sun to the smaller ones in the last weeks of autum. I prefer pruning in spring after they have grown, or, in a pinch, a maintenance round in late spring.
👍👌🙂
:D:D
Do you own the property you use for your grow-bed?
Unfortunately not. I am paying the owners a small annual fee (Which I can cover by selling a tree each year).
1st!
👏
hahaha
3:37 wow
:)