This is an Elephant Jade (Portulacaria Afra) that I bought from Mosaic Home & Garden. I do a hard prune on it, get it in some fresh bonsai soil, and a new bonsai training pot.
Really nice PA !! they are such amazing trees to work with. I cant wait to see what this turns into in the future progression vids. I cant give much advice but one i can give you is to no flush cut. always leave a bit of a nub as it will die back to where the nub ends. if you flush cut it could leave a big crater of die back. Wish you much success on your bonsai adventures
Isn't that the "wrong" time to repot and more so, bareroot the portulacaria, i heard that with succulents the best time is in the middle of summer with the hieghest temperatures. Yet again, it is arguably a ver strong species and can take hardship really well. Thanks for the nice vid. Cheers!
You are right, from what I understand October is not the best time of year to do this. My thinking was that I’m keeping it warm inside my house all winter, so hopefully it will be ok! Thanks for checking it out!
I think the rule of thumb in Bonsai is that the trunk is no more than 1/3 the height of the tree. This trunk is about 1/2. If it were mine I would cut it back to about a 4 inch stump and start all over. Letting it grow as a four inch stump will make the trunk appear wider when it starts to put on new growth up top. And then keep it pruned and compact.
I like that idea a lot, I’m going to be rethinking this plant in the spring. I definitely shouldn’t have completely defoliated it because its growth has been stunted for the past 2 months. It’s definitely in recovery mode. But it’s been an amazing learning experience working on this one!
@@dreamingofbonsai they are all a learning experience. If you don’t already know, there is a bonsai master, Milton Chang, who puts out videos under the name of Heirloom Bonsi. His videos are very informative. And if you send him a question he answers it personally. He’s getting ready to open his nursery and start selling trees to the public. He’s worth a watch.
You shouldn't water a succulent with no leaves, especially one you also just root pruned. There's nothing to draw the water up out of the soil. You're basically just asking for root rot. Also, not sure what your climate is like, but if you live in a cold weather zone, I'd never do such heavy work outside of summer, or early fall at the latest. These are a tough species, but you can kill them or send them into a long coma by working them too hard when they're not vigorous. Hopefully the tree recovers.
You are correct, I shouldn’t have watered it so soon. Next time i will wait weeks for sure, maybe even a month. Also you are correct it was not the ideal time to prune it, but I do have it in a warm area inside my home with plenty of light. But this is the great thing I love as I go through my journey in bonsai … I learn from my mistakes. I love seeing what works and what doesn’t, if this plant doesn’t survive I take a valuable lesson from it. And I love that and it makes me grow and learn by doing. And at the end of the day i have LOADS of cuttings to experiment with in the future. 😀 Thank you for watching!! I really appreciate it.
Really nice PA !! they are such amazing trees to work with.
I cant wait to see what this turns into in the future progression vids.
I cant give much advice but one i can give you is to no flush cut. always leave a bit of a nub as it will die back to where the nub ends. if you flush cut it could leave a big crater of die back.
Wish you much success on your bonsai adventures
Thank you so much! Yes I love these plants, they are fun to work with! I appreciate the advice as well, I’ll definitely do that on the next prune.
Nice trunk on this Port. Repotting this Port will bring out a nice looking bonsai tree for the future. Excellent!
Thank you! I hope so! Fingers crossed that all goes well!
Isn't that the "wrong" time to repot and more so, bareroot the portulacaria, i heard that with succulents the best time is in the middle of summer with the hieghest temperatures. Yet again, it is arguably a ver strong species and can take hardship really well. Thanks for the nice vid. Cheers!
You are right, from what I understand October is not the best time of year to do this. My thinking was that I’m keeping it warm inside my house all winter, so hopefully it will be ok! Thanks for checking it out!
I think the rule of thumb in Bonsai is that the trunk is no more than 1/3 the height of the tree. This trunk is about 1/2. If it were mine I would cut it back to about a 4 inch stump and start all over. Letting it grow as a four inch stump will make the trunk appear wider when it starts to put on new growth up top. And then keep it pruned and compact.
I like that idea a lot, I’m going to be rethinking this plant in the spring. I definitely shouldn’t have completely defoliated it because its growth has been stunted for the past 2 months. It’s definitely in recovery mode. But it’s been an amazing learning experience working on this one!
@@dreamingofbonsai they are all a learning experience. If you don’t already know, there is a bonsai master, Milton Chang, who puts out videos under the name of Heirloom Bonsi. His videos are very informative. And if you send him a question he answers it personally. He’s getting ready to open his nursery and start selling trees to the public. He’s worth a watch.
@@donnanelson9181yes I love his videos! I’ve learned so much from his channel. His videos are so helpful!
Foist and to like too
Thank you! I’m excited for the future of this one. Jade succulents are so fun to work with!
You shouldn't water a succulent with no leaves, especially one you also just root pruned. There's nothing to draw the water up out of the soil. You're basically just asking for root rot. Also, not sure what your climate is like, but if you live in a cold weather zone, I'd never do such heavy work outside of summer, or early fall at the latest. These are a tough species, but you can kill them or send them into a long coma by working them too hard when they're not vigorous. Hopefully the tree recovers.
You are correct, I shouldn’t have watered it so soon. Next time i will wait weeks for sure, maybe even a month. Also you are correct it was not the ideal time to prune it, but I do have it in a warm area inside my home with plenty of light. But this is the great thing I love as I go through my journey in bonsai … I learn from my mistakes. I love seeing what works and what doesn’t, if this plant doesn’t survive I take a valuable lesson from it. And I love that and it makes me grow and learn by doing. And at the end of the day i have LOADS of cuttings to experiment with in the future. 😀 Thank you for watching!! I really appreciate it.
No sacrificial branch on a succulent species of bonsai?
I didn’t have one on this one no. This plant unfortunately didn’t make it. But it was a good learning experience.
@@dreamingofbonsaisaw that coming at about 1:50
@@ZacharyAaronHere yeeeeah. It’s a bummer, but I learned a lot from this mistake! 🤣
Oh well, next one will be fine
Thanks I hope so! I will be taking extra special care of it.
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